4051: 10 Odd Little Minimalist Things I Do by Leo Babauta of Zen Habits on Minimalist Habits

[00:00:00] [SPEAKER_02] I sold my car in Carvana last night.

[00:00:02] [SPEAKER_03] Well, that's cool.

[00:00:03] [SPEAKER_02] No, you don't understand. It went perfectly. Real offer, down to the penny. They're picking it up tomorrow. Nothing went wrong.

[00:00:09] [SPEAKER_03] So, what's the problem?

[00:00:10] [SPEAKER_02] That is the problem. Nothing in my life goes to smoothie. I'm waiting for the catch.

[00:00:14] [SPEAKER_03] Maybe there's no catch.

[00:00:15] [SPEAKER_02] That's exactly what a catch would want me to think.

[00:00:18] [SPEAKER_03] Wow, you need to relax.

[00:00:19] [SPEAKER_02] I need to knock on wood. Do we have wood? Is this table wood? I think it's laminate. Okay, yeah, that's good. That's close enough.

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[00:00:43] [SPEAKER_02] Hey, what'd you pin? Mm-hmm. 2538.

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[00:01:00] [SPEAKER_01] It's a Minimalist Monday edition of Optimal Living Daily. 10 Odd Little Minimalist Things I Do by Leo Babauta of zenhabits.net, and I'm Justin Malik. And I'm going to keep this intro nice and minimal for Minimalist Monday, so let's get right to it and continue optimizing your life. 10 Odd Little Minimalist Things I Do by Leo Babauta of zenhabits.net

[00:01:29] [SPEAKER_01] I consider myself a minimalist. Does that mean everything I do is minimalist? No, but there are some odd little things I do that you might consider minimalist. Today, I felt like taking a minute to share them with you. Number one, no watch. My watch broke a couple of years ago, and I decided I'd go without it. It saves me from having to put on a watch every day, and I feel much lighter.

[00:01:56] [SPEAKER_01] Plus, it has the advantage of making me less conscious of time, and more conscious of what I'm doing and who I'm with. Number two, no wallet. This isn't an original idea, of course, but about a year ago, I put my wallet in my car's glove compartment. Now I only carry a few bills in cash, my driver's license, and my debit card bound with a clip. My membership cards, discount cards, etc. are stored in my wallet in my glove compartment, and you know what?

[00:02:25] [SPEAKER_01] I never need them. I think I've only gone in the wallet once to get out a card in the last year. Number three, no keys. I began to simplify my keyring until it just has a few keys. Office, home, car, and post office box. Then I decided I didn't need to carry them around with me. Now I just leave them in my glove compartment and only carry around my car's remote key, that little clicker thing that locks and unlocks the car. My pockets are so much emptier.

[00:02:56] [SPEAKER_01] Number four, no cell. Well, actually, I do own a cell phone, and it's usually in my car, but I just have it for emergencies, mostly because I have kids and want to be available for them. However, I rarely make phone calls, and if my kids are with me, I turn the cell off and leave it in the glove compartment. Man, I love that glove compartment. Number five, no bed. Actually, I have a bed, but it's just a king-sized mattress that sleeps myself,

[00:03:25] [SPEAKER_01] Eva, and our two youngest babies. As our babies sleep with us, we decided it would be safer if the bed was low. Plus, I love the minimalist look of having only a mattress. Number six, no desktop icons. I think I've mentioned this before, but my computer desktop is completely free of icons. They are just visual clutter. They slow the computer down. It takes extra CPU cycles to draw icons,

[00:03:52] [SPEAKER_01] and they are an inefficient way of organizing or accessing your programs and documents. I use keyboard shortcuts for everything. Number seven, no desktop storage. I don't store my info on my computer's hard drive. First, because I got tired of emailing myself my work files so I could access them from home, or putting them on a flash drive, or uploading them to web storage, or syncing my files.

[00:04:17] [SPEAKER_01] I decided to put everything online and use online apps so that I could access info from anywhere, and it has made my life so much easier and simpler. I sometimes use desktop apps, but I then transfer it online and delete the file from the hard drive. I still have stuff on my hard drive, of course, but that's just because I haven't bothered to delete my old files. I don't actually use them. Number eight, no mobile internet.

[00:04:44] [SPEAKER_01] I know iPhones and Blackberries and laptops with Wi-Fi and other such mobile computing is all the rage these days. I've been sorely tempted myself, but I've opted not to get such a device. The cell phone I mentioned only makes and receives phone calls. Actually, it can send text messages, but I've never done it. I like the freedom of being away from the internet when I'm out doing something, either alone or with my family. It's liberating to be disconnected. Number nine, no cable TV.

[00:05:14] [SPEAKER_01] I've mentioned this before too, but a few years ago, we made the decision to cut out cable TV from our lives. It was partly out of frugality, but also because cable TV tends to run your life. There's so much junk, or I mean entertainment, on cable that you never do anything else. For a few months, we used rabbit ear antennas to get the few free channels they have here on Guam, but we soon scrapped them too. Now we watch DVDs, but not even every night.

[00:05:43] [SPEAKER_01] In fact, we haven't watched a DVD for a few days now. Instead, we do miraculous things like read and talk and go outside. And number 10, no iPod. My teenage daughter has an iPod. It's almost always hooked into her ear. It makes conversation difficult. I have a cheap MP3 player that I bought for running, but it made running less enjoyable for me. Now I run with only my thoughts and nature in my head,

[00:06:11] [SPEAKER_01] and I go places without the distraction of constant music. It's nice. You just listened to the post titled, 10 Odd Little Minimalist Things I Do, by Leo Babauta of zenhabits.net. And I'll be right back with my commentary. Now I don't know about you, but I've left doctor visits with a, you're fine, no real data, no game plan. After driving over, waiting forever,

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[00:08:02] [SPEAKER_01] Thank you to Leo for the Minimalist Monday post. You might've been able to tell that this one was written quite a while ago. He mentioned no iPod, and now with iPhones, you pretty much have everything in one place, possibly even your wallet on your phone. So times have definitely changed. I'd be surprised if his view of the cell phone hasn't changed, but that's not really the point. I'm sure there are things that you do that if you were to really think about it are quite minimal

[00:08:32] [SPEAKER_01] and not what most people do. We all have different methods, routines, habits, and quirks, and you never know what sharing those ideas with others could lead to. Maybe a new idea. Maybe something more minimal or practical. Or something that saves you time. Who knows? For me, I didn't wear a watch for years. About a year ago, I got an Apple Watch as a gift. I tried it. I've liked it. And like that I can see my heart rate,

[00:09:01] [SPEAKER_01] get little breathing and mindfulness updates, and little stuff like that. So I've continued to wear it because I found value in it. But cable TV? Nope. Haven't had that in probably five or more years. And I'm totally happy with that decision. I do have Netflix and Hulu, so maybe tomato, tomato. But in either case, maybe something in this post could spark something in you where you could rethink your everyday life. You never know what kind of impact a tiny little change could make. Personally,

[00:09:31] [SPEAKER_01] this has motivated me to go through my keychain, which has definitely gotten out of control. I have no idea what's on there. If there's something you do that you think is really minimal that others don't do, and you'd like to share it with me and or listeners of this show, let me know. You can get in touch at oldpodcast.com or simply replying to my weekly newsletter, also at oldpodcast.com. I'd love to hear what you're doing. But that should do it for today. Thank you for being here and listening to me and for subscribing to the show.

[00:10:00] [SPEAKER_01] And I'll be back tomorrow reading to you where your optimal life awaits.