6 Ways To Keep Simple From Getting Complex
EDITOR’S NOTE: This is a guest post from Leo Babauta, author of Top 25 blog Zen Habits and best-selling book, The Power of Less.
When Apple designed the beautifully simple iPod, with its minimalist interface, they must have faced a conundrum: How do you keep things simple when there are always other important features you want to add, new buttons that add so much more functionality?
In the software world, this is known as “feature creep” — new features are added and added until things are no longer simple, but complex.
In the world of simplicity, things are never as simple as they seem. Things tend to grow more complex over time — simplicity takes hard work to maintain.
How does Apple keep its minimalist interface if it wants to keep adding new features? How does the designer of a simple WordPress theme keep things simple if he wants to add new features for his users?
How do you declutter a room and keep it from getting cluttered again? How do you simplify your work routine — and keep it simple?
The short answer is thoughtful reduction, and routine editing. The long answer is below, in six steps:
1. Be very clear about your mission. This is crucial — without it, simplicity for simplicity’s sake is worthless. What are you trying to deliver to the customer? What are you trying to accomplish for yourself? Apple could keep its interface simple because it knew what user experience it was trying to deliver: A simple way for people to listen to their music. Know your mission, and the rest is details.
2. Figure out what matters most. This is really the logical progression of Step 1 — what is most important to delivering on your mission? If your mission is to have a simple room for sleeping and dressing, what items do you need? A bed, a dresser, maybe a simple closet for hanging clothes, and perhaps a mirror. That’s all you need in a simple bedroom with those two purposes. Not tons of storage space or chairs or bookshelves or anything else.
3. Thoughtful reduction. This is taken from John Maeda’s Laws of Simplicity — after you’ve figured out what’s important, reduce the rest thoughtfully. It doesn’t really need more explanation than that.
4. Set limits. Once you’ve gotten down to simplicity, setting limits is a great way to force yourself to stay simple. Basically, you set limits on whatever you’re trying to keep simple: the number of buttons on a device, the number of features in a program, the number of pieces of furniture or clothing or emails you answer or tasks you set out to do each day. With a limit, you force yourself to choose, and force yourself to eliminate the non-essential rather than allowing things to grow more complex.
5. Organize. As Maeda said, “Organization makes a system of few appear simpler.” Group similar things together intelligently, and aim for a small number of groups. If you have 20 things, and you organize them well, you now might have only 4 groups — which makes things simpler. Be sure the grouping, however, doesn’t make things more complicated.
6. Edit routinely. Set a regular interval for what I call “editing” (I’m a writer — it’s how I see things). So if you want to keep your to-do list simple, you could set a reminder in your calendar to prune your to-do list down to 10 things (an example of a limit) each Monday (for example). If you want to keep a room decluttered, set a calendar reminder to declutter it every two months. If you’re designing software or a WordPress theme, edit before each release.
Read more about simplicity and productivity in Leo’s best-selling book, The Power of Less, or follow him on Twitter.
Great guest post! I really think #5 is SO important. I am a very organized person and I think it helps with almost every aspect of my life (though, at times, it annoys some people!). These are great tips for keeping it simple. Thank you!
Positively Present’s last blog post..how to give the world a virus
This is a continual battle, and #1 and #2 are key.
I’m really thinking about doing a big (yet simple) simplification of my life every month. Humm…
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I’m a big believer in simplicity and enjoy your message on it. I will definitely be buying your new book and am looking forward to absorbing the simplicity message.
Bamboo Forest – PunIntended’s last blog post..Why You Should Accept Everything in Life Just the Way it is
There’s nothing like starting a project or goal with a clear and simple plan. Business plans that go on about delivering this and that for paragraphs really miss the mark. A simple plan or strategy you can follow or come back to to re-align yourself with is really important.
Thanks in particular for #1 and #2 Leo.
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Figure out what matters most – EXACTLY. Too often we spend our time running around the track instead of running through the woods.
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In regard to Apple, I think feature creep factored into the iPhone. It’s definitely not a simple phone, what with all the addons and apps you can add. I also think about how annoying and slow myspace is because people add all kinds of things to their pages.
I think your point about setting limits is a good one. I have found over the past few weeks that one of the things really holding me back from finishing things I start is that I don’t make the task simple enough. I keep adding little things here and there, like instead of sending out two job queries a day or something like this, I will go overboard and say that I need to send out five a day or I can’t feel satisfied with myself.
I think the idea of “setting limits” relates a lot to focus and keeping your ultimate goal and the purpose of what you are doing extremely clear. It’s hard to get anything done or create a product if you don’t know exactly what it’s going to be used for and why you are making it.
So easy to lose site of the original goal if you keep adding on new features or new elements that weren’t there at conception.
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I’m a huge fan of organization, you know, “A place for everything and everything in it’s place.” It makes sense. When you put things where they belong, not only do you minimize clutter, it’s just more efficient and reduces double handling.
However, there are times when you just don’t feel like getting up and putting things away. I came up with a little trick for this. I organize my clutter.
I keep a small pencil holder on one of the end tables so that when I need a pen, pencil, nail file, or something of that nature, it’s close at hand yet neatly contained.
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Hi Leo,
Setting limits is a very good advice to help us stay productive. If we limit the amount of tasks we do daily, we will definitely need to choose the most important task out of all the tasks we do. Doing this will help us to achieve more with less. Great article!
Cheers,
Vincent
Vincent’s last blog post..You Should Start Asking Questions Now
I agree, you really have to plan your way through certain tasks or risk making them more complex than they need to be. Step 2, figuring what matters most, helps to center your thoughts around what you are really attempting to accomplish in the first place. It allows you to prioritize and come up with the “must-haves”.
Thanks for the insight Leo.
Jake
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I completely agree, Leo. The key to simplicity – to a happy, clean, clear, simple, abundant life – is to know yourself, know what you value, know what you want, know the minimum you need. Lovely to see you over here, like a fairy godfather bestowing blessings on the baby!
Well done, Eric. Great guest, great post!
(Be proud of your daddy, Tyson, be very proud. We are! And of your mum too!)
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Very insightful post. I agree that keeping things simple is better than complexity and convolution.
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really cool topic – so important.
i really like number 2, specially when you combine it with number 4 since doing what matters most while setting limits can cut back a lot of frustration and suffering. good ‘ol 80 20 with regards to most important stuff done being the biggest contributor to end result.
awesome stuff and great guest post – just checked out Leo’s blog which is solid too.
respect
alex
Useful post! It’s common to fall into the trap that “simple” should happen easily and without thought or attention – it rarely does. That’s actually how things become complex, because of the lack of thought and focus. Your six steps are essential to maintaining simplicity in life. Thanks, Leo; and thanks Eric for such a great guest writer!
Thanks for this post. I think many of us avoid asking what’s really important to us because it forces us to recognize the staggering number of choices available to us, and that can be dizzying. For myself, and when working with people, it’s about feeling that dizziness, and breathing and relaxing my body until it passes away — and when that’s happened, a clearer sense of purpose emerges.
I love this. I was first introduced to simplicity through Leo and I read his blog and bought his book The Power of Less. This post was a simple explanation of keeping it simple.
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I was introduced by arjun to this very insightful advice. It helps to see the big picture whenever one is embarking on the most elaborate of projects. What I could grasp from the above is to see things in perspective.
Dj
One day as I was lazily pondering the bright clear blue skies of Southwestern Arizona, I had the strangest premonition. I was thinking of all of the people who had lived and died since the beginning of the world, and how they coped with the unavoidable physical and mental pains in their lives prior to their demise. How did each and everyone view their coming death, and how did they cope and come to accept their death when their time passed upon them. And then it hit me. Death is a natural part of living and growing, both physically and spiritually and should not be feared.
Adverse matters themselves don’t injure or handicap us. Nor do others. How we regard these matters is another affair. It’s our mental attitude and response that give us problems. Consequently, even dying is no big deal in and of itself. It’s our opinion of dying, our thought that it’s frightening, that terrifies us. There are so many numerous and different ways to consider death. Scrutinize your beliefs about death – and everything else. Are they genuinely truthful? Are they serving you any goodness? Don’t fear death or pain; fear the fear of death or pain. We can’t select our outside circumstances, but we can forever decide how we cab react to them.
Oh yea—stop your worrying this instant.
Great guest post. Keeping your life simplified is definitely a conquerable challenge. With persistence and reevaluation of your goals, anyone can do it.