🔬 Weekly experiment 06, 2020

Hey There.

Bye, bye, seaside. I almost managed to escape in the time of fog, but the weather had other plans.

Anyway, I was thrilled to start filling up the new blank canvas (apartment), but the canvas isn't that empty anymore. Apparently, I still have two cars of stuff. An improvement since one car included the living utilities (microwaves, kitchen utilities, desk, chairs, lamps, ...) that I managed to accumulate since the last move. When I was moving a year before I filled three cars only with my personal possessions.

So how can I call my self a minimalist? I don't have 4 things and live like a monk. I have two cars of stuff and a car.

Minimalism

To me, minimalism isn't about living as a monk and meditating all day. But about figuring out what possessions/things spark joy and bring value to my life. I continuously evaluate what surrounds me and weighs me down.

I add new things and remove the ones that don't do the job. By removing I mean donating them or throwing them away. Unfortunately, some possessions are not worth keeping and don't bring value to anyone.

Minimalism allows me to keep clear mind required to do focused mental work like physics, coding, writing, … Thorugh minimalism I somehow managed to rediscover some of the clarity and focus.

Funnily one area that I haven't managed to minimise yet are my physics notes. They actually come in kilos. So I hide them out of sight. Because in the past, I realised that visual clutter like piles of papers distracts me.

Yet I know there are people like my dad who thrive between piles of paper. So homework. Figure out what works for you. If you never tried working behind a clean desk before. Give it a shot.

So to find if you are a minimalist or not, or somewhere in between. There are a few things you can try out. Some easy, some crazy:

• Write a post-it note and place it on a visible spot: Throw away 3 things each day. Semi worked for my mum.
• Project 333 by Courtney Carver when you try to live with 33 clothes (minus underwaear) for 3 months.
• Pack all possessions into boxes. You are allowed to take out only what you need to use in your life. Donate what you didn't unpack. Radical but one of the tricks that works for The Minimalists guys.

Resources

I'm not here to convince you that minimalism is the way. But to shed some light on it. There are many other resources out there that do a much better job than I can in one newsletter. Here are some resources I found useful throughout my journey, there are many more:

• My simplification path in one of the previous blog posts.
• Minimalisem documentary it should be available on Netflix. How two guys quit a corporate job get rid of debt and rethink their lives.
• The Minimalists blog contains weekly posts
• The Power of Less by Leo Babauta
• several books by Joshua Baker on decluttering especially if you have kids
• Matt Deawella Youtube channel documenting his minimalism journey through film.
• The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up by Marie Kondo, a decluttering expert I'm not joking
• Digital Minimalism by Cal Newport on how to minimise the digital distractions that surround us.
• My Exile Lifestyle by Colin Wright, who several years ago sold everything and started living abroad. Moving to another country every three months. I think he settled in the UK for now after a few years of travel.

Most of the stories of people above are quite radical and at least didn't work for me entirely. But each story was an inspiration for me to make small dedicated changes. Small experiments.

Small weekly experiment 07, 2020

Last week was packed with moving and paperwork. I still haven't found anything else that's more draining than that. So a nice recharge in Rovinj was more than welcome. BTW yet another city that's beautiful out of the tourist season though it might feel like a ghost town. But there's always someone watching:

In the past few weeks, I've been trying out different green teas. Learning that Chinese teas are pretty bitter when they cool down, but the Japanese ones are delicious also when cold. If any of my readers is an expert and has any tips, let me know.

In the upcoming week, I'll be testing out my new apartment and doing some longer travel again. Can't wait I'm visiting a physics experiment facility (kindergarten) in Germany 🤓

You know the drill let me know what will be your small experiment this week.

If you find a typo, have a comment or have an idea for improvement shoot me a message. 😉

Till the next weekly experiment.

Ziga

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