Perk at Work

This morning I had a bit of a epiphany: each of us needs very little each day to survive. Most of us are in agreement that we have too much clutter in our lives. Most of us would like to simplify down to the bare essentials. But actually doing it can be tough.

For a while now, I have been reading zenhabits.net. I’ve been trying to eliminate as much unnecessary junk in my life and this blog has helped me out. I don’t have many possessions, so physical clutter isn’t much of an issue. However, work always clutters my thoughts.

I jumped onto zenhabits.net just in the hope that something there would open my eyes. Luckily the home page post was about reducing administrative tasks, something I have much of and much difficulty doing.

How does this help me get off-line and off-the-grid? I gotta strip down to next to nothing before building up again.

Here’s the post:

Frictionless Work: How to Clear Your Life of Non-Essential Tasks

“It’s not the work which kills people, it’s the worry. It’s not the revolution that destroys machinery it’s the friction.” ~Henry Ward Beecher

Post written by Leo Babauta of zenhabits.net

How much of your day is spent doing administrative tasks, and not creating or doing other important work?

How much time do you spend responding to emails and IMs and social networks, making payments, doing paperwork, filing, sitting in meetings, driving, doing errands, and so on? How much of that could be cleared up for more important work?

Imagine this for a moment: you have no administrative tasks, only the core work that you love doing. Your day has been cleared for creating, building, doing high-impact projects. Isn’t it lovely?

Is this a pipe dream? Perhaps for some, who have little control over their work. But if you have a larger degree of control, let’s explore the idea of “frictionless work” or even “frictionless living”.

If you have little control, consider a change. Get all the goodness »

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