I'm probably late coming to this, as I normally am for everything. But it seems that editing your life is the 'in thing' at the moment. It's something that we've been doing at our house over the past couple of years without knowing it was something that others had classified as a 'thing'.
Editing, especially in video production, is seen as eliminating unwanted material. So a big part of this can be seen as decluttering.
Decluttering is the fantastic process of taking a good look at everything that you own and understanding if it is serving you or if you are serving it. Examples of you serving it can include feelings of guilt that you have it, but aren't using it - often the case with people that own 10s or 100s of books or DVDs. It can also include thoughts that you have to keep items because they were gifted to you or left to you in a will, but that they aren't things that you want - they may even be things that you don't even like.
Information is a fantastic opportunity to declutter and edit. Check all of your documents, do you need the physical copies or can they be scanned and stored electronically? What about all of those manuals, is there a PDF version available online? I recently found that for my entire working life I'd kept documents that advised me of my tax code for the coming year. This was just an informational document and didn't need saving after the first pay slip, which would confirm that I was on the correct code - yet I had them all the way back to 2003! They were put in the rubbish pile immediately!
Editing it also includes some ongoing decisions about what you will allow into your life and the things that you will consume.
This can include media such as the internet, consumption of television and music. More specifically you may want to edit the level of 'news' intake that you consume. I recently ran an internet search on my name and my email address and unsubscribed or deleted all of the accounts shown on the results that I don't use. I was amazed that there were so many that I didn't even remember!
Commitments from work, family, online communities, hobbies, volunteering, and religion also need to be considered to ensure that you are happy with the level of commitment and that you're getting as much out of the activity as possible. There's no use on continuing with a commitment that you don't even, but that can be dropped. This is often a hobby that we've defined ourselves by, for instance dancing or martial arts, but that no longer brings us the challenge or joy that it used to.
When you've reached the stage that you've really edited the different aspects of your life; the things you own and the things you do. You are in a great situation, one that will hopefully allow you to feel much freer and allow you to get on with the things that you enjoy. It is now also possible for you to start organising things. Mainly this can include the physical things you own. Like book or DVD storage. Stationary storage. Clothes storage. For your home documents, home files are brilliant. But make sure that you're only organising the things that you need. Don't waste time and money buying things to organise things that you don't need!
I'm really glad that I wrote this post. I hope that it was worth reading.
A great post, Tim. This has been on my mind a lot lately...perfect timing. I think the need to have it all is vastly overrated.
ReplyDeleteThanks. It's so easy to slip into this thinking, isn't it!? I'm glad that we've been able to take the time to reduce the things we have - while also giving most of these things a new lease of life.
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