This Week’s BIG Idea
When I started the site in early 2022, I couldn’t articulate why I wanted to do it. As I kept working on it, my vision became clearer and clearer: I wanted to learn as much as possible and teach it to others. Suddenly, some topics became personal favorites and I started gravitating toward areas I desperately needed and most of them revolved around the same thing: the pursuit of simplicity.
Along with mental and physical health, simplicity is one of my main values. I’m constantly optimizing for simplicity without even realizing it. When I look around my immediate environment, I pursue simplicity because it gives me stability and a sense of control. I want to get rid of the things that are no longer part of my identity, I want to organize, and I want to simplify. This is reflected in every area of my life, from my Notion page to my wardrobe.
I’ve written about my need to organize my wardrobe several times. I’ve read numerous books on the topics, including Project 333 and The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up. At first, I thought I was becoming a frivolous and shallow person who only cared about material stuff, but I realized that it wasn’t about that. Clothes reflect who you are and how much you love yourself, it’s also an excuse to keep certain emotions unaddressed. By getting rid of all you never wear, you question yourself: Why am I holding on to this? Why is it so painful to get rid of it? From now on, my purpose is to minimize every aspect of my life, not just my wardrobe. The goal is to focus on what’s essential while making room for what matters.
What I’m Working on
Recently, I finished reading two books: Atomic Attraction and Slow Productivity. Interestingly, those books couldn’t be more different from each other, but I learned a lot from them. Expect more summaries soon.
What I’m Listening to
Finding Purpose in an Abandoned Ghost Town: in this episode of The Daily Stoic, Ryan Holiday interviews Brent Underwood. Some people might recognize Underwood from the YouTube Channel Ghost Town Living. He used his life savings to buy the abandoned mining town of Cerro Gordo where he intends to open a hotel. For the last four years, Underwood has been chronicling the process on the YouTube channel and writing a book that just came out.
What I’m Reading
Generation Decks by Titus Chalk: I’m in between books, so I decided to read something I won’t be summarizing. I’ve always loved trading card games and recently came across some books about Magic: The Gathering. This one is about the game’s story and how it changed the TCG industry. Generation Decks is extremely well-written and the best recounting of the game’s beginning I’ve ever read.
What I’m Watching
Change Your Life by Journaling – 1- Journaling Questions: in this video, Ali Abdaal shares his favorite ten journaling prompts. Although that sounds boring, this is one of the best videos about journaling I’ve ever watched. I found myself not only pausing to write down the prompts but also trying to answer them in my head. I transcribed the prompts to my bullet journal, as well as a Notion page, but here they are in case you’re interested:
- What would you do if money were no object? How would you use your talents and skills to serve others?
- What would you like people to say at your funeral?
- If I repeat this week’s actions for 10 years, where does it lead, and is that where I want to be?
- What activities in the last 2 weeks have energized and drained me?
- How is your wheel of life? This includes work, health, and relationships.
- Odyssey plan: what’s your current path, your alternative path, and your radical path?
- What is the goal and what is the bottleneck?
- Which goal will have the greatest impact on your life?
- Do you work for business or does it work for you?
- If I knew I was going to die 2 years from now, how would I spend my time?
This Week’s Quote
“The simplest way to clarify your thinking is to write a full page about whatever you are dealing with and then delete everything except the 1-2 sentences that explain it best.”
James Clear
Here’s a link to my website where I share chapter-by-chapter summaries of non-fiction books.
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