Radical simplicity

March 18, 2008 by Mary Wynne-Wynter 

20+ years ago I read an article about the joy of minimalism written by a middle-aged woman from Chicago who I believe was in both academia and the arts. Unfortunately I didn’t save it because reading it was a defining moment in my life at which point I committed to radical simplicity.

I bring it up because so often I talk to people who can’t move in the the direction they desire because they feel blocked by stuff. I sympathize; I’ve been there and it really is a self-imposed roadblock to a new direction. Its increasingly prevalent and its spawned an entire industry, including associations, retail stores, TV programs, books, coaches and consultants.

I’m always willing to help clients simplify but they never take me up on it. My philosophy is too radical, including:

You can never simplify by adding anything, only by taking away.

Small steps are slow torture; big commitments and fast action are required like: I’ll reduce all my wires by 80%, or, I’ll start loading my car and selling or giving away 50% of my stuff starting today and won’t stop till I have 50% more space.

So if I can’t inspire clients and readers to radically simplify their physical possessions, hopefully I will inspire them regarding their digital possessions. Because I’ve come through the darkness and into the light with my main business web site, a former digital disaster zone of files, code, tables and virtual tchotchke (in Polish: cacka). I’ve maintained my site for years, enjoy doing it, and through many iterations it just got bigger and complicated and harder to manage. I responded to the increasing difficulty just like people do in the makeover shows; if I needed to change or fix something, I just kept piling on more and more.

There was no clear path or process to simplifying my web site. My initial goal 3 weeks ago was to switch one obsolete web site code-generating software package for another newer and bigger one – essentially, adding more features and functions on top of my existing mess. Halfway through I felt awful; this wasn’t me. To quote Niecy of Clean House, I had to “see the foolishness”. When I did, I stopped, gave myself a CSS crash course, worked mostly around the clock for a week, ignoring other aspects of my business and personal life, and reduced the beast by 90%. Its a high. I feel like Niecy’s virtual counterpart. I’m so grateful to all the CSS instructional web sites, like Dynamic Drive, that got me started. Not that my site is perfect, state of the art, or finished; its still not done. But its manageable and professional. Its a clean and simple platform for growth and moving forward and maybe SEO/SEM. Its my critical asset investment in my PSF.

Five years ago I gave a series of talks at Babson about solo professional opportunities for career transitioners. One of the criteria that I used to evaluate different models, i.e. free-lancer, independent contractor, program designer and developer, etc., was the degree of content ownership and control. I fielded the most questions on that point; my audience was doubtful about the value of content. If you’re still a holdout, and think that content is not your most important asset, you should read Seth’s blog post. He won’t even consider an intern without content. If, like me, you’ve been accumulating online stuff for years, its probably time to take a long hard look with a critical and objective eye. Its great to buy help evaluating and overhauling if you can, but keep control. If you need a radical shove – call me.

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