Comments on: Friday Fluff: Yay for Simplicity

By: psychsarah

psychsarah — Tue, 20 Nov 2007 22:56:50 +0000

I have to give you props for making yourself finally do it. Like my dissertation supervisor liked to say to me-a good dissertation is a done dissertation! I have certainly simplified my life by finishing said dissertation. At some point perfectionism is just not worth it.

I also have to concur with a previous commenter that walking away from grad school drama simplified my life immeasurably! I moved away from the city in which my university was located to go on my clinical internship and suddenly a few months later I noticed that I wasn’t as stressed. It was because the day to day BS of department/university politics were out of my head! Yippee!

I fully support simplifying your life and only worrying about things over which you have some control. Anything else is just crazymaking!

By: Andrea

Andrea — Mon, 19 Nov 2007 00:28:18 +0000

Simplicity won out (sort of) in the Thanksgiving meal my husband and I are cooking for our parents. Originally, the thought was to make an apple pie and a blueberry/cranberry pie and a pumpkin pie and a chocolate pecan pie, oh my!

After giving each pie a trial run, we realized that not only is a pumpkin pie about a thousand times easier than any of the others, we CAN’T STOP EATING IT. For all the pride we had when we made a good Dutch apple pie, nothing can beat the simple, elegant yum of a pumpkin pie, so pumpkin it is.

By: fillyjonk

fillyjonk — Sun, 18 Nov 2007 06:45:07 +0000

It occurs to me that I am doing this with wedding planning. I know people drive themselves utterly spare over finding the right place, food, cake, linens, chairs, chair covers, centerpieces, flowers, dress, ring… Since I value both my sanity and my friends’ regard, though, I’m keeping everything as simple as possible. I just don’t see the point of going crazy over it, of going to a hundred locations and meeting a hundred photographers and trying on a hundred dresses and tasting the offerings of a hundred caterers and bakers. As my dad says, “the best is the enemy of the good.”

By: Mary

Mary — Sun, 18 Nov 2007 00:35:50 +0000

Hi Tari and Rachel and Kate any anyone else who was at the think tank!

I decided to stop making dinner. I just buy sandwich stuff or frozen entrees, and also the only ten foods my six year old twins will eat. We eat separately when we are hungry. We have 30-60 minutes of family time at bedtime, depending on how sleepy the kids are. With my muscle deterioration it is SO much easier. I also simplified shopping by giving up the struggle and using the scooter carts. I still don’t know what’s wrong with my body, but I can only fight it so much.

Speaking of food, after catching up on my blogs and reading last Friday’s comfort food discusion, I totally made creamed peas and ate about two cups in one nostalgic sitting. :)

By: peggynature

peggynature — Sat, 17 Nov 2007 22:01:19 +0000

Good luck!

I’m a proud National Novel Writing Month failure, three years in a row. This year, I’m not even going to bother trying to fail. I’ve come to the sad conclusion that university + job + novel writing is not a good combination.

Finishing my nutrition degree will make things less complicated, and hopefully all the space that creative writing takes up in my brain won’t have been colonized by diagrams of glycolysis and the citric acid cycle.

By: Dorianne

Dorianne — Sat, 17 Nov 2007 20:31:06 +0000

Packing my computer components away and using only the laptop greatly simplified my life. I realize that’s still technology, but it is so much simpler and neater, plus I don’t have to go back and forth between systems looking for files – I’ll never buy a big PC again, just laptops.

Cancelling my cable was also a boon. Without it, where I live, we only get two local channels, so I never turn on the TV anymore! I get so much other stuff done now….

Also, using a French press to make coffee. No filters, no need to find a plug in, takes up very little space, and the whole thing can go in the sink with the dishes.

And I’m also totally down with the “old-fashioned” dayplanner that you write things in with a pen.

Decluttering my apartment and letting go of stuff I no longer truly need, want, and/or use – regardless of who gave it to me or what “meaning” an item has – has been great, too. I’m not finished yet, but it looks tidy now and it’s way easier to find stuff!

Wow, I wasn’t sure if I had anything to write down on this one, but I do!

By: gemellen

gemellen — Sat, 17 Nov 2007 13:52:17 +0000

i got the ole’ employer to get me a NEO too!

By: withoutscene

withoutscene — Sat, 17 Nov 2007 01:39:42 +0000

It’s that perfectionism that gets us. I am struggling with the same thing right now and it’s always good to hear other people have the same problems.

By: Sniper

Sniper — Sat, 17 Nov 2007 00:35:09 +0000

I used to be hung up on cooking fresh, healthy, from-scratch meals every day, even when I came home late from a meeting. Now I make huge vats of stew, chili, spaghetti sauce, and soup and freeze everything in individual-serving containers. If I have the time to make a salad or a side vegetable, great. If not, I don’t much care.

By: fillyjonk

fillyjonk — Fri, 16 Nov 2007 23:43:48 +0000

You can’t get someone else to write ‘em in the first place, which is my problem as well as Kate’s.

Actually, you can, which is why I’ve always preferred to be an editor rather than a writer! :-)

GOOD POINT