Welcome to The Simplifier, brought to you by…

Contents:

1. A Note From Shawn

A peek into the future of Project Simplify

2. Our Featured Quote

by Wayne Dyer

3. Article: Release the Power of Intention

by PS Head Simplifier Shawn Tuttle

4. Your Simplification Tip

A daily gift for yourself

5. In the News

Holiday consumption is starting early, Clutter can mess up profits, and Ten Things You Can Do Today to Simplify Your Life

6. Featured at ProjectSimplify.com

Mysterious Appearances

7. Keep Smiling

Medieval Help Desk

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1. A Note From Shawn

We’ve had many new subscribers opt-in to the mailing list lately—Welcome! Having been intimately involved with the last 47 newsletters, it’s hard for me to imagine what it would be like for this newsletter (or any of them) to be the very first for you. And so things go in cycles. No matter what your age, you’ll have some new things in your life, some in their prime, and some past maturity—you might even say over-ripe.

While this is the 48th newsletter, we have plenty in the works here at Project Simplify, that is so new, it hasn’t hit the streets yet! Here’s a peek into one of them: a training program for Simplifier Assistants. These wonderful people will specialize in supporting small business owners, and home-office self-employed clients that have been organized and simplified. It’s a full service answer for the client wanting to get their office under control and want weekly support to keep it that way. We’re taking prime concepts and recombining them in new ways for easy assimilation. It’s been challenging indeed, but what a blast! OK, I’ve said enough for now—more to come soon…

Enjoy!

Shawn

Shawn Tuttle
Head Simplifier, Project Simplify
Co-editor, The Simplifier

 

 

 

2. Our Featured Quote

“Our intention creates our reality.”

-Wayne Dyer

 

3. Article: Release the Power of Intention

By Shawn Tuttle

Do you park your car in the kitchen?
Do you think about cleaning your shower during a client appointment?
Do you take a week-long vacation right before a big project is due?
No, no, and no! What silliness is this?

Well, why wouldn’t you? Because they don’t belong there!

Without even thinking about it, you use the concept of intention for your surroundings, thoughts, and activities on a regular basis. American Heritage Dictionary defines intention as “an aim that guides action”. A kitchen is for cooking, not storing the car. Client appointments are for providing your service, not planning your house cleaning. And a project needs your presence for completion.

Put simply, intention is aligning with what you want.

Intention is a powerful tool for simplifying. It helps you maintain focus and stay true to your purpose. It weaves through your goals and reflects your desires. You can use it to continuously tap into your quality-of-life desires… perhaps those expressed in your Simplicity Statement. The more your thoughts and actions line up with your intention, the stronger it is.

When you have to deal with influences out of line from your intention, the energy for it is scattered and weakened. Regularly thinking “my work is difficult” is going to get in the way of an intention of attracting easy-going, responsible clients. Papers scattered all over the office will get in the way of the intention of a professional and orderly office.

Refining “an aim that guides action”
The word “aim” covers quite a bit of ground. It could be the function of a system, such as bookkeeping. It could be your understanding of a room’s purpose, such as a highly efficient office. It can also be the desire within an experience—for example, mutual respect in an upcoming meeting.

The word “action” includes any way—no matter how minor—that you express energy. This includes thoughts, words, and body language. You may not think it directly affects you or anyone else; you may not see an immediate result. However, everything you do has an effect on yourself and your surroundings.

Let’s look at intention in two work-related domains: space and systems. (I’ll look at the third domain, time, in the next article.) We’ll set a global intention of “managing all my work with ease”.

Space
Your surroundings have a huge influence on your effectiveness. When you set the intention for your work space, you effectively create a criterion of what does/not belong, and how well something works. Notice the difference between these scenarios:

Scenario #1: “The office is the room I work in.”
In this scenario, almost anything goes.

Scenario #2: “My office supports me in managing all my work with ease.”
In this scenario, not only do you gravitate towards an orderly office in which you can immediately put your fingers on what you need when you need it, you also pay attention to what will promote this intention. This may mean having extra printer toner cartridges on hand, placing the things you use frequently close to your desk, and removing non-office items from the room. By preventing an emergency trip to the office supply store, not having to get up every time you need a paper clip, and avoiding that dirty coffee mug sitting on the bookcase, you are minimizing distractions.

Systems
From simple to complicated, systems should help, not hinder. One of the simplest (and most overlooked!) ways of ensuring this is to clarify purpose. Notice the difference between these scenarios:

Scenario #1: “The inbox, without a clear purpose, has a stack of papers and files in it, some of which have been there for 3 or 4 months. I generally know what’s in it, and will eventually find something when needed. When I dig through, I find important stuff that needs to be dealt with.”
This scenario describes a tray with a bunch of stale papers in it that happens to be called an “inbox”.

Scenario #2: “The inbox, with the clear purpose of collecting incoming items only, is a short-term holding container that I empty 2-3 a times a week.”
This scenario describes a real inbox that helps get incoming items to the appropriate places. The fluidity of the inbox as a temporary collection container supports you in managing your work with ease.

These scenarios illustrate the idea that intention isn’t the action that causes change, it’s more like a culture that informs the actions that occur there. Just as an Italian restaurant would stand out in a Chinese village, a dysfunctional inbox stands out in the culture of a smooth flowing office.

As you can see, Intention can be somewhat elusive. Determining an intention requires a combination of understanding your values, priorities, and desires. Often, these aren’t easy questions to answer. But once you do set a solid intention, it becomes a prominent background against which your actions play out. When your thoughts and actions directly support your desired end result, you set yourself up for success.

—

Shawn Tuttle is founder of Project Simplify.

4. Your Simplification Tip

A daily gift for yourself

Let tomorrow begin with the end of today. This isn’t some vague, Zen, “the sound of one hand clapping” kind of thing. What I mean is, give yourself the gift of a clean desk tomorrow morning, by clearing it off tonight. And not just tomorrow morning—every morning!

When you get in the habit, all it takes is a 5 minute chunk of time to get the active project files back with your current files, uncompleted tasks in the “Take action” file, must-do-tomorrow-penalty-of-death items in the “Hot” folder, reference files back in the filing cabinet, books back on the shelf, phone numbers/emails entered in the address book. Voila. Clear desk.

Why is this such a great gift for yourself? Every day you get another chance to create what you want out of life. Approaching a cleared-off desk in the morning reinforces the notion that you get to begin the day with a blank slate. It encourages you to take a deep breath and quietly challenge the patterns that no longer serve you.

No bows needed for this gift, nor any one-handed applause action. I would recommend, though, that when you sit down at your cleared off desk, to give yourself a flash of appreciation for doing this nice thing for yourself. (Especially you workaholic types who tend to need your arm twisted in order to do something nice for yourself.) =)

 

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5. In the News

In the News is compiled by The Simplifier co-editor Lance Brown.

Beware – holiday consumption is starting early this year (Napa Valley Register - CA)
URL: http://tinyurl.com/2uegzy
An article about practicing conscious shopping in the interest of simplicity.

Clutter can mess up profits (Cape Cod Times - MA)
URL: http://tinyurl.com/35rmtr
Aside from pointing out the fact stated in its title, this article reviews the D.R.A.F.T. method for clearing office clutter.

Ten Things You Can Do Today to Simplify Your Life (Zen Habits Blog)
URL: http://tinyurl.com/26llzt
The excellent Zen Habits blog presents ten fairly easy things that you can actually do today, and tomorrow, and tomorrow’s tomorrow, to simplify your life.

If you know of something in the news that should be featured here, let us know!

 

6. Featured at ProjectSimplify.com

By The Simplifier co-editor Lance Brown.

Mysterious Appearances

There’s new content added to our site on a regular basis. Scientists have coined a word for this phenomenon…they call it “blog posts”. Researchers from the Project Simplify Institute for Over-Introducing Things have recently unearthed a few choice specimens of this so-called “blog post” material. And here they are.

(Please put on your protective goggles and stand behind that concrete barrier over there. You may see a bright flash—it’s normal, don’t be alarmed. Click on a post’s title to read the full entry.)

Fortune cookie
Since when did they start putting smiley faces on them? ;-)

Space
It’s the final frontier. But not outer space…the space right in front of you. Like between you and these words. Ever think about that?

Fans for clients and lattes
You know, so they don’t get hot in the summer? Ohhhh….fans, not fans. Those are good too. (And not just in the summer!)

When is a salesman like a thought?
Wait, I know this one. It’s…hmm. Maybe I don’t know this one. When he sells me a car? That doesn’t sound right. OK, I give up. When is a salesman like a thought? {Click}

A file for your future reference
To make you feel good about yourself…or to make others feel good about you. Or just so you don’t forget all the great things you’ve accomplished.

 

 

 

 

7. Keep Smiling

Medieval Help Desk

Just because there were no keyboards or USB ports back in the Middle Ages doesn’t mean they didn’t have problems with upgrading their information systems. Yes, it’s true—even the medieval occasionally have to call in tech support.

And while they didn’t have the abovementioned items, luckily they did apparently have video cameras, and TeacherTube has been generous enough to share with the world this remarkable video of one of the earliest-recorded efforts to bridge the technology learning gap through instruction.

Here’s the URL/link: http://tinyurl.com/33od24

 

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Thanks for reading!

Publication Information
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The Simplifier is published by:
Project Simplify
P.O. Box 597
Nevada City, CA 95959
phone: 530.205.5775
web: www.projectsimplify.com
e-mail: (newsletter@projectsimplify.com) newsletter (at) projectsimplify (dot) com