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April Third

Now that I’ve learned to look at things with the lens of simplicity, I can see others making mistakes I’ve made in the past.

I want to gently say to them — and to my past self — “Stop making things so complicated!”

I’m not going to criticize how other people do things in this post, but rather talk about things I did wrong in the past.

The biggest problem came when starting a new endeavor — starting running, trying to get organized or productive, starting blogging, getting out of debt, even the act of simplifying.

I’d always make things so complicated — looking back on it, I either want to cringe or laugh. And yet, I know that life is a learning process, and those early mistakes helped me to get to where I am. Even now, I make tons of mistakes, learning as I go.

Example 1: I wanted to be more productive, so I learned GTD (Getting Things Done, an excellent book by David Allen). I bought tools that other GTDers recommended, set up a series of lists, tried out a couple dozen different software (and paper) approaches to lists. Every GTDer knows this problem. GTD, and many other productivity systems, can end up being complicated.

Today, my advice to my former self is: stop making it complicated. Productivity, such as I care about it today, is simple. You pick the most important thing you want to do today, clear distractions, and start on it. You don’t even need a list, though having a list for remembering what else needs to be done later is fine. Have one list, but don’t fiddle with it. Just pick one thing, and start working.

Example 2: When I wanted to get out of debt, I tried various financial software, I made spreadsheets, I made schedules for payments, I tracked everything, and so on. It was complicated, believe me.

Now I know it’s simple. First, stop the unnecessary spending (I know, easier said than done, but once you learn to recognize it and stop your impulse urges, it’s not complicated). Second, put everything you can to one debt at a time (first creating an emergency fund of at least $500), pay off that one debt, then pay off the next.

Example 3: When I started blogging in January 2007, I looked at dozens of different blogging platforms/software, themes, ad platforms, ebooks, articles on every possible blogging topic. This is natural, as I was just learning the field.

But today, I know it’s simple: you pick a topic, and write. Then hit publish. Share your stuff via Twitter or Facebook if you like, but don’t worry so much about that. Just write interesting and/or useful stuff, and people will find you eventually. Just write, and publish.

When you start something new, sure, there’s a learning process. But also realize that while the learning is good, the doing doesn’t have to be complicated at all. Find the simplest way to do things, and just start doing it. You’ll learn by doing.

Tully Hansen:

Shout out to Tully, who was the 4000th follower of Minimal Mac on Tumblr. His reward: Sending him some Sweet Schwag™. Not to worry though, the schwag will be even sweeter for number 5000.

iPad Aesthetics:

But as someone who prefers tidiness and iPhone screen real estate, I think the iPad interface is a step in the right direction

Me too. Chris makes a good simple argument (with pictures) to make the case.

Israelian friends Luka Or (multi disciplinary designer), Orian Canetti (interior designer) and Elad Ziv (developer) joined forces to form WE Collective, a new design studio.

To celebrate the start of this new venture, Luka Or designed these colourful minimalist posters.

I love how they do away with the popular notion that minimalism has something to do with the absence of colour, which is completely wrong of course (it’s merely the number of colours).

So: hooray for colour, and welcome WE!

A collection of favorite Mac OS X Hints tips | Mac OS X | Mac OS X Hints | Macworld:

Speaking of getting to know your tools deeper… Rob Griffiths, the founder and editor of Mac OS X Hints one of my all time favorite Mac sites, is stepping down from that role to pursue other interests. While I am very sad to see him go, I know he will leave the site in good hands. Here, he recounts some of his favorite tips and tricks from over the years.

That said, part of my goal of Minimal Mac is to advocate the idea of getting the most of the Mac and the apps that it ships with. Part of that, is getting to know these tools a bit deeper. Mac OS X Hints is chock full of nothing but ways to do just that.

Good luck in your travels Rob.