Dry and Veggie January Reflections
We decided to participate in Dry January and added on a Vegetarian (not Vegan) only diet for the start of the year. Another idea we discussed was also cutting out coffee, but two changes were more than enough. We did, however, try to cut the caffeine down to one cup a day and no sooner than 1.5 hours after waking up. But like I said earlier, crash changes are not sustainable or successful. So we planned some approaches around how to stick to and get the most out of these experiments.
Event Driven Design
Just applying technology to a problem is not a Silver Bullet towards a solution. Complexity is bound to arise. Essential Complexity is a requirement that, without it, the complete picture cannot be seen. Accidental Complexity happens when we introduce concepts that do not serve the overall design. Therefore, it is imperative to justify the complexity, by demonstrating where it fits into the big picture and how it helps accomplish the larger vision.
The Stoic Benefits of Minimalism
It coincides that Stoicism is a great practice for developing such skills and Minimalism is a jump start towards being a Stoic. Minimalism removes distractions and focuses us on what matters. Especially, in how we manage our emotions towards people and things. Emotions on their own can be neither useful or useless, but they can be informative. Stoicism and Minimalism as a practice can help us move past the immediate reactions from a feeling and look at the deeper lesson within them. They act like car brakes, stopping us before we let our highs get too high or are lows too low.
My Design Obsession
Great design can be applied to yourself as well. Every decision factors into how we design the experience of our lives. Whether we create or just consume. What are commute will be, or how our weekends will flow, or what our morning routine will be. We can sketch out truly meaningful and interesting lives when we apply careful reflection on past experiences and emotions and an eye on the bigger picture.
SmartScaping (Xeriscaping)
From middle school through high school I routinely cut yards to make extra money in addition to managing our own landscape. This was miserable work under Georgia's hot summer sun. After high school I swore that I would avoid owning a home which required any kind of lawn maintenance. This was an easy goal initially. We lived in condos and apartments which meant no landscape duties for me. Then we bought our first home together after moving back from California.
Intentionally Buying a Bigger Home
An unfocused, noisy, and cluttered home can be physical representations of what is going on in your head. Even if functionally productive, under the hood, the mind may be in complete chaos and the immediate surroundings often reflect that.Over the years, I’ve worked on clearing and focusing my mind. My interests and passions have narrowed but those that remain are stronger. Minimalism has been key in that process and helped define a vision for how I would like the home I live in to breathe and feel. Sparsely decorated rooms and surfaces have become canvasses where my ideas can grow and evolve within them.