Joy Comes In The Morning

by Raymund Tamayo
We’re living in strange times.
While advancements in technology and consumer goods production are supposed to make people’s lives easier, society may not be prepared for its inherent consequences.
Computers are supposed to make tasks faster to accomplish. But because of the extra time created, instead of finding time to rest, more tasks are then added to one’s workload.
Cellular phones are supposed to make communications easier. But because we can now reach anyone anytime anywhere, privacy and deep relationships are unintentionally disturbed.
These things are supposed to make our lives easier, our tasks faster, so that we can have more time to do what we really love with people we really love.
Instead, they became status symbols we need to have to look great and successful. They became prizes we need to win to find happiness.
Do you eat on the run? Use a cell phone while driving? Text during family dinners or read e-mails in meetings? Did your spouse learn about your job pr…

Project 333: Week 13 Update (Final Week)

by Raymund Tamayo
I’ve reached the end of my Project 333 experiment and I barely noticed.

My takeaways:
I learned that 33 items of clothing (31 to be exact) are more than enough for me to live a happy life.Actually, it can be lesser if not for my day job which requires me to wear 5 sets of outfits every week.Even less if I discard my corporate jacket, black leather shoes, watch, and my rarely-used cream slacks. (Would have had only 19 things.)My happiness isn’t directly proportional to the size of my wardrobe.No one notices what I wear week after week after week. (Or maybe, I just don’t care what they think.)Clothes don’t make me a better person.Choosing which clothes to wear in the morning shouldn’t be on top of my decision-making priorities.I now wear all my clothes and I like all my clothes. Unlike before where a few items here and there are just occupying precious closet space. Overall, it has been a wonderful experience.
Matter of fact, I think I’ll go o…

The Advantages and Disadvantages of Minimalism

by Raymund Tamayo
Possessions are always going to be a part of life.

Everybody owns stuff, including you and I.
Even extreme minimalists own a few things, albeit they are really quite minimal.
The relationship of people and stuff is so complex that it can be ironic at times.
Sometimes, the poorer a person is, the more stuff he appears to have.
Why? Because the less income or money a person has, the more "just in case" feelings he caters.
How about you?
Examine yourself right now.
Think about the quantity of your possessions versus its quality.
Can you count it?
Are you aware of everything you own?
Do you have stuff that you don’t use but still cater in your life?

How Minimalism Affects Life
Minimalism affects life in a way that it eliminates everything that is unnecessary to make way for the necessary.
It makes everything a favorite because a minimalist only keeps what is important and beautiful to him or her.
When all our stuff is our favorite, we live with more peace of mind, le…

Handling Interruptions at Work

by Raymund Tamayo
Typical office environments do encourage interruptions.
For one thing, you are with other human beings and everyone typically needs interaction.
It’s not bad to have small talk with a best friend to ease a lot of stress away, as long as you are able to manage them properly.

But because everyone is given only 24 hours a day, several of small interruptions can cause a lot of delay in achieving goals.
Try measuring work in terms of tasks accomplished, not by hours spent. More hours spent on a single task doesn’t guarantee awesomeness. A task-based system makes you focus more on work finished than hours wasted.
Create daily and weekly To-Do lists to set your priorities and help you discern whether an interruption is valid or not. Yes, it should be noted that there are valid ones that are needed to be dealt with.
When you are interrupted, ask what they need and when they need it. You can use it as a basis to decide if you have the time to handle it or refer them to someone else.…

Top 10 Minimalist Living Tips - #10

by Raymund Tamayo
Note: In this series of posts, I will share the 10 most valuable minimalist living tips that I have learned in the past four years. These guidelines are helping me a lot in my continuous walk in the path of simplicity, and I would like to share them with you. At the end of the series, I will gather them all together for a synopsis.

Minimalist Living Tip #10: Do not adhere to any preconceived rules.

Most people who wanted to try minimalism have been discouraged by the many rules that seem to come with it. Ironic, but they find simplifying complicated, so they just gave it up altogether.

Including me, at least in the beginning.

You may have read about these “minimalist rules” in other blogs and websites. Limit my personal possessions to 100 things? Wear 33 clothes in 3 months? Give or throw away 1 item a day for 365 days? Go offline for 30 days? And so on and so forth.

Confession: While my personal possessions naturally went down below 100 as I practiced minimalist principl…

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