The tendency of our lives, businesses, art, is to keep adding: more furniture, clothes, gadgets, tasks, appointments, features to websites and apps, words to our writing.

Continual addition isn’t sustainable or desirable:

• Too many things to do means we’re always busy, with no time for rest, stillness, contemplation, creativity, time with loved ones.
• Overwhelming customers with choices means they’re less likely to make an actual choice. They’d prefer that we curate the best.
• Too many possessions is clutter, visual stress, cleaning, maintenance, debt, less happiness.
• Too many tasks makes it harder to focus on any one thing or get anything done.
• Too many things we want to learn means we never learn anything well.

Subtraction is beautiful: it creates space, time, clarity.

Subtraction is necessary: otherwise we are overburdened.

Subtraction can be painful: it means letting go of a child.

Subtraction is an art that improves with practice. Subtraction can be practiced on your schedule, task list, commitments list, possessions, reading list, writing, product line, distractions.

What can you subtract right now?

Via Leo Babauta

Via Nunodonato on Reddit:

“6 months ago (time flies!) I closed my Facebook account. I feared I’d miss important things. I never used it a lot, but liked to share interesting stuff and also to read the posts of a few people. Honestly speaking, I never imagined it would be that easy. Since the day I left I never missed it for a second. Got me so much of free time!
A few weeks ago I closed my Twitter account. I loved twitter, much more than Facebook. Truth is, wasted a lot of my time and wasn’t really adding value to my life. Never missed it.
This week, I gave another important step. I deactivated my internet plan in my phone, sold my android smartphone and got myself one simple Nokia. Gets the job done, I write faster text in it, battery lasts a lifetime.
It seems I’m disconnecting, but in fact I feel so much more connected… with what’s happening around me (for real), with people, with the world… feels great! 🙂
Just wanted to share that, it’s an important part of my simpleliving :)”

Simple living! Everything seems to be better in moderation.

“It’s been almost two years since Patagonia began urging its outdoorsy customers to buy less—to sit out “Cyber Monday” and ask themselves: Do I really need a new fleece jacket or, for that matter, a state-of-the-art, 1,000-fill, dry-clean-only $700 parka and all the carbon burning that comes with it?”

In an interesting article Bloomberg Online writes about Patagonia and their minimalist approach to marketing that is paying back positively for the company.

Check it out — here.