Many people who try minimalism swear by it. Some of them are former hoarders who now live in immaculate homes. Many others talk about the extra money and time that they have. You can ask if the effects are real or imagined, but the evidence shows that they are real. So minimalism (or something about it) must work on some level. The question now is why does minimalism work. To answer this, we must first know what minimalism is. We should also know what makes something valuable. We must also understand efficiency and performance, as well as how minimalism affects them. This will help us to understand why minimalism works.
What is minimalism?
Minimalism is the philosophy of minimizing things that are of no value. It is also based on the fact that all material things demand resources. After all, even a maintenance-free object still uses up space. So any physical possession you don’t use is wasting your resources. This is because you are not getting any value in return.
What makes something valuable?
Something is valuable only if it gives you something of value. Also, it must give something more valuable than what you sacrifice to get or keep it. For example, a decorative object should add more beauty than the space it occupies. Otherwise, you are better off without it. So, clothes you won’t wear and other things you won’t use don’t belong in your home.
What is efficiency?
Efficiency is the ability to conserve resources while doing a task. So, an efficient car conserves fuel while serving as transportation. One of the surest ways to improve efficiency is to get rid of useless components. This is why you will never see a good engineer adding useless components to an airplane design. Such components would add dead weight that degrades the efficiency of the airplane. It would also add unnecessary complications.
Minimalism improves your life’s efficiency.
As stated before, minimalism is about minimizing things that are of no value. Also, when you remove things that have no value, you save the resources they waste. So, minimalism lets you live more efficiently by saving resources.
For most people, these saved resources include space, time, attention, money, and effort. This improved efficiency often shows up in many ways. The saved space means that your home will have more free space. The saved time means that you have more free time. Saved money means you have more disposable income. Also, the saved effort means that your daily life will be easier. Saved attention means you can focus more on your life’s purpose.
What is performance?
Performance getting things done (or the ability to do so) with the resources you have. Performance often depends on efficiency. After all, you can do more with your resources if you don’t waste them. So, anything that affects efficiency can affect performance. For example, wearing a heavy backpack during a foot race will waste effort. It will also degrade your performance during the race.
Improved performance in your life means that your saved resources allow you to do more. It can mean you have more time to get things done. It can also mean you get more done with the same level of effort. The same goes for space, attention, and money.
Minimalism lets you improve your life’s performance
As I said before, not wasting resources means you have more left to do what you want. Minimalism reduces the waste of resources thus leaving you with more to use. Here are some examples of how it can improve your life:
You have more useful space in your home.
You have more time to do the things you want.
You can focus more on what matters to you.
You have more energy to get things done.
These are just some of the ways that minimalism can improve your life’s performance.
In summary, minimalism works by improving your life’s efficiency and performance. This is because it excludes things that have no value in your life. By excluding things that have no value, minimalism saves you the resources that they waste. This will improve the efficiency and performance of your life. The improved efficiency means that your life becomes easier. The improved performance means that you can do more with your life.