Tag: simplicity

If you believe that the big things matter most go on a long journey with an old car. I believe that the little things define the quality of our life. When we bought our car to go live on the road and travel a lot, we thought a lot about what car to buy, but once on the road, other things became important to us.

Looking back I have to admit that I had absolutely no clue about cars when we bought Emma. I could test whether it is running or not. Once we were on the road much more mattered.

• How fast does it go?.
• How much gas does it use at which speed?
• How loud is it inside at which speed?

It did not only matter anymore if everything was running when we started. Now it mattered:

• How often do they have to be replaced?
• How easy is it to buy spare parts?
• How easy are they to change on the road?

We wanted to have water in our RV to be more independent, but on the road it was important:

• How much water do we use per day?
• How much water fits in the car?
• How do we get new water when traveling?
• How easy is it to fill up the water?

You see, that list can go on for ever. More important than these question concerning our car and our travel became the details. The big decisions in our life mark the direction we move, but as written before the details define the quality. I use these questions over and over in my coachings. Often it is not so important what you do but how you do it. What are the things you love doing. If you like conversation, does it mean in person, in meetings, in presentations, on the phone, written? Do you prefer that people come towards you or do you want to start the conversation? Do you prefer to listen more or talk?
Similar to these questions you can try to find out the details about every aspect in your life, private and professional. It might help you to examine why exactly you like some situations and others not.

When you try to remember a situation that you want to examine, try to rebuild it in your memory and then focus on the details. You rebuild it with remembering and paying attention all your 6 senses.

• What do you see? Anything else? Black/white or color? Which color? Bright or soft? Anything else…?
• What do you hear? Anything else? Loud or soft? Continuing or repeating? Anything else?
• What do you smell? Anything else? Sweet? Fruity? Anything else?
• What do you taste? Bitter? Sour? Anything else?
• What do you feel? Where do you feel it? Warm or cold? Pulsating or steady? Anything else?

Now you, have everything at hand to change the details for future situation. Pay attention to it. It is not only important what job you have or what vacation you do. It is always about HOW you do it

The Problem
E-mail takes too long to respond to, resulting in continuous inbox overflow for those who receive a lot of it.

The Solution

Treat all email responses like SMS text messages, using a set number of letters per response. Since it’s too hard to count letters, we count sentences instead.

FIVE SENTENCES is a personal policy that all email responses regardless of recipient or subject will be five sentences or less. It’s that simple.

* See also: two.sentenc.es, three.sentenc.es, four.sentenc.es and five.sentenc.es.

** To begin using this system, optionally copy this text and paste it into your e-mail signature:

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Q: Why is this email so short?
A: https://simplicity-of-happiness.com/five/