Happy New Year!
My One Little Word for 2020 crept into my brain in October. I recognized it immediately as such: Simplify. As Henry David Thoreau said, “Our life is frittered away by detail… simplify, simplify.”
In October my OLW seemed clear to me, vivid, and solid. A perfect word that would look neat and orderly in a blog post. Simplify. But it isn’t that simple. (Perhaps my brain, just coming off a three-week haze of sinus infection turned acute bronchitis-on-the-edge-of-pneumonia-during-the-holidays, is making this more difficult.)
As I write this on New Year’s Eve, having taken my third to last antibiotic dose, I’m having trouble establishing, even to myself, exactly what I mean by Simplify. I will try to explain to both of us.
In part it’s Marie Kondo meets Henry David Thoreau, so that my desk goes from looking like this…
… to looking like this.
And let’s talk about email… I’ve got thousands to clear out. So what I’ve begun, even before the dawn of 2020, is to clear at least the emails in my Social and Promotions tabs every day. The Primary tab will take time and diligence. But this will Simplify my sorting through emails.
Part of my email plan is to Unsubscribe to many newsletters that I generally “mark as unread” planning to return to them and then batch delete a year later. An example would be the lovely independent book store in my home town eight hours away. Yes, I want to support indie book stores, but I really can’t make the monthly book club meetings.
So this is my mantra: Can I find the information in this email when I need it rather than save this email that I will forget about until I batch delete it at a later date? If my answer is yes, I will Unsubscribe.
I’m not going to make a list of New Year’s Resolutions. I haven’t since I started my One Little Word several years ago as a focus for the year.
So how did I do with last year’s OLW: Balance. Great. I was mindful of the summer, spending afternoons reading on our deck and evenings enjoying fireflies and sunsets with Rich. I intentionally limited my writing to be present to those precious moments. Though I sacrificed getting my current WIP completed by the end of 2019, the tradeoff was well worth it.
My biking/walking/swimming exercise routine was derailed by knee issues, but a double run of physical therapy counts as exercise, right? Plus the exercises they gave me?
But I increased my reading, enjoyed two wonderful trips, and deepened my spiritual exploration through reading and spiritual direction. I would call that Balance.
So in 2020 I will focus on Simplify. I will surround myself with only what is essential and trust I can discover what I need when I need it. The less I’m attached to things, the freer I am.
What is your One Little Word for 2020? Please tell me in the comments-I really want to know.
Wishing you peace, joy, and simplicity in 2020.
My OLW for 2020 is going to be healthier. This has not been a very good couple of years for my husband and I but that is going to change. We are vowing to eat better and encourage each other to get fortifying exercise. We are also going to do something new and fun together at least once a month starting with a cruise.
What a great OLW and a great plan, Karen. As the saying goes, “When you’ve got your health, you’ve got everything.” We love to cruise!! Where will you be going?
I really like the idea of OLW. A couple years ago I had OLW to provide focus for me. The word was “belong” with my idea being to include people whenever and however possible and to do so especially if I sensed exclusion happening. For example if I was in a deep conversation with someone and sensed another person trying to enter the conversation I would simply reposition so that the two person conversation could physically open to become a circle for three. And started the practice of pausing the conversation to quickly fill in for the new person what conversation topic was being discussed. Sometimes “belong” awareness would give me courage to reach out to a new experience or opportunity. It took many forms and I enjoyed the challenge and it has instilled a new awareness and some new inclusionary habits for me.
What a wonderful OLW, Marcia! I love the insight and awareness of others that your OLW offered. Even though Belong isn’t my OLW for 2020, I’m going to adopt your idea and try to make inclusion a OLW for life. Happy New Year!
My word for 2020 should be Simplify, like yours. But honestly, My One Little Word for 2020 HAS to be Write. I haven’t written a new fiction word of my own (although I’ve written plenty of non-fiction words at work) for over a year, and I keep making excuses why I can’t. Some of those excuses are legit, more are not. But it’s the one thing I miss most in my life, so I need to clear out the mental clutter and just…write, no matter how good or bad it is. I have to get that mental muscle back in shape again; it’s gotten terribly flabby.
I know how hard it is to get back into my writing practice once I’m out of it for a while, and you’re right – it takes getting that mental muscle working again. I’m sending positive energy and lots of support to you as you begin this new year and this One Little Word – WRITE. Wishing you great success, Linda!!
What a wonderful word for the year! I started last month doing the same thing with email–four different addresses, thousands–thousands!–of old messages, many unread. I attacked! Not done yet, but it feels good to have made progress, and with your example in mind, I’m charging on. Muttering “Simplify, simplify” as I go. Thanks, Elizabeth.
We’ll ride together on our email deletion quest, Jenny. Mine are also in the thousands LOL Happy New Year!!