It seems to be fairly common that as we get older, we not only accumulate more objects, but we also increase the need to acquire more objects to achieve some satisfaction. Over the past year, I’ve felt the overwhelming need to pare things down. This means a massively thorough cost-benefit analysis before purchasing something, and a review of what I own in order to decide if something might have better value on eBay, as opposed to in my possession.
As the new year rolls around, I want to delve into this more deeply. In addition to paring back the “stuff,” I want to minimize what’s left as much as possible. This means digitizing as much as possible - books, media, etc. Why I even have physical media for anything at this point remains a mystery. All books should be “PDF’d,” and all music and movies should be on local storage, or available for on-demand access elsewhere.
For some reason, fewer things to worry about never gave me the stress reduction I’d hoped for until now. But paring things back and putting my reclaimed energy into high-value tasks is already bearing great fruit.
