5 Simple Things

Here are five simple things that dramatically changed my life for the better.

I wear the same thing every day

This one is such a minimalist cliché that it sounds almost culty, but I am so much happier when I keep my wardrobe at the absolute bare minimum.

I have wear a black linen-blend tee every day in summer. In fall it’s a long-sleeve black cotton tee, in spring a short sleeve cotton tee. Sweater in winter. I have 1-2 exact duplicates of each top for laundry day. I have exactly one dress for nice occasions, exactly one skirt for kinda nice occasions, and so on.

The commonly quoted rational behind having a “uniform” is that it reduces decision fatigue. Every choice we make throughout the day drains a bit of mental energy. Streamlining your wardrobe eliminates one early, unnecessary decision.

Which I know sounds a little silly. How much mental energy can getting dressed really use?

But it’s worth noting that former President Obama said this:

“You'll see I wear only gray or blue suits. I’m trying to pare down decisions. I don’t want to make decisions about what I’m eating or wearing. Because I have too many other decisions to make.”

Steve Jobs said this:

“Every day I get up to a closet hung with the very same shirt, and the very same slacks, and the very same shoes … I do that so that I don’t have to think about that. And I choose not to think about that because I choose to think about much more important things.”

And Albert Einstein said this:

“I don’t want to waste my brainpower on what I’m going to wear.”

I mean, if it’s good enough for those underachievers…

I read the Daily Stoic every morning

This book has been a part of my morning routine for about four years now and I can say with total confidence that I’ve become calmer, kinder, and less likely to cluck about petty or trivial things.

It takes a single minute, maybe two, out of my morning, and this book makes me question and contemplate every single day the type of person I want to be.

This link is for the original version of The Daily Stoic. If you’re ever looking for a stunning gift idea, this leather-bound edition is one of our most prized possessions.

I quit dying my hair

I started going gray in my twenties and my hair grows fast, which means by the time I was 40, I was in the salon every two weeks.

After a year of contemplating “letting it go” but being too scared, when I was 41 I had a blunt chat with myself. “What’s the plan here, Lauren? To spend the next 30+ years going to the salon every two weeks, to sit in a chair for an hour to get chemicals brushed onto your scalp to pretend your hair is a color it hasn’t been since you were 23?”

That plan sounded horrible, so … I quit. I quit slopping black dye on my head every couple weeks.

I could write a whole essay about how freeing it was to go gray at 41 as a woman in a culture obsessed with youth optics. I could write a book.

Instead, I’ll say this. My mom (very supportive of my decision, btw) asked yesterday how I was liking the process, and I said, “Best thing I’ve ever done.”

Which I know is a little eye roll—it’s just hair. But a strange thing happened when I let my hair be itself; I started to be myself. When I quit pretending to be a brunette, I found myself questioning where else in my life I was pretending to make myself be “prettier,” more palatable, more in line with society. Embracing gray at a “young” age didn’t just change my look—it changed my personality.

Like I said. I could write a book.

I (mostly) quit reading the news

Anth and I quit checking the news every day, and have become happier, more productive, and more creative. For some reason, this often sets people into a tizzy. “Don’t you want to be informed?!”

To which I’m always dying to say, “You’re ‘informed’ and how’s that working out for you? You’re always worked up about something some senator said, and you seem kinda miserable …”

I don’t bury my head in the sand and ignore the world, I just prefer to explore and understand the world through reading books. I want to hear from someone who took years to research a topic, and another year to write about it. Not someone reading off a teleprompter or churning out clickbait articles about a topic nobody will remember next week.

As Anth said in this post, if it’s not worthy of writing a book about, perhaps it doesn’t need our full attention or to dominate our thoughts.

I journal

I used to really struggle with anxiety. Not in the “needs meds” kind of way, but a worrier, for sure. I say used to because I’m not anymore, not in the same way. Sometimes I try to pinpoint what changed, and shrug…no idea.

But a few days ago, I was anxious. Quite anxious, for a few days, just like the old me, kind of out of nowhere. It passed, and when it did, I realized something:

I didn’t journal on those days. I almost always journal at least once a day, but I didn’t on those. Which got me thinking back …

My anxiety disappeared when I started regularly journaling. There’s something about putting all the crap in your head onto paper to help realize a lot of it is just that: crap.

Journaling helps me identify which thoughts are worth exploring (creative ideas, etc) and which are best handed off to those patient, non-judgmental pages.