Mental Minimalism: 5 Small Things You Can Do Today to Lead a Less Complicated Life Tomorrow

Minimalism is more than just a design style. It’s a state of mind. While decluttering your coffee table and creating a capsule wardrobe are both worthy activities to get your home in shape, don’t neglect the opportunity to engage a little minimalism in your mind, too.

It doesn’t take a lot, just a handful of short exercises today can help you to lead a simpler lifestyle tomorrow, from the inside out.

From email lists. From beauty boxes. From online content. Anything that pops up and demands your attention when it arrives is a distraction and adds to your mental (and mailbox) clutter.

Social media notifications. Email notifications. Unread notifications. Instead of having all your different accounts poke at you throughout the day through an impossible-to-ignore red badge, change your settings to turn them all off so they stay silent until you’re ready to check them.

To a text. To a meeting request. To a Facebook event. If you’re invited to something you can (and would rather) miss, use the most powerful word in your arsenal: No.

The coffee on the way to work. The take-out dinner. The cute thing you spotted online. Put your wallet back into your pocket and save your pennies for tomorrow. You’ll likely never even miss it.

The empty shoebox. The outdated phone. The jeans that don’t fit. Admit it: You read the direction above and immediately something sprang to mind. Get up right now, walk over to it and get the thing out of your home (to the trash, or a recycling or donation center), once and for all.