How to Simplify a Complicated Life

Keith Lim
Life is complicated with hundreds and thousands of decisions to be made every single day. Some decisions are made on the spot and some to be thought through, discussed and worked out as they have more impact to your life.

Some people are able to make quick and sound decisions and others take a much longer time (if they decide at all) and these people still have all the problems with them after they decided. In this article, I will try to simplify our life by a single, simple but yet very powerful method.

When you need to decide on a complicated issue, follow these steps:

1) Look at the whole picture. Weed out all unnecessary information. Eg if you are trying to save some money, don't think about maybe you might want to buy a TV, MP3. Just state how much you earn and how much is possible to be saved with all your mandatory expenses.

2) Breakdown each phase of the issue. In a complicated issue, there must be different people, different time, different situations that you must go through. Like in project management, breakdown the "milestones" and solve each phase at a time.

3) There are many times you would need to ask others some questions, to get information. Ask only those questions which you can change the outcome. More information = More complicated(assuming not all information is useful). Eg, If you have bought a flat/apartment and is going to renovate it, don't ask if the renovator can change the positions of the kitchen and the living room. This is considered a useless question as the builder has already fixed all the drainage and electrical systems for the kitchen. If you do not like the position of the kitchen, ask the renovator on how to work around it or minimize your dislike.

4) Lastly, this is just to quicken the action process. Give your self a timeline and stick to it. You will notice you are able to get the issue completed faster than without a plan.

Every one of us have choices in everything we do. It is how and what we choose that affects our life. Life is complicated, don't make it worse.

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