Simplifying Your Work Life

A few months into dating my fiance, I knew we would get married, and now the wedding is four months away. As you get closer to promising your life to someone, you start to analyze your lives together.

One main difference between us is how we spend money. I live life with frugal minimalism, and he is definitely more of a squandering excessive. For example, if there are three choices of soda at a restaurant, I will get a small, and he always says large. When we purchase anything, he has to get the best quality, which is always the most expensive, and I am happy with the average quality at a reasonable price.

According to Adam’s recent BLADAM 2.0 Blog, he has named this desire to have more the “Filled To All Available syndrome.” He feels our society thrives in this environment of excess:

We fill up our desks, our closets, our schedules to capacity. If we get larger desks, bigger closets or unexpected free time, somehow we find a way to fill or fritter away the excess space. At an all-you-can-eat buffet, we tend to think of “getting our money’s worth” and -- you guessed it -- filling up rather than lightly sampling. We eat until we are not just satisfied, but stuffed. We store junk until our apartments are bursting at the seams. We live a life that is “Filled to All Available.”

This reasoning definitely creeps into our work lives. Here at Monster, we tend to always want to add more projects, more products and more meetings. There’s a long-running joke that we have meetings to discuss when the next meeting will be.

As you go through your workday or job search, remember: Less can be more. Having less allows you to focus on what’s important and be more concise. Here are some articles that remind us that simplifying isn’t a bad thing:

• "Do You Have Work/Life Balance?"
• "Stay on Track to Move Up in Your Career"
• "Think of Your Big Interview as a Simple Conversation"
• "Tips for Creating a Concise Resume"

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