I have noticed that minimalism/simplification blogs encourage would-be simplifiers to evaluate their priorities. For instance David Bruno wrote that one should evaluate his priorities to aid in cutting down to 100 personal possessions. I mostly ignored this--thinking that if I only had 100 items that it would just magically simplify my life.
Instead I have ~100 interesting (and non-related) items vying for my attention. Now that I have less stuff, each item I own is more noticeable and ergo wants to be used more. I can now appreciate the reasons to simplify priorities before possessions. It is easy to get rid of something when it is just an item. It is hard when that item stands for an activity or idea. I can get rid of my laptop--it is just a laptop but then I start considering that I won't be able to check my email, RSS feeds, browse the internet, chat with friends, etc.--it becomes difficult. Do I want to simplify those activities out of my life? This is especially hard to in a time when few items serve so many purposes. How does one decide that browsing the internet is not worthwhile and keep a laptop for other things?
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