I am blogging everyday (or nearly everyday) on The Daily Stoic.

This is something I’ve tried to incorporate into every aspect of my life. If you want to impress people, keep them talking. The less I talk the more I will get out of it. The more I learn about the person. The more they think I am a conversationalist. The better they feel about me. If you want to be the life at the party it’s better to keep asking questions and show an interest in the other person.

Another area is email. When I send emails I try to restrict it to three or less sentences. I put my point or question at the top and give a sentence or two of context. If it’s longer than that then it may need to be an in person or phone conversation. What the limit on sentences does is get me quicker responses. You’ve seen emails that are 200 to 500 words. What do you do? I tend to roll my eyes and push it aside for later when I can actually take some time to read the email. Even then it’s a hassle and a pain in the ass.

Minimalism is something I strive for in my digital and daily life. Having less things in my house and digitally allows me to have more time for things that matter. I specifically picked the smallest lot in my neighborhood so I didn’t have to do as much yard work. Which allows for more time with the family and video games. I picked a small house so we had less things in the house. That’s less time packing if we move again and less things breaking. That’s not to say though that I don’t have a big TV or a computer with three monitors. I spend more on the things I get value out of and less on the things I don’t.