Welcome to the Listening Time Podcast.
Hey everybody, this is Connor and you're listening to episode 97 of the Listening Time Podcast.
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All right, in today's episode, we're going to talk about minimalism.
So this is a topic that has become more and more popular recently.
And I'm not a minimalist in the sense that I don't consider myself a minimalist.
I've never used this term to describe myself.
I don't subscribe to any philosophy about minimalism or anything like that.
And so I won't be preaching to you today.
I won't be trying to get you to become a minimalist or anything like that.
I just thought it would be a good topic to talk about, because it's become a very popular idea nowadays.
And in some ways, I've realized that I am kind of a minimalist just by accident.
It's not on purpose.
Like I mentioned, I never used this label for myself.
But I've realized that I have a lot of these minimalistic tendencies in my life.
So I'll talk a little bit about that in today's episode.
And remember that you have the transcript available.
So that's in the episode description below the episode.
Go down and click on that if you need it.
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All right, let's get started.
Are your ears ready?
You know what time it is.
It's listening time!
Okay, so let's talk about minimalism.
First of all, let's try to get a definition of this word.
I looked online and I looked at a few different definitions and I kind of formed my own here.
This won't be a perfect definition and some of you might be minimalists and you might disagree with this definition.
So, I'm sorry, I'm just gonna try to define it to the best of my ability.
In English we can use that phrase to the best of your ability to say that you're gonna do your best on something.
You're not gonna do it perfectly, but you're gonna try your best.
So here's a definition that i kind of formed just based on other definitions that i saw.
So minimalism is a philosophy or a lifestyle that promotes reducing or simplifying your possessions to obtain positive effects.
So, for example, some of these effects might be that minimalism helps you focus more on the things that really matter.
It might help you feel like you have more freedom.
And there can be many other different positive effects that you might get from following this type of lifestyle.
So in terms of my life and how minimalism fits in, like I mentioned, I'm not a minimalist.
I wouldn't say this.
But I realized just by accident that I kind of follow some of these different patterns in different areas of my life.
And so I want to talk a little bit about some of those today.
And before I get into the details, I just wanted to mention some of the benefits that being a little more minimalistic has brought to my life.
So, for example, I've been able to focus on the really important things in my life, or the important things for my career, or things like that, by not having so much right.
By having less work.
I'm able to kinda just focus on the little that I have, the little that is important, right?
So that's one benefit I've seen.
I've realized that having less has also helped me not get distracted as easily.
So I can focus more on what I wanna do or goals I wanna achieve.
And I can do that a little more easily, I think.
This has also helped me save money.
For me, that's an important one.
I don't want to waste money on things that I don't need.
And so there have been a lot of different benefits for me.
But again, I'm not a minimalist.
I have to stress that because I know some of you probably are.
And there are a lot of things that I don't really know about minimalism, or some benefits or some strategies or things like that.
But I've just noticed that having less stuff has brought these benefits to my life.
So let me talk about some of those different areas in which I have less than maybe the average person.
So first of all in my physical space.
So, for example, where I live, the area, the physical space where I live tends to be minimalistic.
No matter where I am, no matter which apartment I've lived in, which house or whatever, I tend to have maybe less furniture and less stuff around my space than the average person, and I don't think I purposefully make this my goal every time I move to a new apartment, but I think it ends up just happening.
It just happens kind of by accident, because this is my preference, and so why do I like having less stuff, less furniture, things like that?
Well, in my opinion, it makes my space look cleaner.
I think that in my experience, the more stuff I have in some space, the more easily it can look disorganized or cluttered.
In English we can use the adjective cluttered to talk about some space that has a lot of things that aren't very organized.
They don't look very nice and clean.
So, for example, if you say that your desk is cluttered with papers, this means that you have different papers all over your desk in a disorganized way.
So that's how my physical space tends to look if I have a lot of stuff and a lot of furniture.
So that's why I think it looks cleaner if I don't have a lot of stuff.
And having less in my physical space also helps me feel better.
I think when I walk into a room that doesn't have so many things in it, I tend to feel a little more at ease when I'm in a space like that.
In English, when we say that you're at ease, this means that you're at peace, you feel calm, etc.
So I feel more at ease when I'm in a space that doesn't have too many things all around.
But that's just me.
That's my personal preference.
So you might not agree with that.
And then one other thing that is really good about not having so many things or furniture in my physical space is that it allows me to have just more room to do things.
So, for example, I have a baby who likes to crawl and walk and run all around the physical space where we are.
And he can do this a lot more easily if I don't have so much furniture.
And I can also move around with him and play with him in this space without all of that extra stuff.
So that kind of helps us out as well.
How about with clothes?
Let's talk about minimalism with clothes.
So I'm definitely more of a minimalist when it comes to clothes.
Like I said, I don't use this label for myself.
I never even think about it.
But I think almost anyone would say that I'm a minimalist when it comes to clothes, because I don't wear a lot of different clothes.
I don't have a huge variety.
And I'm a little embarrassed to say, but I wear some shirts, for example, that I bought 10 years ago or 12 years ago even.
I know that sounds pretty crazy to some of you, but i think for me it doesn't matter too much.
To be honest, if the shirt is still okay, if it's still in good condition, then i'll still wear it, even if it's really old.
So I think that you can see here that I'm definitely more of a minimalist when it comes to clothes.
I think this will be different for everyone depending on how much they like fashion.
I don't think it's necessary for everyone to try to reduce the amount of clothes that they have, because Maybe you're someone that really gets pleasure from having some different items of different colors that match with other articles of clothing.
And that is something that you're interested in.
By the way, in English we can use the word article when talking about clothing, to talk about one item or one piece of clothing.
So for example, a shirt is an article of clothing.
If I have one shirt in my hand, I'm holding one article of clothing.
So if you're really into fashion, then minimalism in terms of clothes probably won't be very relevant for you.
But for me, someone who doesn't care at all about fashion, it makes sense to be more minimalistic in this area of my life, so that I don't have to spend money unnecessarily and so that I have more space in my closet, for example, and I just don't have to worry about all that.
So for me, this is a very natural one.
I just don't go shopping for clothes that often.
And another area in which I'm a little bit minimalistic probably is in the area of electronics.
I wouldn't say that I'm the most minimalistic person in this area because, for example, I have a pretty good computer and a decent phone, but I would say that I don't have a lot of different electronics.
And I would say that I try not to buy new electronics if I don't need to.
So for example, recently my computer was having a lot of issues.
I had problems just working normally with it.
And so I had to buy a new computer, and I bought a pretty decent computer because I didn't want to have to buy another computer anytime soon.
And so I think that's more of my philosophy when it comes to electronics.
I just buy the ones that I need, and I try to buy a pretty good one in each category, like phone or computer, so that it will last me years, so that I won't need to buy another one anytime soon.
I think I'm a little minimalistic in this category because I don't buy new electronics if my old electronics still work perfectly.
So I'll never be tempted to buy a new iPhone if my current phone works just fine.
So I think in that sense, I'm a little minimalistic in this category.
I think that maybe a good philosophy when it comes to trying to be more minimalistic with electronics is have and buy electronic devices that add some value to your life.
So maybe if you're spending money on electronics that you don't really need and you're probably not going to use much and they're unnecessary well maybe you can decide to save that money or do something else with that money.
That might be a helpful tip for people that maybe want to be a little more minimalistic in that area.
And then another area is children's toys.
This one is also going to depend on the parent.
I definitely don't want to say that one way is better than other ways when it comes to children's toys and how many toys they should have.
There is no magic number.
Notice that in English we can use the phrase a magic number to talk about the perfect number of something, right?
So if I say there's no magic number, I'm saying there's no exact perfect number, okay?
So there's no magic number when it comes to children's toys.
I think some kids will do well with more toys and some kids will do well with fewer toys.
But I think that one interesting thing about kids toys is that kids tend to be more creative in if they have to play with the same toy for a longer amount of time and they don't have other options of other toys.
I've seen that they've done studies about this where they only allow kids to have a limited number of toys and then they compare that kid or those kids to other kids that have more options in front of them.
And they observed that the kids that had fewer options in front of them, they tended to be more creative when they played with their toys.
So again, this isn't a rule and if your kid has a lot of toys, that's fine.
I'm just talking about something I thought was interesting, that I think we often overestimate how many toys our kids really need.
And so I noticed that when I provide my son with a lot of toys, he kind of just goes from one to the next one and then just gets tired of them.
But if he only has that one toy with him, he kind of has to do more with it.
He has to try to think of other ways to have fun with it.
And I can think of one example of this.
Sometimes I'll play with my son with these little car toys that he has, and these cars can't do that much.
You just roll them on the ground, and so of course, kids might get bored with them pretty easily.
But what I did was I put his other toys away, and so we only had these like four cars, and I just wanted him to play with these toys, and so I started doing something a little different with them.
I started stacking them on top of each other.
In English, when we say that you stack things, we're saying that you put one thing on top of another thing, and then you put another one on top of that one, etc.
So we're putting things on top of each other. to kind of create a little tower.
So that's what we did with these cars.
And then my son found that pretty interesting and then he realized he could knock it over by hitting it or kicking it.
And he thought this was really funny.
And that was kind of a new game that we invented with these cars.
And so now he still asks me to play this game with him.
And so he liked that creative way of using these toys.
And I think that this shows that there are a lot of different opportunities, a lot of different options of how to play with just one toy, for example.
So I think that's pretty cool and that shows that even if you don't have the money to spend on a lot of toys, I think it's OK, because kids can be creative and you can find other ways to help entertain them with just one toy, for example.
So I thought that was pretty cool.
And another thing is that you can pull out old toys that your son or daughter has forgotten about.
And then you can reintroduce that toy to them.
And it's almost as if it were a new toy.
So that's kind of like a cool way to rotate between all the toys.
Is you kind of hide some of the older ones?
And then, maybe next month, You pull those ones out of the closet and then your kid can enjoy them all over again.
In English, when we say that you do something all over again, this just means that you do it again.
It's just another way of saying that you do something again, another time.
So that's how we're a little bit minimalistic with our son's toys.
But again, we didn't try to do that.
It just kind of happened and we realized that it works for us.
And if that doesn't work for you, that's okay.
I'm not preaching to you here.
And then lastly, one other area in which I'm a little minimalistic is with apps on my phone.
So this one is a little bit different because it's not a physical item that you're holding.
These are just little things on your phone screen.
But I found that for me, if I delete apps that I don't use, or if I just don't download apps that I don't need, It helps me out.
It helps me not get distracted during my day.
And it helps me feel better when I unlock my phone screen and I don't see so many things and I forget where different apps are.
I don't like that feeling.
So for me, I like just having a little bit there when I open up my phone.
And if some app doesn't add any value to my life, I just delete it.
And even things like social media.
If I feel like it's not adding something to my life or if it has a negative effect, then I simply delete that app or I just hide it and never open it.
So that's kind of my personal preference, but I know for a lot of other people, this wouldn't work.
They like to have all these apps, all these tools at their disposal.
So that's okay if you don't agree with me on that one.
But I wanted to mention it because people usually notice that when they see my phone screen.
All right, why don't we stop there for today?
I hope this episode was interesting for you, and I hope it was good practice for your listening.
If these episodes have become easy for you, then make sure to become a Listening Time family member or VIP and you'll get two new advanced episodes every month.
So sign up today if you want that.
And if you want to ask me questions regarding English or language learning, then become a Listening Time VIP and you can ask me questions every week and I'll answer them in a QA session.
And of course, you have the transcript for this episode.
So just click on that if you need it and repeat this episode as many times as you need and until you can eventually understand everything I'm saying without using the transcript.
And if you like this podcast, please give it a five-star rating and write a review and share it with anyone else you know who's learning English.
All right, thank you for listening to this episode and I'll talk to you on the next episode of Listening Time.
