Minessentialism

I have been continuing to give or throw away at least one thing per day.  Sometimes I get behind on this but I keep track and catch up later.  It seems to be working.

I have let my magazine subscriptions lapse.  Just recently I have also been unsubscribing from all of the mailing lists that have been clogging my email inbox, including the ones that I would really like to read someday should I ever get the time.  I might re-subscribe to a few when I start seeing my email backlog shrinking rather than growing on a daily basis.

Today I finished watching Minimalism: A Documentary About the Important Things and The Minimalists: Less is Now on Netflix.  The word "minimalism" is tricky as its new meaning has little to do with its previous historical definitions.  The other issue for me is that it does not capture the idea of de-cluttering your inbox in addition to de-cluttering your house.

I went digging around on the Web and discovered the book Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less.  This seems to cover the flip side that I was seeking.  Like the word "minimalism", the word "essentialism" also has a historical definition that differs from its modern meaning.

Other people have noted the connection between minimalism and essentialism.  One person illustrates this with a Venn diagram showing how they parallel and intersect.  I like to think of minimalism as freeing up your space and essentialism as freeing up your time.

I am inventing the term "minessentialism" to mean a practice that combines both minimalism and essentialism.  This word has no historical alternative definition to confuse the meaning as confirmed by a search engine.  It has the advantage of emphasizing the shared themes and goals.