A lot of what I have recently read about and tried putting into practice has been about the simplification of life. Even when reading things I would not normally anticipate having this theme, there it is. So I’ve run a couple expirements lately in regards to this. With the 80/20 principle in mind I have begun to eliminate some activities and materials from my life. I’ve pared down my rss subscriptions quite a bit, with decided benefit. I’ve stopped much of my research surfing on the Internet, which has been a big help in a number of ways. And I’ve cut out about 3/4 of the time I normally spend in exercise, also with some pretty astounding results. I’ve taken a few other actions along the same lines, but these are those currently at “top of mind”.

In regards to the feed reading, I’m reading much higher quality stuff now and finding a lot more time for other, more important things. As I went through my feeds I discovered at least half of those I subscribed were ever read and a bulk of the ones left were rehashes of the feeds I was truly interested in. Net benefit: about 3 1/2 hours a week gained and a lot more “brain space” freed up.

As for Internet research, it’s kind of my thing. I love reading and learning and spending a ton of time exploring the mundane, the fascinating as well as the weird. Usually when somebody I know has a weird or obscure question, they will call or email me if I know anything about it. I’ll quickly jump online and find the answer if I don’t have it in my head yet, I hate not being in the know. So that being the case, this one is truly hard for me. But I am trying to limit my “surf time” to a few hours a week, instead of my normal “do it whenever I have a spare five minutes” routine. While I have still not been perfect on this one, I’ve been better and it’s actually been nice in a way. My mind is quieter, my thoughts more focused. I miss not having all of the different ideas, concepts and thoughts swirling and trying to find homes and connections. But it’s also nice not to have to deal with the incongruities and mental difficulties that also arise because of the “swirling”. Plus, I’ve saved a ton of time. Net benefit: haven’t tracked this one well, but probably about 8-10 hours a week and a lot more “stillness of mind”.

The exercise expirement has been truly fascinating for me. I have been a “do it daily” weight lifter since I was about 14 years old. By that, I don’t mean that I have lifted weights every day for the last 20 years. What I mean is that my philosophy has always been that to do it right and to make progress, you had to lift different body parts everyday and lift at least five times a week (but usually six). I figured that focusing on one body part each day would give me greater strength gains and size growth on each part and eventually on the whole body. I thought that this generally worked for me because of what happened between my 17th and 18th birthdays. As I ended my junior year in high school I weighed 150 pounds (I have been 6′ 2″ since I was 13) and hadn’t gained any significant weight in two years. I ended my senior year I was 195 pounds of muscle (I had about 7% body fat, not a bad index). I figured that my “do it daily” routine had finally kicked in after four years and that was that. I think I may have been duped. You see, I have not made any serious advances on this front since then, and I have worked really hard at times. It is likely that while my workouts helped, I was probably just due to mature at that point.

So anyway, the recent story has been very interesting for me. I have about 10 pounds of fat to lose, but that will come soon enough (I do cardio 3-4 times a week, and have cut my caloric intake by about 1/3 recently — also part of my 80/20 expirement). I have wanted to build bigger arms, chest and legs for a while now (my wife loves big arms, so why not try to please!). So for the last three weeks I have lifted weights max twice a week, but actually only once a week for two of the three. I do the whole body on Friday morning and an occasional light arms or trunk workout on Tuesdays. I have increased my strength on the bench press by 25% and added 1/2 inch to my upper arm. My legs are also seeing similar gains in strength and size. I’ve also made a change in the “how” of my lifting. Instead of trying to “power lift” a ton of weight in rapid bursts, I have lowered the pounds slightly and do a “five count up, five count down” movement. It really seems to be working and I’m making progress for the first time in about 15 years! Also, lest you think I am a “muscle head”, I’m not. I’m a soccer player and generally have that type of build. Net benefit: added strength and size and growing and about 5-6 hours a week.

I am really pretty jazzed about this whole thing. I am currently trying to figure out where else I can “cut and release” wasted energy and time. From these three things alone I have gained about 20 hours a week in additional time. Of course, that is often filled with other useless, time wasting activities, but I’ll figure it out eventually.

If anybody actually ever reads this, do you have any experiences with “addition by subtraction”? Please share.