What was your daily routine like before you started living simply?

[awakenedsoul]

Today I was trying to remember what my life was like before I started living simply. For me that has meant living on half of what I used to spend. When I think back, I don't remember doing so many chores. While on tour, I was spoiled. We stayed in fancy hotels and the housekeepers did all of the work. We ate out in wonderful restaurants, did one show per night, and had a ball! Matinees were two show days, but that was only on Wed. and Sat. I had a roommate to save money. We all dressed very well, shopped regularly, and hung out in cafes. There were lots of parties and we were very social. I often would fly to NY or Vegas for auditions on my day off. It worked. I would line up the next show as the last one was closing.
I am much more frugal now. How about you?

[Tammy]

I've been living simply for over 50 years. Raised on a farm by Mennonite parents ... Few frills, even though all our needs were met. Then simple living for the first 15-20 years of adulthood because of modest income and 3 kids. Then I fell in love with minimalism about the same time our income rose, so the simple living continued by our own choice from that point forward.

[kib]

When I can be at my best, what I realize is that the old distinctions stop working. It's not "working" and "playing", or "busy" and "relaxing", it's just ... living. I can be equally entertained washing dishes (yeah, what is it with dishes, do they grow like mushrooms every time you turn out the light in there?) or playing cards, it's all just part of an enjoyable life. Maybe that isn't simple. I don't know. It's more like a simple state of mind than that my actual actions are reduced.

What I will say is that I find it incredibly difficult to achieve this peaceful flow when I am the only person around me being this way. I simply seemed to get dumped with everything others don't find "fun", to the point where I'm still in that juggling, time fracturing mindset I hate so much.

[gimmethesimplelife]

Life is less rushed for me overall as I have slowed my life down and most especially, the pace of my life down. Sometimes I still catch myself walking very fast when I'm in no hurry and when I catch this, I'll think to myself - slow down, what are you moving so fast for, for what reason, what purpose, and what's in it for you? That works to keep me slowed down for awhile. Something else about living simpler - I will only answer my phone these days for certain phone numbers or if I am truly waiting on an important call. Everything else goes to voice - it's one of my policies of living.

I don't like the idea of being instantly available like that - it seems to go against the grain of simple living for me 100%. I have no problem at all unplugging from my cellphone and letting it sit while I leave and run errands or just do whatever it is I'm doing that day. I will check my messages first thing in the morning and usually in the afternoon and then late at night and respond as soon as I can. I try to do this with time in general - claim in back as much as I can

. Life is definitely simpler for me and in a way that goes beyond mere money when I am honoring my time more. I get less agitated and less moody and am much more in the present when I am honoring my time and not being instantly available. I thank simple living for teaching me this one. Rob

[bae]

I and my team were mentioned in this story from the San Jose Mercury News, just a couple of years before I retired, things are very different these days :-)



Technology's fast track dictates a slumberless lifestyle

Published: June 21, 1996

BY MARK LEIBOVICH
Mercury News Staff Wrier

On a typical night, Andre Lamothe will stare into the glow of his
MultiSync XP computer monitor until 5 a.m. He will doze off at 6 and
sleep until the phone rings from the East Coast or Europe around 8.

If it's a restful night, maybe he'll knock off at 4 a.m. and steal
three hours; or if he's feeling fitful, he'll thrash around in bed and
maybe not sleep at all. Lamothe, 28, who runs a video game start-up
company from his Milpitas home, says he feels his body aching more
than it did when he was younger. Some mornings he feels dizzy.

Yet he endures a schedule dictated in part by a high-tech industry
spinning so fast it renders sleep a luxury. Sleep is unproductive
time, an annoying rest stop off technology's fast-track to the
future. To resist has become a necessary, if not desirable, lifestyle
choice for a growing after-hours club of mortals like Lamothe. They
have taken the '80s-vintage workaholism that built today's Silicon
Valley and accelerated it to extreme -- some would say pathological --
levels.

''We are all absolutely out of control, on a race for something we're
not even sure exists,'' says Lamothe, an avid weightlifter who roller
blades through the dark streets of Milpitas when he needs a
break. ''This will be the first generation to show the physical and
mental toll of the information age. We're pushing against how we've
evolved on the planet.''

It's a motto that drives this bleary-eyed segment of valley life:
Snooze too long and someone else grabs the patent, promotion, venture
capital or market share. Never mind the colds, occasional delirium and
hazards of driving home drowsy. This is the price of participation in
a global marketplace oblivious to time zones, with start-ups sprouting
daily and a mad dash to cultivate new Internet technologies. E-mail,
ISDN lines and the Web have colonized homes as workplace extensions;
product cycles have been compressed in the pursuit of beating the next
guy's brainchild out the door.

''There's been an incredible escalation in the speed with which
products are being developed,'' says Lenny Siegel, director of the
Pacific Studies Center, a non-profit advocate group in Mountain
View. '' Ten years ago it was enough just to rush from one job to the
next,'' he says. ''Now you need to start something before you finish
something else.''

Beyond competitive realities, the sleepless ethic springs from a
uniquely compulsive computer mentality in an industry that glories in
pushing limits and subverting conventions. Great programs and
companies have been born under the glare of fluorescence, buoyed by
adrenaline and caffeine.

''I've never understood the need to sleep,'' says David Filo, the
30-year-old co-founder of Yahoo! Inc., who fights the urge just as
hard now as he did before his company went public in April and he
became a multimillionaire on paper. Filo seldom sleeps more than four
hours a night, sometimes under his desk: ''I'm always looking for a
way to avoid sleep. Physically, I don't think you need it. It's more
a mental thing.''

Night work is well suited to a techie's mindset that prizes long,
uninterrupted clumps of time free from daytime interruptions such as
phone calls. ''You don't find a lot of people who get into this
business because they are political creatures who love to schmooze and
sit in meetings,'' says Michael Latham, a0- year-old group director
at SegaSoft, his Redwood City office still a blur of activity at 2
a.m. Latham rarely sleeps more than four hours. He calls this ''a
permanent lifestyle choice'' -- or as permanent as his body allows.

''They can hang a gold watch from my corpse,'' he says.

Like a college dorm

Combine this nocturnal affinity with furious competition and you get
this hyper-driven slice of Silicon Valley. Company campuses might
evoke the frivolous air of a college dorm late at night, with
T-shirted post-adolescents eating pizza and playing foosball in their
bare feet, but that does not disguise the warrior's mentality that
characterizes so many work ethics. Rare is the person who complains
about fatigue. ''You have to afford the intellect the chance to
transcend limits,'' says Byron Rakitzis, 27, a programmer at Network
Appliance, a Mountain View file server company. ''That is the price we
pay for supreme human accomplishment.''

Last year that price became too high for Rakitzis when he plunged to
''an emotional crisis point,'' which he blames partly on a work
schedule that typically landed him in bed at 4 a.m. Even when he slept
enough, Rakitzis felt bone-tired. Computer commands would invade his
thoughts unbidden as he drove to work. He took three months off
starting in December.

Rakitzis returned to Network in March and now calls himself ''a
recovering night person.'' He tries to leave his office by 5. But
when the interview ends, Rakitzis is still at his terminal, ensconced
in a bug report at 1 a.m. He plans to scale back to part-time work
later this year.

If anyone ever discusses being tired, it's often in a boastful
way. ''We compare how little we sleep in the same way athletes compare
knee injuries,'' Rakitzis says. Like sports, high tech is
predominantly a young man's arena, subject to the limits of the aging
process. Single males under5 are the prevailing demographic in the
industry. You sense some racing to coax as much production as possible
from their bodies (and money from their companies) before they get too
old.

''The goal used to be to become a millionaire by 40,'' says Gary
Burke, president of the Santa Clara Valley Manufacturing Group, a
high-tech trade association. ''Now it seems like it's down into the
20s.''

This ambition extends to the broader technological sensibility of
today's Silicon Valley. ''It is no longer enough to solve a problem in
this valley,'' says Chuck Darrah, chairman of the anthropology
department at San Jose State University. ''Now we expect everything we
do to be a model for the rest of the world. If you're off the highway
for a nanosecond, time passes you by.''

In this context, sleep becomes a ready casualty. ''You sense this new,
panicky edge to staying ahead of the competition and the technology
curve,'' says Lili Pratt King, a career counselor who works with
Stanford Business School graduates. Forget the notion of the relaxed
California lifestyle. ''People in Silicon Valley have developed this
tenacious inability to let go of their workday and rest. It has become
so profound and much worse than anything I have seen on the East Coast
or in the Midwest.''

This is hardly a unanimous way of life among the valley's high-tech
workforce, estimated at 200,000. People who adhere to traditional
schedules account for two commuting periods each day. But high-tech
campus parking lots can be crowded at a.m. And many evening
commuters will log on to their office networks from home.

Sending e-mail at 2 a.m.

Brian Ehrmantraut, the3-year-old systems engineering director at
Network Appliance, leaves his office most nights at 8 and works at
home in Saratoga until 2 a.m. Ehrmantraut tries to sleep five
hours. But if he gets an idea when his head hits the pillow, he'll get
out of bed and send it to a colleague on e-mail. ''I will e-mail
someone at 2, wake up with another idea at 4 and find that my 2
o'clock e-mail has been answered already,'' he says.

If he can't get home, Ehrmantraut's office is equipped for long-term
comfort: stereo, bowl of fruit and espresso machine, with a stuffed
Tasmanian devil atop his terminal (''to scare away the marketing
guys''). If a deadline looms, SegaSoft workers sleep at a nearby Motel
6 at company expense; Netscape Communications Corp. employees used to
sleep in designated futon rooms, but the company removed them, partly
to encourage workers to stop working and go home.

But habits die hard.

...

[bae]

continued...



''People keep asking for the futon room to come back,'' says Cindy
Hall, a Netscape technical writer and a late-night regular at the
Internet giant's Mountain View campus. With gym bags packed with
clothes, personal hygiene items and roller-blading equipment, Hall
calls herself ''a yuppie bag-lady.''

''Instead of pushing my shopping cart, I just cram everything into the
back of my Beemer.''

Employees are often grouped in a ''team'' structure, and when
deadlines and shipping dates near, late night becomes essential work
time. In a collaborative environment, failure to pull your weight can
be devastating. ''We work under aggressive deadlines, and no one wants
to have to say "this is my fault,''' says Hall. Peer pressure
intensifies when, as in the case of many companies, employees own
stock.

Computer product teams are socialized like soldiers in a platoon, says
Paul Saffo of the Institute for the Future in Menlo Park. ''In war,
no one dies for their country,'' he says. ''They die because a
structure is set up where you look like a coward in front of a big
group of people. Same thing if you're in a group developing a
product.'' Saffo describes today's Silicon Valley as ''an intellectual
arms race.''

The machines themselves cast their own tyranny. Engineers and
programmers describe the time-warp sensation of tinkering with a
problem for a few seconds, only to realize hours have passed. ''Last
night, I was working on a piece of code, and I just couldn't get
everything working at once,'' says Deborah Kurata, co-owner of InStep
Technology, a software consulting company in Pleasanton. ''But I kept
getting positive feedback from the computer. It's so addictive. I had
to keep going until I was finished.''

By which time it was 4 a.m. At 7:30, after a nap, Kurata was up
getting her two daughters ready for school.

A family sleep trade-off

Among high-tech parents, Kurata's is a familiar scheduling equation:
Borrow from sleep time to balance the demands of family with
career. Before his son,-year-old Andrew, was born, Greg Gilley,
the director of engineering for imaging and video products at Adobe
Systems, would leave his office at 10 or 11 p.m. Now he gets home
at 6, eats dinner, gives Andrew a bath, puts him to bed and spends
time with his wife, Karen. At 10, Gilley returns to Adobe in Mountain
View, and he doesn't get home again until around or 4 a.m.

''You either have to trade off family or sleep,'' Gilley says, eating
a Butterfinger in his office at midnight. ''There's no real choice.''

Pale and disheveled, Gilley does not look well. He doesn't exercise
and hasn't seen a doctor in five years, and Karen worries about
him. When his current product cycle ends, he plans to catch up on
rest. ''I can usually go at this pace for four months before I'm
toast,'' he says. How long has he been at it now? Gilley shakes his
head: ''Eight months.''

Later this month, Helmut Kobler, the 27-year-old president of Cyclone
Studios, a subsidiary ofDO, a games company, will take his first
vacation in years. ''There's almost a folkloric quality to pulling
all-nighters in this business,'' Kobler says, sitting in aDO cubicle
at midnight. ''But once you go through it for a few years, they lose
their romance. Now I'd rather be in bed.'' Kobler acknowledges he has
said this before:

''I've said to myself, "I'm sick of eating Campbell's soup every
night. I have to develop other interests. I vow to change. But after a
while, my life starts feeling pedestrian. And I want to conquer the
world again.''

[catherine]

bae: do you ever miss it?

[bae]

bae: do you ever miss it?


Now and then a friend from The Olde Days will come up and visit, and I will briefly be nostalgic.

However, since I've "retired", I've found so many other fulfilling enterprises that on the whole, I don't miss it at all. I'd rather build an affordable home for our land trust than stay up for weeks shipping a wizzy techno product that's obsolete before it gets out the door. I'd rather save someone's burning home, or rescue someone from a cliff, or get someone onto the chopper than attend Yet Another Protocol Meeting. I'd rather spend time tutoring kids in math/science/Latin than interview 100 job candidates. I'd much much rather watch the grapes grow in the vineyard and make wine than fly out and talk to customers about The Latest Thing.

What I have found is that I have trouble even communicating with most of the Silicon Valley types these days - their brains are so hyper-stimulated it seems like they all are on crack to me. I spent this weekend doing man-tracking exercises in the mountains/forest - I don't think any of my previous associates would remotely have the patience and attentiveness for this practice, though it is very brain-engaging and demanding - it just happens on such a different time scale. It's almost like we're different species at this point :-)

[catherine]

Now and then a friend from The Olde Days will come up and visit, and I will briefly be nostalgic.

However, since I've "retired", I've found so many other fulfilling enterprises that on the whole, I don't miss it at all. I'd rather build an affordable home for our land trust than stay up for weeks shipping a wizzy techno product that's obsolete before it gets out the door. I'd rather save someone's burning home, or rescue someone from a cliff, or get someone onto the chopper than attend Yet Another Protocol Meeting. I'd rather spend time tutoring kids in math/science/Latin than interview 100 job candidates. I'd much much rather watch the grapes grow in the vineyard and make wine than fly out and talk to customers about The Latest Thing.

What I have found is that I have trouble even communicating with most of the Silicon Valley types these days - their brains are so hyper-stimulated it seems like they all are on crack to me. I spent this weekend doing man-tracking exercises in the mountains/forest - I don't think any of my previous associates would remotely have the patience and attentiveness for this practice, though it is very brain-engaging and demanding - it just happens on such a different time scale. It's almost like we're different species at this point :-)

Well said..

Even though I'm not retired, and can't retire until I get this darned debt taken care of, at least I can still work less than my corporate colleagues, make the same amount of money or more, and then, between interviews go out and tend the garden or cook a soup or take a long walk along the creek with Nessie.

[rodeosweetheart]

Awakened, I find this an absolutely fascinating thread and I hope others think about it and comment on it too. I am not sure how to respond, but just wanted to respond to what I see here--first, your pre-simplification life sounds wonderful to me, but so does your post-simplification life, they just sound wonderful for different times and stages of life. I am 8 years older than you and get where you are coming from with the deep satisfaction in growing your own fruit trees, etc.--yet your pre-simplification life sounds very fulfilling and successful in a way that I don't feel I ever achieved.

I can't exactly identify whether I am pre-post-or mid simplification. Monetarily, at one point in my life I had so much more money than I had now, and I had the kids at home then, and life was simple in that I did not have to work. But the demands of an abusive marriage, albeit one with a lot of money floating around--yikes, hardly emotionally simple. Yet my life was more my own, in the sense I was not constantly working and trying to stay afloat and figure out how to care for the kids, as I had to do after my divorce--not simple at all.

Now, the kids are grown and gone, so that is simpler, but the pressures of dealing with aging/ill parents, kids living all over the country, trying to be a good grandparent--it doesn't feel very simple now, either. I have no time to make a quilt, for example, and have been collecting my fabric for 10 years now for the same damn quilt. I want to quit my job because I hate it, but being broke would be extremely un-simple and stressful.

I guess maybe I could if I could figure out how to live on less than 20000 a year, when I spent 7000 last year on caring for/visiting/helping my kids and parents-- I really need to work on bringing my work into alignment with my values, and figure out a non-monetary way to help my family.

I just cannot give all my hours to work anymore, that feels extremely unsimple. Yet how to align the whole picture, without giving up what interests me about my work, without losing the opportunity to pursue new opportunities? I feel like I could use a sabbatical right now, but I would never want to go back to my job. . .

[pony mom]

I don't know what I did before YMOYL and horses. What did I do with my time? Probably stuff that everyone else did. How did I manage my money?

Since YMOYL, I can't imagine not having money set aside for certain expenses, keeping track of every penny spent. When I had a normal job with steady income, I was able to save a LOT more money (like 25% of my income), but back then I had fewer expenses. Having a horse is expensive, but honestly, it's what I've always wanted and would rather spend time with him than doing anything else. Although I'm somewhat addicted to thrift stores, I'm wearing all the clothes I buy and don't buy junk for the heck of it. Living away from the area where my friends are, it's a bit lonely but I do things on my own that I enjoy (my mom comes along sometimes too) that my "old" friends probably wouldn't like.

So I think even though I have a lot less money now, it's spent more wisely, my time is spent doing things I love, and it doesn't feel like I've made any compromises. Travelling would be nice, but it is expensive and since my horse is almost 30 years old, I'd like to stay close to home instead of worrying about him while I'm supposed to be enjoying myself on a trip.

[razz]

Interesting thread! Life was crazy busy but fun doing challenging things that I enjoyed. We never spent a lot of money but focused on clearing debt or pay as you go for everything. Life felt rich but being retired now, richer in ways as I have time for friends that I never had before. I can read more books and do more thinking which is wonderful and the dog loves the hour-long morning walks each day. Maybe it is the old story of everything has its season.

[awakenedsoul]

Thanks for all the replies. Different stages of life really do bring changes. When I was younger and more career oriented, I didn't have pets. I've always loved them, but if you're on tour, you can't really bring a dog. A couple of people traveled with them when I did 42nd Street in Europe, but there were issues. One time, the dance captain's dog ended up in London when we landed in Germany! The European restaurants were really open about allowing dogs inside, though. I loved that.

Anyone else have a story about their life before they focused on simple living?

[Gardenarian]

I worked 40+ hours per week at a library job, and worked an additional 20 hours per week doing fact checking for a textbook publisher.
DH worked full time as a gigging musician and we rarely saw each other, as we kept opposite hours and he was often traveling.
I belonged to a gym because I didn't have the time or energy to take care of my body properly. I ate a lot of "quick food" - not necessarily junk, but definitely not a balanced diet.
In my time off I often went shopping (even at that point I shopped at thrift stores - always have) as it seemed I never had the right clothes for work or clubbing. I think I was trying to find who I was by shopping for it.
On week-ends I usually went to dh's gigs at least one night, often two, and usually drank some alcohol. I've never been a drinker - it doesn't agree with me - and even the small amount I was drinking was not healthy.

On the plus side, we managed to pay off our mortgage in 8 years. That's about the only plus I can think came out of those years - and the knowledge that I wanted a different sort of life.

I feel like our move-in-progress to Oregon will take me a lot deeper into simple living. I won't need a car, and, as much as I have loved homeschooling, it will be a bit of a relief to have dd's education mostly taken care of by the school. I'm really looking forward to seeing how things evolve.

[Gardenarian]

When I can be at my best, what I realize is that the old distinctions stop working. It's not "working" and "playing", or "busy" and "relaxing", it's just ... living. I can be equally entertained washing dishes (yeah, what is it with dishes, do they grow like mushrooms every time you turn out the light in there?) or playing cards, it's all just part of an enjoyable life. Maybe that isn't simple. I don't know. It's more like a simple state of mind than that my actual actions are reduced.


Kib - this is exactly what I am hoping for myself :) just living.