Three weeks into my Quarter Gap Year, everything about Julia Hobsbawn’s new book appeals to me: The Simplicity Principle: Six steps towards clarity in a complex world.

It’s the book for our times and Julia walks us through the data; we pick up our smartphones 80 times per day or roughly every 12 minutes, we are on the internet six hours per day or one-third of our waking time, and being ‘on’ 24/7 is the norm at work. All this when we know the human brain cannot hold more than about seven things at any given time and research shows that it takes 23 minutes and 15 seconds to regain attention and focus after being distracted.

It’s not surprising that over 15 million working days were lost to stress in the UK last year, stress costs $300 billion annually to the US, and – sadly – the WHO reports one death from suicide every 40 seconds. Our lives are too complicated for us to keep up with ourselves, let alone the Joneses. [For more on these refs, read the book!].

Having spent the last five years relocating from the UK to the US, standing up a new nonprofit and building it to the point of it having a solid year’s worth of running costs in the bank (handy during a global pandemic), I know all too well the picture being painted here: always on, constantly multi-tasking, dozens of plates spinning, pressure to succeed, and no social support structure. The ends are hugely rewarding, but the means to get there have taken a toll.

Lucky for me, I’m in a position to take a break, step back and reassess my priorities. So while it’s most definitely the book for our times – it’s also come at just the right moment for me.

Julia outlines six sides of a hexagon which together encapsulate the six sides of simplicity: clarity, individuality, reset, knowledge, networks and time. Each has six ideas within it, which come with six fixes or takeaways and calls to action.

I can’t say the narrative structure of the book worked for me – bees, hexagons, nature – but that doesn’t detract from the central idea and the practical suggestions about how to incorporate the simplicity principle into your own life.

Here are the key things I’ll be building into my life:

Clarity:

• Minimize the number of decisions you have to make and make them swiftly
• Take a technology break at a regular time each week
• Say no much more than you say yes
• Declutter and have a designated place for everything

Individuality:

• Distinguish between your online and offline identities
• Pay attention to place – where you live, work and your journey between the two are critical to have you live and work

Reset:

• Make sleep a big priority
• Find ways to switch off, whether through meditation or more active ways that take you out of your day to day
• Seek out a change of scene regularly
• Spend time in nature
• Make time for fun in your life

Knowledge:

• Always bring what you know already to new situations – it’s your wisdom
• Focus on your soft skills
• Use a Knowledge Dashboard to streamline the information you receive
• Don’t have too many things to focus on at once

Networks:

• Make time for face-to-face
• Organize how you communicate with someone according to the quality of the relationship
• Approach networking as a relational activity, not a transactional one
• Create social capital by being part of communities
• Create small intimate gatherings and generally avoid large conferences
• Identify your ‘social six’ – the people who really matter to you

Time:

• Don’t do deadlines unless you’ve set them yourself
• Keep control of your calendar and be intentional about how you spend your time
• Organize your day in the way that makes most sense for you and your body clock
• Don’t bother with offices unless you have to

I’d recommend this book to anyone asking themselves why life seems relentless, whether it could be different, and how to get started. It’s a great read, much more accessible than your typical ‘self-help’ book, and offers a practical roadmap for how to make change happen.