How to Simplify Your Life — Tips from Oliver Burkeman, Chip Conley, Elizabeth Gilbert, and More (#885)

Many of us feel like we’re drowning in invisible complexity. So I wanted to hit pause and ask a simple question: What are 1–3 decisions that could dramatically simplify my life?
In this episode:
- Chip Conley shares how a near-death experience onstage changed his life
- Greg McKeown reveals what a stormtrooper costume has to do with all the goddamn clutter in our lives
- David Allen explains why the to-do list living in your head costs you more than you think.
- Elizabeth Gilbert explains why she treats her inbox like her home, and what she does when uninvited guests show up.
- And Oliver Burkeman explains why so much simplicity advice backfires and what has actually worked for him.
This episode is brought to you by:
- Eight Sleep Pod 6, which cools or heats each side of the bed, with custom elevation and snoring reduction and wearable-free sleep tracking: EightSleep.com/Tim
- AG1 Pro all-in-one nutritional supplement: DrinkAG1.com/Tim
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How to Simplify Your Life — Tips from Oliver Burkeman, Chip Conley, Elizabeth Gilbert, and More
Additional podcast platforms
Listen to this episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Overcast, Podcast Addict, Pocket Casts, Castbox, YouTube Music, Amazon Music, Audible, or on your favorite podcast platform.
Transcripts
- This episode (coming soon)
- All episodes
Show Notes
Connect with Chip Conley:
Connect with Greg McKeown:
Connect with David Allen:
Connect with Elizabeth Gilbert:
- Website | Substack | Bluesky | Facebook | Instagram
- Elizabeth’s appearances on the podcast: 770, 430
Connect with Oliver Burkeman:
Recommended Reading, Listening, & Viewing
- Chip Conley’s TED Talks | TED
- The Karmic Capitalism of Chip Conley | Stanford Magazine
- How to Become an Effective CEO: Chief Emotions Officer | Tim.blog
- Burning Man
- 28 Festivals and 8 Reasons They Can Change Your Life (Plus: Free Burning Man Tickets!) | Tim.blog
- Airbnb
- Stanford Center on Longevity
- Anomalies: The Endowment Effect, Loss Aversion, and Status Quo Bias | Journal of Economic Perspectives
- Star Wars: Return of the Jedi | Prime Video
- What It Feels Like to Be a Stormtrooper | Great Big Story
- Getting Things Done Guru David Allen and His Cult of Hyperefficiency | Wired
- David Allen Guides You through a Mind Sweep | GTD Podcast
- The Work of Byron Katie
- Obama’s Way | Vanity Fair
Books
- Emotional Equations: Simple Truths for Creating Happiness + Success by Chip Conley
- Wisdom @ Work: The Making of a Modern Elder by Chip Conley
- Learning to Love Midlife: 12 Reasons Why Life Gets Better with Age by Chip Conley
- Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less by Greg McKeown
- Effortless: Make It Easier to Do What Matters Most by Greg McKeown
- Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity by David Allen
- Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear by Elizabeth Gilbert
- Eat, Pray, Love: One Woman’s Search for Everything Across Italy, India, and Indonesia by Elizabeth Gilbert
- City of Girls: A Novel by Elizabeth Gilbert
- Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mortals by Oliver Burkeman
- Meditations for Mortals: Four Weeks to Embrace Your Limitations and Make Time for What Counts by Oliver Burkeman
People
- Gwyneth Paltrow
- Mary Catherine Bateson
- Margaret Mead
- Brian Chesky
- Joe Gebbia
- Nathan Blecharczyk
- Laura Carstensen
- Andy Grove
- Rayya Elias
- Byron Katie
- Barack Obama
- Jiddu Krishnamurti
Timestamps
- [00:00:00] Start.
- [00:01:36] Chip Conley: Turning manic into magic.
- [00:13:00] Greg McKeown: Is that a stormtrooper you’re pursuing?
- [00:20:18] David Allen: Agreements you haven’t kept with yourself.
- [00:28:35] Elizabeth Gilbert: “Thank you” and “No.”
- [00:36:37] Oliver Burkeman: Simplicity is an attitude, not a technique.
Quotations from This Episode
“Knowledge is something you accumulate, you add. Wisdom is something you distill, you simplify.”
— Chip Conley
“I think a lot of people have a lot of stormtroopers in their life.”
— Greg McKeown
“You can only feel good about what you’re not doing when you know what you’re not doing.”
— David Allen
“I now treat my inbox like it’s my home because I think it’s an extension of my home.”
— Elizabeth Gilbert
“True simplicity, the simplicity that actually practically helped me in life, is not a question of techniques; it is an attitude.”
— Oliver Burkeman
Want to hear more strategies for simplifying your life? Listen to my conversations with Derek Sivers, Seth Godin, and Martha Beck, in which we discussed why simple is the opposite of complex (not a synonym for easy), living without subscriptions or dependencies, building a house from scratch in New Zealand, getting clear on who your work is for, eliminating gray areas, reclaiming time with personal boundaries, following true joy instead of dopamine hits, how a near-death experience sparked a radical commitment, and much more.
This episode is brought to you by AG1. I’ve taken AG1 for more than a decade. Longtime listeners have heard me call it my nutritional insurance. Here’s the news: they recently launched AG1 Pro, designed for people focused on performance and longevity. I’ll be traveling soon, and I’m throwing this in my bag to cover my bases while I travel. Past a certain age, maintaining lean muscle becomes priority number one, and AG1 Pro is formulated to support exactly that. It includes HMB, a clinically studied compound that supports protein synthesis and helps reduce protein breakdown, plus zinc carnosine to support the gut lining. Remember: training is only half the equation. Recovery is where the work compounds, and AG1 Pro is built to support it. It’s NSF Certified for Sport, so what’s on the label is what’s in the pouch. Get your free AG1 Pro Yeti Shaker in the Welcome Kit at Drinkag1.com/Tim.
This episode is brought to you by Eight Sleep. Temperature is one of the main causes of poor sleep, and heat is my personal nemesis. But a few years ago, I started using the Pod Cover, and it has transformed my sleep. It fits over your existing mattress and cools or heats each side of the bed independently. I run hot. My lovely partner tends to run cold. With the Pod, we each get the temperature we want. No more fighting over the thermostat.
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Photo by Monica Toner
The post appeared first on The Blog of Author Tim Ferriss.