The Clutter Trap. Falling In & Out
My original plan was to write this whole publication in a somewhat chronological order, but then I also thought that this approach may be somewhat boring. So, maybe I should get along.
I have often said that photography sometimes can be treated as a metaphor for life. One of the big themes that has been doing the rounds in the last years, is that of simplicity and minimalism.
The first time that I started to think about this seriously, was about ten years back, when I was living in Beijing. Over breakfast, an Aussie gent told me that he had reduced everything to zero cars, one bank account, one credit card etc. His rationale was that, as the clutter increases, these things become our masters, and not the other way around.
Over the last ten years, I have tried to live this principle, without any success at all. Maybe, not without any success. I think that I have achieved some minimal degree of success.
One principle that I did adopt a few years back, was to stop buying photography gear. I was tempted to buy some strobes, however, I have held off. What I will do, is to buy some stuff for my Speed-lights.
However, look at my desktop! On the left, you will see a whole bunch of actions! I use about 5% of those actions, and that’s it. There are some actions that I use for specific purposes, but I don’t use them a lot.
The result has been that I have had some struggles with finding some of the actions. 80% of the actions that I have are, for me, a waste. If I don’t understand the theory behind the actions, or if I find them to complex to manipulate further, then I don’t use them.
The same goes for some of the Light Room presets that I have. I use about 1% to 2% of the ones that I have.
This does not include the large collection of brushes, textures, overlays, edge effects, vectors and fonts that I have.
The fact is, that we use a maximum of 20% of many of our assets 80% of the time. The good old Pareto Principle comes to live once again. It is a principle that is spoken of a lot, but ignored in practice.
The one thing that I am indeed glad about, is that many of them — most of them — are free! However, the fact is, that I spend too much time trying to cycle through all the various actions and presets, and seeing which one I want to use. We don’t value time sufficiently, and we pay lip-service to the fact that we cannot recycle or reclaim time.
I do pride myself on my intellectual vigor, yet I fell into the trap of wanting more, and ending up with more clutter than I need.
Why is this? I think that, with all things, it is the deep fear of missing out on something — an asset, a possession, a tool. We need the latest gadgets, the software tools, and the power of marketers is quite seductive
I will be moving house in the next few months, and have decided that, once we are settled in, I will go through my assets and possibly delete all those that are not needed.
Small decisions help us go a long way. It’s time to muster up the courage and go through with the decision!
