Most people think Minimalism is all about owning a few things and having a white and black home. Before I incorporated minimalism into my life, I thought its all about materialism too! When you started letting go of your stuff, your perceptions, values, and habits change as well. I have embraced minimalism for a couple of years now and I removed bad habits that changed my life for the better.

1. Juggling so many things at once. Growing up I thought multitasking is the key to productivity and efficiency. And boy, I was so wrong. Before, I would watch Youtube videos while writing blog posts to catch up and save time. I would do my makeup while watching a movie, which took me twice as much time if I only listen to classical music because I would sometimes miss something while doing my mascara and I'd be like, "What just happened?" and rewind a few scenes back. Research shows that multi-tasking is actually a bad idea and reduces productivity as much as 40% and affects brain health. Now, when I'm in a lecture or seminar, I often times just listen very intently to my professor and ask my seatmate to take down notes and I'll copy them later or I'll take down notes while I'm recording my professor's discussion and listen to it later that night.

2. Impulse buying or buying based on emotions. Often times when I'm sad or stressed out, I tend to buy ice cream or pizza or buy multiple foods I want in a whim. When I see there's a sale, I often times buy anything that looks pretty, not being conscious if I have the same item at home or if I would use it on a daily basis. These impulse purchases often leave me sad at the end of the day or when I do realize it that I wasted money. Currently, when I feel sad or I want to reward myself, I still go for comfort foods but I am now more selective of what I want to eat and choose only one. And when I to the mall, I only buy the things that I really need at the moment. When there's a sale, I sometimes look what's on sale and leave without anything on hand (or I don't even go into the stores because I honestly don't need anything). After the decluttering process, I realized I have enough things to go through the season or year and I'd rather reserve my energy, time and money for more important things.

3. Collecting. I used to collect a lot of stuff such as makeup, skincare, washi tapes, cds, toys, etc. Growing up and incorporating minimalism in my life helped me let go of the habit of collecting items. I realized they take so much space, energy cleaning and maintaining, and it is also a waste of money as well.

4. Saying "Yes" all the time. I'm a people-pleaser, well, I used to be. Also, I used to control my anger so that people would think I'm nice, I always say "Yes" all the time when people ask favor or ask money or an item from me. But I became aware that my kindness was a bit abused by some people and some even looked down on me because they think I'm gullible or can't say no. Now, I always think it thoroughly if someone asks something from me, if it will be an inconvenience or make me feel bad at the end of the day or affect my schedule, I would politely say "No."

5. "Uh. Maybe later" attitude. This is honestly applicable to difficult things I have to tackle in my to do list or cleaning my area. When I'm procastinating or when I'm tired, I tend to push the task later until it never gets done. What I did to change this was execute the most difficult task first or the task I least want to do first and make my way to the easiest task 🙂.

Have you incorporated minimalism into your life? What bad habits did you get rid of during the process?