Photo by Marissa Grootes on Unsplash
In short: Minimalist work means choosing a few things that matter, giving them your full attention and letting the rest wait, shrink or go. A clear desk, three priorities a day, fewer interruptions and a firm end to the working day will take you a long way. And it isn’t only about getting more done: a simpler working day leaves room for lunch at a table, a walk, a home-cooked dinner and a good night’s sleep.
It’s ten past four. You have eleven tabs open, a report half written, and your phone has just lit up again. Lunch was a sandwich eaten over the keyboard, if you can call that lunch. You’ve been busy since eight this morning, and yet the one thing you really wanted to finish today is still sitting there, untouched. You’ll take it home with you, in your bag or in your head.
If you know that kind of day, I’d like to offer you another way of looking at work. We tend to believe that more is always better: more tasks, more projects, more hours. But what if you could achieve more by doing less?
What is minimalist work?
The idea fits in three words: less is more. Minimalist work means you simplify the way you work, you remove what distracts you, and you put your time and energy into the essentials.
It isn’t about doing less for the sake of doing less, and it has nothing to do with being lazy. It’s about being intentional. You decide what deserves your attention today, and you stop pretending that everything on the list is equally important. Because it isn’t. And the truth is, you can’t do it all. Nobody can.
Why does doing less help you achieve more?
When you juggle too many tasks and projects at once, your attention is cut into small pieces. You start something, a message arrives, you answer it, you come back, and you have to find your thread again. At the end of the day you’ve touched twenty things and finished very few. It’s tiring in a way that honest hard work is not.
When you reduce the number of things you carry at any one time, something changes. You can stay with one piece of work long enough to become absorbed in it. That’s the state people call flow, when you forget the clock and the work seems to carry you. It’s usually where your best ideas turn up, and where you find solutions you would never have found between two notifications.
There’s also less stress. A short, clear list is something you can finish. A list that never ends follows you home. If you’d like to recognise the quieter ways tension shows up in your body, have a look at my article on the hidden signs of stress.
What does a simpler working day do for your health?
This is the part that matters most for your health. A cluttered working day doesn’t stay at work. It takes your lunch break first. Then it takes your walk. Then it takes your evening: you come home too tired to cook, you eat whatever is quick, you answer two more emails on the sofa, and you go to bed with your mind still running.
When your work has edges, the rest of your life gets its space back. You sit down to eat and you notice when you’ve had enough. You have the energy to chop a few vegetables at seven in the evening. You close the laptop early enough for your body to understand that the day is over, which is where better nights begin. A calmer mind digests better, sleeps better and reaches less often for sugar at four in the afternoon.
So when I talk about simplifying your work, I’m really talking about making room for the things that keep you well.
How do you simplify your work, step by step?
1. Simplify your workspace
Start with your desk. Remove what you don’t use and keep only the essentials within reach. Do the same on your screen: close the tabs and programmes you don’t need for the task in front of you. A clear surface is a small thing, and it tells your mind what you’re here to do.
2. Choose your priorities
Look at your to-do list and pick the tasks that truly matter today. Two or three are enough. Do those first, before you open anything else. If the rest of the day is swallowed by other people’s requests, the essential work is already done.
3. Limit distractions
Turn off notifications while you concentrate. You can also work in short, focused sessions: the Pomodoro Technique, for example, has you work for twenty-five minutes on one thing only, then take a short break. It’s simple, and it helps you stay with a task when your attention wants to wander.
4. Learn to say no
When someone asks you to take on a new task or project, pause and ask yourself whether it fits your priorities. If it doesn’t, you’re allowed to decline, or to offer a later date. I’ve written more about kind ways to do this in Non-negotiables to keep stress at bay.
5. Take breaks
Give yourself time to recharge during the day. Stand up, stretch, breathe, look out of the window, step away from your desk for a few minutes. And eat your lunch somewhere that isn’t your keyboard. A break isn’t lost time. It’s what allows the next hour to be a good one.
6. Reflect and adjust
At the end of the week, ask yourself two questions. What worked well? What do I want to change? Minimalist work isn’t a system you set up once. You refine it as you go.
Why is it so hard to let go of what isn’t essential?
One of the biggest challenges is letting go. New tasks, ideas and opportunities arrive all the time, and each of them looks interesting or urgent. It’s easy to believe you need to say yes to all of them. But every yes takes time and energy from something else. When you let go of what isn’t essential, you free both for the things that truly matter. If you’d like to go further with this, read my article on strategic ignorance, the art of choosing what to ignore.
The other challenge is boundaries. With a phone in your pocket, it’s easy to feel you must be available all the time. Being always on doesn’t make you better at your work. It wears you down. Decide when your working day ends, and when it does, really stop. A break from your screens in the evening is one of the kindest things you can do for yourself.
Try this today
Clear your desk before you leave, so tomorrow starts on a clean surface.
Write down tomorrow’s three most important tasks on a piece of paper. Only three.
Switch off notifications for your first working hour.
Put lunch in your diary like a meeting, and keep it.
Choose the time you’ll close your laptop this evening, and tell someone at home.
Simplicity beyond your desk
Minimalist work is also about welcoming simplicity into the rest of your life: simpler daily routines, fewer possessions, even simpler relationships. When you remove what doesn’t bring you joy or add value, you create space for what does. If your home could do with the same treatment, my room-by-room guide to minimalist spring cleaning will help, and I answer the most common questions in 18 FAQs on minimalism.
In the end, this is about more than getting things done faster. It’s about finding meaning and purpose in your work and in your life. When you give your attention to what matters to you, you finish the day with a sense of fulfilment that a crossed-off list alone never gives.
Resources I recommend
If you’d like to read more, here are a few of my favourites:
Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less by Greg McKeown. A thorough guide to the principles of essentialism and how to apply them to your work and your life.
Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World by Cal Newport. Practical strategies for removing distractions and working with real concentration.
The Power of Less by Leo Babauta. On the benefits of limiting yourself to the essential, with plenty of practical tips.
The Minimalists. Their podcast and blog share ideas on minimalist living and what it brings to work and life.
The Pomodoro Technique. The time-management method I mentioned above: focused sessions of twenty-five minutes, each followed by a short break.
Frequently asked questions
What is minimalist work?
It is a way of working where you choose a few things that matter, give them your full attention, and let the rest wait, shrink or go. Fewer tasks open at once, fewer interruptions, a clear end to the day. It is about doing the right things well, not about doing as little as possible.
How do I start if my job is very demanding?
Start with what is in your hands. Clear your desk, choose your three most important tasks each morning, and protect one quiet hour without notifications. Even in a busy job, these small choices change how the day feels, and they often make it easier to talk to your manager about priorities.
How can I say no at work without seeming unhelpful?
Say what you can do instead of what you cannot. For example: I can do this next week, or I can do this if the other project moves. You stay helpful, and you stop promising time you do not have.
Does a simpler working day really help my health?
Yes, in very practical ways. When work stops spilling into every corner, you have time for a proper lunch, a walk, a cooked dinner and an evening that lets you fall asleep. Those are the things that carry your energy and your mood.
When should I talk to my doctor?
If work stress comes with exhaustion that rest does not ease, weeks of poor sleep, a racing heart, frequent headaches or stomach trouble, low mood or the feeling that you cannot cope, please talk to your doctor. Simplifying your work helps, and it does not replace medical care.
Would you like some help?
Making room in a full week for proper meals, movement and rest is one of the things we work on in my group programmes in nutrition and health, such as Six Tuesdays in Montignac. If you’d like to hear when the next group opens, write to me at hello@catherinepolet.coach.
Would you rather work one to one? I also coach online. Book a free 20-minute call, and we’ll look together at what your working days are taking from your health, and where you could begin to take it back.
About Catherine
I’m Catherine Polet, a holistic nutrition health coach, yoga and autogenic training teacher for more than 30 years, author and speaker. I help people find a way of eating and living that suits their own body, online in English, French, Spanish and German, and in person in Southwest France.
