Minimalism as [sic] a broad term. It covers a whole spectrum of living with less beliefs, form owning only possessions that you can squeeze into one suitcase, to halving your collection of ‘Now That’s What I Call Music’ CDs that were about to topple off your shelf anyway. At the strictest end it can be very prescriptive. […] So what I’ve come to see as the middle ground is to aim for a more edited life. It’s an ongoing process that embraces imperfections and shrugs off the need for perfectionism, because perfection just doesn’t exist unless we’re talking about Ryan Gosling.
— Anna Newton An Edited Life
Anna Newton is a blogger and author from the UK who published her book An Edited Life – Simple Steps to Streamlining your Life, At Work and at Home just a year ago in early 2019. She started out as a beauty blogger in 2010 and evolved into a lifestyle blogger writing about beauty, fashion, home decor, travel, cooking, and (self-)organization. She also has a successful YouTube channel. To be honest, I didn’t know her blog but saw her book on bookstagram and only after reading it discovered her online persona.
Being all about a mindful and well-organized life, Anna’s blog is a great source of inspiration for everyone interested in mindful consumption, creative cooking, and conscious beauty. I enjoy catching up with her from time to time, but even more so I thoroughly enjoyed her book and the excellent tips she shares for optimizing one’s organization. And contrary to a lot of books on similar topics, Anna always does her best to keep in mind that different people live different lives — there are not just couples and families. Thus, she often mentions various ways of how to handle stuff or follow her advice, whether you have family, a partner, pets, live with flatmates, or are on your own.
But enough of the introduction. Let’s take a closer look.
Anna’s take on LIFE, WORK, and HOME
A TIDY HOME = A TIDY MIND. If your belongings are in order then there’s less chance of procrastination and physical clutter getting in the way of tasks that you actually need to complete.
An Edited Life is divided into three main parts – LIFE, WORK, and HOME – and before she starts with the first part, LIFE, she introduces eight key beliefs that are the basis for everything she writes and talks about. I quoted no. 5 because it is one that my ADHD brain agrees with 100% and one that becomes crucial every time I feel like I can’t get anything done: off I go decluttering some corner of our home (but you probably already guessed that). All eight key beliefs make a lot of sense and are easy to remember.
LIFE according to Anna
Only after sharing these important basic principles does she continue with the first section of her book, LIFE, and starts out with another topic close to my (and probably many others) heart: planning. She gives analog and digital diaries careful consideration and compares both strategies, pointing out all possible advantages and disadvantages, even mentioning bullet journaling(!). After dealing with scheduling and different diary types, Anna dives into a topic that has always been shrouded in mystery to me but became much clearer thanks to her: money, budgeting, and financial planning.
She not only explains how exactly a budget works, giving examples so that mathematically challenged people like me get a better understanding (after rereading it several times) but also shares advice on how to save money and why that is important. In addition to several other interesting topics and insights, this was one of the most important chapters for me, since I always abhorred monitoring my money more than is necessary. I used to have an idea about how much money I have left and I regularly put something in my saving account but never before have I found the energy to actually keep a budget and track my income and expenses — praise the Lady, Anna’s detailed explanations were eye-opening and even though I am still not on her level of expertise, it’s much better than it has been…
Subsequently, Anna counts self-care, social life, and setting goals as well as planning for your future as parts of editing a LIFE, and there too she shares some good advice and practical examples from her own life to underline how to handle your shit.
WORK according to Anna
Part 2, WORK, was especially appealing to me since I work part-time at an office and the rest of the time at home. Anna, acknowledging that her situation as a freelancer working from home might not be the norm, is careful to include different work settings in her considerations. Still, I found her tips regarding how to set up an ideal home office surrounding most helpful and, after clearing some more space, am now able to work more efficiently.
She also makes procrastination a huge topic (hello, dear old ADHD fuzzybrain) and not only shares tips on how to overcome it, but also thorough analyzes regarding WHY we procrastinate in the first place. Being aware of likely reasons for certain behaviors makes it easier to recognize them and consciously work around them (though these reasons may be different for people with ADHD). Of course, for most of us this is not the first time we read about possible causes and solutions regarding procrastination. Yet Anna’s conversational tone — something most blogger authors embrace as it makes their writing much more appealing to an audience that is used to them sounding like a good friend rather than an omniscient narrator — and the way she presents those facts still make it interesting to read.
HOME according to Anna
The same goes for the last part of her book, HOME. Those who’ve read other books about decluttering, wardrobe organization, and similar topics won’t find anything earth-shattering — something she is well aware of and also acknowledges throughout most of the book — BUT the way Anna shares her own experiences and advises us on how to tackle clutter and the various rooms we want to ‘edit’ still makes it an inspiring read. She dedicates a part of HOME to building a capsule wardrobe, something I’ve not read completely since I have not yet reached the point where I would be interested in creating one. Still, anyone interested in how a capsule wardrobe works and how you can build your own will find precious suggestions in this part of her book.
When sharing her tips on how to keep your home clean, she pays tribute to the fact that different people live in different settings again; some live with their family, some live alone, and others live with their partners or flatmates. As mentioned before, Anna is careful to do this pretty much throughout every part of her book – she is always keen to include and address everyone, though of course someone may always feel left out.
An Edited Life — my first impression
So what was my personal takeaway from Anna’s book? I will forever be thankful for her meal planning template and her thorough advice on how to keep a budget. Meal planning not only made my life a gazillion times easier, but it also helped me save a nice amount of money as a result of only having to go to the supermarket twice a week. Budgeting finally gave me a certain grown-up vibe that I didn’t necessarily miss, but I am still happy to feel now that I actually know where my money goes. Also, I wouldn’t have felt up to the task of a low buy challenge without seeing in cold print how much money I wasted on stuff I didn’t need (and more often than not didn’t know what to do with once it was mine…).
Anna’s conversational style and special tone made this book a great read and I enjoyed the stories she shared from her life and the advice she gave on the various topics she discussed. Doing so, she always tries her best to be inclusive of different lifestyles and life choices. Even though this wasn’t my first book on self-organization and a ‘curated life’ (as I like to call it) I would definitely recommend it to everyone interested in improving his or her life in the areas Anna discusses in her book. Granted, her tips aren’t earth-shattering, but she adds interesting twists to familiar topics like decluttering (using the F.U.L.L. approach) or finding your workflow. These were tips I found valuable when optimizing my ADHD life/mind as well.
While I don’t know her all that much as a blogger and YouTuber, I definitely appreciate her as an author with her own unique voice doing her best to add valuable information and advice to well-established topics.
I absolutely enjoy coming back to this book time and time again. Maybe you will appreciate it, too. 🙂