Today’s guest post comes to us from Brett Oblack of Step 1 Minimalist

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I’m going to guess that most of you reading this article have tried to simplify your life as much as possible or are at least interested in the minimalism lifestyle.

Even for those of us who have been minimalists for awhile, there are still some sneaky areas in our daily lives that can fly under our radars. Let’s examine these sneaky blind spots and shed some light on them.

1) Computer Hard Drives. If you are like most computer users these days you probably have a huge hard drive and an even larger external hard drive. And yet I’d imagine you spend the majority of your computing time online, in the cloud. How much of what is on your hard drive(s) is actually necessary to your goals in life? All of that music (a fraction of which gets listened to regularly), those “questionably obtained” movies and long-obsolete programs can clutter up a hard drive without warning. It is so easy to ignore it and rationalize that at least it isn’t physical clutter. But slogging through a bloated start-menu or being unable to find any of your files are just as antithetical to minimalism as crowding our homes with unnecessary possessions.

2) Newsreaders. There are millions and billions of websites on our beloved interwebs. How many of them are filling up your newsreader? Are you wasting time looking at LOLcats and celebrity gossip or are the items you read everyday aligned with your goals in life? Find websites to support that are actually contributing to your personal growth. By maintaining fewer items in your reader you can better absorb and apply the content to your own life.

3) Email and online networking. Do you need to follow a thousand people on twitter? Do you have to “like” every random fan page your friends suggest on Facebook? How many of these things are providing any real value compared to the number of them that are just taking up more of your attention. Spend your time connecting and networking with the people in your niche or professional industry and not catching up with everything Ashton Kutcher tweets about.

4) Netflix, DVRs, Hulu, etc. Much has been written about reducing the time spent in front of the television, and for good reason. Millions of dollars are spent each year on commercials designed to get people to buy products they don’t need. “But I have a DVR!” or “I only use Netflix!” That’s a step in the right direction, but take a lot at your queue. Is it filled with 200 movies while you add more each day? 200 movies would be roughly 300 hours or over 12 straight days worth of viewing. Is that ever going to actually fit into your busy schedule? Kill the bloat and get things back to a manageable level. After all, those old Star Trek episodes will always be there later if you decide you truly want to watch Captain Kirk romance alien women again one day.

5) Your Health. Your body is the most important possessions you get and you can’t upgrade it for a better model. Sometimes we get so focused on clearing the clutter away from the rest of our lives that we forget to focus on what goes into our bodies. Even taking small steps like reducing the red meat in your diet or starting a commitment to a simple weight loss program can make a huge difference in your personal health.

Can you think of anymore minimalism blind spots I missed?

[photo credit]

Thanks goes out to Brett Oblack of Step 1 Minimalist for this great article.