Good day and welcome to episode 262 of Live Happy Now. This is Paula Phelps and I'd like to thank you for

joining us once again this week. Today's world has become increasingly challenging, so it's

fitting that this week we're talking about simplicity. How do you find more simplicity in a complex world? Well, that's

complicated. And this week, author and social commentator Julia Hobbsbom looks at how we can live a simpler,

more creative, and productive life. Her new book, The Simplicity Principle, Six Steps Toward

Clarity in a Complex World, looks at how we can become more

focused and less distracted. It's something we can all benefit from learning, so let's hear what

she has to say. Julia, welcome to Live Happy Now. Paula, thank you for having me, a pleasure to be

with you. Well, you have a wonderful topic to talk to us about and it's a great time to talk about

it too because our lives seem very complex and so you're talking to us about the simplicity

principle. I guess to start, can you tell me what made you want to take on this issue? Yes,

it is a funny time, I think a good time to be talking about simplicity,

just when our lives became both brutally simple through lockdown, but also a lot more complicated

with the ramifications and implications of life next. I began writing seven or eight years

ago around the connected age and the digital age and all the complications that that brought.

And I wrote a book called Fully Connected.

And that book really seemed to resonate with people that were worrying about overload.

And then I thought, well, what's next?

What are people concerned about now? And I thought it was

in the end that people feel they have almost limitless choices, limitless possibilities,

windows within windows and apps and meetings and opportunities. And the world was becoming so full of potential that it was also getting

really complicated.

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