Several months ago I looked at my desk, my room, my life.

What I found was … a lot of—“stuff.” Stuff that I didn’t use very often, if at all. Things that, with my busy schedule, I don’t actually need to waste time using.

After this discovery, I set about to find a solution. Starting with the idea of getting rid distractions, I contemplated my things. I picked out a few here and there and gave them away. Ironically, it felt awesome! I thought that the withdrawal would be too much to take, but it was exactly the opposite. Ridding my life of things gave me breathing room.

This feeling spurred me to search for further relief. Immediate relief and also a solution that would instill a habit in me that I will follow for the rest of my life. What I found was an interesting concept called “minimalism.” I read several articles about how the process works, and I was hooked. It was exactly what I needed to reduce the distractions in my life, and set the stage for my future actions so that they wouldn’t be counterproductive to the cause.

Minimalism means getting rid of things you don’t need and organizing and focusing on the things that you do, and that matter. Following that motto is the only set rule.

Minimalism does not mean you have to pare down all your possessions to one pair of socks or one pair of shoes, or one of anything. Some people, as humans have been known to do, take minimalism to the extreme and own only 50 or so items total. Although that may seem like an interesting challenge, it is unbalanced. That being said, most of us in Western society own far too many things. Some people estimate that for 80 percent of our time, we are only using 20 percent of our things. This begs the question, what are the other 80 percent of our things doing? Are they enriching our lives? Or is it possible that they are distracting and inhibiting our progress toward our goals?

I found that sentimental value was taking too high a priority in my life: saving a card or a letter for years, or a little trinket because my grandparents gave it to me when I was five. I came to realize that a lot of the things I had saved didn’t need to be saved. They had fulfilled their duties earlier on in my life. With my busy schedule and changing life as a college student, I didn’t have the time to be distracted by these things. Instead, I needed to focus on the education I was being give daily at AC.

How did I—and how can you—minimize the distractions in life with a less-is-more mentality? Here are several simple steps to de-clutter your life, and make it more organized, and efficient.

First, inventory all of your belongings, starting with your room. Go through your things and ask yourself, Have I used this recently—or ever? If you don’t use it, maybe you could give it away or sell it!

Second, once you have weeded out all the things you don’t need, start organizing the things you do have. Find a specific place for each thing, keeping it all neat and tidy.

Third, pursue perfection! Don’t forget the main goal: to simplify your complex life. Root out distractions so that you can more readily focus on the important things in life. This must remain in the forefront of your thinking as time goes on, and as you occasionally repeat the process in pursuit of perfection. Steve Jobs created a great line of computer products that were directly inspired by his minimalist lifestyle. He sought to remove all the unnecessary bells and whistles that detracted from his product. Sacrificing quantity for more perfect quality.

One great way to seek perfection is to remove whatever is distracting you from reaching that goal. Remember, less is more!