One of the things that has become more and more apparent in the media recently is the need to cut back, save more and be frugal for the road of recession ahead. Recession or not, I like to try and make sure that I keep my life as decluttered as possible (it’s in my genes), and always ask myself before buying anything whether I really need it or will really use it. I am only human and do have an addiction to gadgets and cool t-shirt designs but nobody’s perfect.

Here are some tips for eliminating temptations which I use to great effect. I find that what you don’t know can’t hurt you… If you don’t have the information pushed to you, you won’t want to consume it.

Healthy Eating
If you don’t want to eat as much chocolate, don’t buy it! It may sounds simple, but if you buy the foods you want to eat to be healthy and don’t buy the foods that you know you want to cut down on then you won’t eat them. When I want to loose weight I cut down on sugar and alcohol. If the chocolate isn’t in my cupboard at home, I won’t eat it.

Information Overload
As an internet savvy, social media, RSS reading blogger I do like many other people suffer from information overload in this area. I have this problem that I feel that I need to read every blog in my RSS, magazine that comes through the door and watch every episode of a TV series I am following. The best way I have found to reduce my information overload is to trim down on the blogs that I read, the information coming through my door and the TV programmes I watch. I you haven’t got it in your ‘pile’ of reading to start with then you don’t need to read it. I also have resisted joining every link sharing, social media application that springs up to avoid feeding myself with more and more information.

Products
When I buy something online I always make sure that I untick the box that says “Keep me informed of product updates” from the company I am buying from. I also regularly unsubscribe from newsletters, product info emails etc from amazon, play.com etc. These companies don’t send you emails for your benefit, it is helping them to sell more products. If you don’t know a product exists you won’t want to buy it.

People
No not temptation be consume people in any weird way. This applies more to work than social situations but if you avoid going to meetings you won’t get actions. Say no, and only interact with the people that give you the most benefit towards your long term aspirations, rather than those who give you the most information to deal with or actions to complete.

Of course to make the above tips work for you, you do need to have a certain amount of self control and discipline. We are all human and falter at times but if you want to make a change in your life for something that is important to you and for the better you should be able to have the discipline to go for it.

How do you eliminate your temptations?

See also: You Can’t do everything, get over it.

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Bits & Bobs:

• I’m not happy with the new logo. Any suggestions do let me know lifestyle [dot] project [at] yahoo [dot] com.
• As of today I think my stomach is all better!
• I’m off to New York next week (follow me in real time on twitter) and can’t wait! Hope to have a post ready before I go or a guest post if I get any submissions.
• Yes this end of blog post section is messy, I’m experimenting!

Image Credit: by Daniel Y. Go on Flickr via Creative Commons

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Time for three: Reading around the web:

• http://www.scotthyoung.com/blog/2008/11/12/how-to-discover-what-you%E2%80%99re-passionate-about/
• http://wisequeen.com/2008/11/13/how-to-build-a-social-media-empire/
• http://www.healthmoneysuccess.com/363/11-keys-to-double-your-productivity/

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Thanks for reading.

I hope you enjoyed my post. I’d love to hear your comments below or get a Digg or Stumble!