What does simplicity mean as a core value?
Simplicity as a core value means choosing fewer things, steps and commitments, and plainer language, so that what matters is easier to see, do and enjoy.
Complication feels like friction to people who prize simplicity. A cluttered cupboard, a forty-slide deck, a diary with no white space, a process with six approval steps: all of it registers as weight. If simplicity is a core value, you’re drawn to cutting back. You want fewer possessions, clearer plans, plainer language and a life with room to breathe. Underneath is a belief that once you strip away what doesn’t matter, what does matter is easier to see and enjoy.
What does simplicity look like in practice?
- You clear out things you haven’t used in a year without much agonising.
- You rewrite a document to half its length before sending it.
- You ask whether a step is really needed whenever a process grows.
- You keep a few close friends and a few good commitments, and leave gaps in the calendar.
- You choose the plain explanation over the impressive one.
When is simplicity overplayed?
Simplicity overplayed can flatten things that are genuinely complex. You might cut a nuance that mattered, dismiss careful analysis as overthinking, or impose your minimalism on people who find comfort in more. It can also become its own kind of perfectionism, a constant editing that never lets you settle. Held well, it simplifies to make things clearer for everyone. Before you cut something, you could ask the person who’d miss it most what it does for them.
Often confused with
Simplicity vs Clarity
Clarity is about being easy to understand. Simplicity is about having less: fewer things, steps and commitments, which often brings clarity but not always.
Simplicity vs Order
Order is everything having its place. Simplicity asks whether you need the thing at all.
Simplicity vs Contentment
Contentment is being at peace with what you have. Simplicity actively chooses to have less.
Questions to sit with
- What are you holding on to, at home or at work, that you’d never choose to acquire today?
- Where have you made something simpler than it really is?
- What would you drop first if you had to halve your commitments this month?
More values in Grace
Calm, composure and a quiet, balanced life.
About the author
Matt Rutherford is a Career and Leadership Coach. The Values Finder is the same exercise he uses with his coaching clients. He also writes Stuff that MattRs, a weekly newsletter with practical ideas to help you think clearer and work better.
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