Tiny Ways to Simplify your Life in a Big Way
Small things that, together, make a big difference…
We’ve all experienced the feeling of being overwhelmed at times, either by our schedules or responsibilities, or just general things that happen in life.
When life gets messy, hectic or chaotic, there are things we can do to make our lives lighter and simpler.
Do a weekly schedule review. Take a moment every week to schedule out the next week. I usually do this on Sunday. I just take a moment to think of all the things I have to do next week, that I want to do next week, and I’ll schedule all of that in. Then, I’ll quickly review it.
This works great because there’s nothing more stressful than, if a week is coming up where I can already see that there’s no way that I’ll realistically get to everything without drinking at least 10 cups of coffee a day, I can start taking action. It’s also just really nice to have an overview of what’s coming up next week. It gives me a sense of perspective — kind of like a bird’s eye overview.
It makes me feel more organized and less chaotic as I move through my days. I will quickly look through my schedule, change some things around if needed, or cancel things that are too much.
Make a phone spot. This is a very simple thing, but it makes a big difference. Just make a designated spot for your phone. I’ve made it a rule for myself to always put my phone there whenever I’m at home. This creates a physical distance between me and my phone. Because of that, I won’t be tempted to grab it every 5 minutes.
This little practical thing has allowed me to work with more concentration because my phone isn’t constantly distracting me and even creates less visual clutter around me.
Stop putting things on your backlog. I focus on finishing one thing before adding the next to my mental list of things to do, to read, to use up or to go to. An example of this would be to read a book and finish it before moving on to the next book. I used to get new books before I was done with the one I was reading. What this did is create a lot of subconscious stress. I always felt behind, like there were so many books I still needed to read.
For me, reading is supposed to be a relaxing activity but having a huge list that I still needed to read created a lot of pressure and stress. I do this with almost everything now and it is much more calming. I will have one perfume and, when I use it up, then I will go and get a new one — instead of having 5–6 different ones. I will use up my coffee before buying more, etc.
Take a moment to look at your backlog. Do you have a really long watch list on Netflix? Do you have a long list of books you want to read? Do you have a lot of beauty products that you still need to use up? Try to focus on one thing before adding the next thing so that you don’t have that long ‘go-through’ list in your head.
Re-Examining your beauty routine can be a really nice thing to do. This is powerful because it could save you lots of time on a daily basis. Take a moment to think about all the steps in your beauty routine. Are they still serving you? Are you enjoying them? Are there a few things that you could leave out?
For me, I stopped dying my hair a while ago. I also had a few products that I stopped using. All these little things combined have saved me lots of time, effort and money. I think our beauty routine is meant to serve us. It is meant to make us feel good, confident and put together. Certain steps might just be there because that’s how you’ve always done them, and you’ve gotten used to them.
Stay out of the update trap. Learn to stick with what you have and what’s working for you. I have a laptop that I use for writing, research and checking email mostly. It does everything I need it to do. Until that changes, I will not look at any other laptops. I will not consider any upgrade or switch until it is no longer doing what I need it to do.
This is the same with everything — like the phone that I currently have. Companies like to tell us that we need to upgrade our phone every year or two years. That’s not true. We can keep using them until there’s an actual issue.
Things like makeup items, skin care or hair care items — if they work for you, there’s no need to go out looking for different brands or see what else is out there. Same goes for furniture and clothing.
All of this looking up of information about products that we may or may not want is costing us a lot of energy and money. There is a huge amount of decision fatigue involved. If what we have now works for us, then we don’t need anything else.
Set boundaries for yourself around news. What I would recommend to everyone, especially now, is to set clear rules and guidelines about what kind of news you want to consume and in what way. This is so your news intake doesn’t necessarily impact your mental well-being. Just because you care about the fate of others doesn’t mean you have to surround yourself with news that is causing you issues. Decide on which sources are OK for you, what amount of news is doable for you, as well as what time of day is allowed or not.
Whenever you feel overwhelmed with your schedule, ask yourself ‘do I have to do this right now?’ Does it have to be done or is it a ‘nice to have’? What would happen if this didn’t get done? Can I have someone else do it for me? Can it be done later, tomorrow or next week?
Figuring out what to make for dinner used to give me a lot of stress. That is until I decided to create a simple weekly dinner menu. I simply make a list of some of my favorite ‘go to’ meals that are easy and quick to prepare and then decide which ones I want to eat on which day. This process takes 15–20 minutes. I make a list of the ingredients I will need for those specific meals and take it with me when I go to the supermarket. I get the groceries and then I don’t have to think about it again for the rest of the week.
Have a tune-in moment every morning. This doesn’t have to take up a lot of time. Just take one minute to ask yourself how you are feeling today. We are used to suppressing our feelings because we have things to do that day, but our schedules and to-dos don’t really care if we feel up to it or not. I have to say I did notice a big change since I started checking in every morning.
I’m trying to become a person who lives more in-tune with how I’m feeling and respect the natural ups and downs that occur. I try to make little changes whenever possible to live and plan accordingly — instead of prioritizing what needs to get done over how I’m naturally feeling.
Batch your digital communications. Whether that is answering your WhatsApp messages, getting in touch with people, answering your emails, or going online for social media, try to batch any type of communication through your phone instead of having it happen all throughout your day. I have a little moment twice a day where I grab my phone to answer messages or chat online. The rest of the day, my phone is in my purse or in my phone spot.
Social interactions are fun but they’re also taxing — especially if they happen through your screen. Turn off your notifications. Your brain needs time to process all the little bits of information. Let people know that you check your phone twice a day, so they don’t expect to get a response from you right away. If they need to get a hold of you right away, they should call you.
There are very small things that, together can make a big difference. If you have more that you can share, please do so in the comments. I’ve love to hear about them.
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