7 Simple Strategies to Simplify Your Life

Improve Your Life

By Rob Smith

In this day and age, people are increasingly stressed out. Modern life and all of its demands have put more pressure than ever on people to perform at their peak and never miss a beat of their life.

From being attached to your workplace via email 24 hours a day, 7 days a week to meeting the demands of being a great parent, spouse, and friend, it is getting harder to find time to relax.

Start with Subtraction

When people do take the time to try to relax, they are usually looking for quick fixes. They are looking for supplements that will relax them and make them calmer without interrupting their daily workflow.

Unfortunately, there is no quick and easy fix that you can add into your life in order to make it easier and simpler. If you want to make your life better, you actually should look for ways to subtract.

Find things that you can remove from your life. Get rid of the clutter that is making your day to day life stressful and unmanageable. You want to get to the point where the only things that are taking up your time are the things that really and truly matter to you.

Thankfully, there are a few simple and easy strategies that can vastly improve your life, lower your stress, and make you feel more at ease and less frazzled. By taking the time to examine a few areas of your life, you will be well on your way to a better, healthier, and more fulfilling life.

Simple Strategies:

1. Get more sleep – Chances are you do not get enough sleep. More often than not people choose to sacrifice getting enough sleep if it means that they can get more things done. The common misconception is that by staying up, you are being more productive and are making better use of your time.
   But the truth is, you are actually doing extreme damage to your body, mind, and productivity by cutting out hours of sleep. The typical adult needs at least 7 to 8 hours of sleep to feel rested and have a full and productive day. The less sleep you get, the less productive you are and the worse your day is..
   Try and aim for a regular bedtime. Sticking to a specific time for sleeping can help ensure you are getting the sleep you need..
   Write down unfinished to-do lists before bed to help your mind wind down. This can help you fall asleep faster and sleep deeper..
   Finally, start to prepare for sleep 45 minutes before your desired bedtime. Dim the lights, put away phones and computers, get into pyjamas, wash your face, and brush your teeth. .
   This routine will help you wind down and get the sleep you need.
2. Meditate – Taking some time to quiet your mind each day can have incredibly positive results on your day to day life. From improving your mood to making you more productive, meditating before your day starts can help get you in a good mindset to start the day..
   Start slow. Taking just two minutes to relax and think of nothing in the morning is a great place for people new to meditating to start. .
   Those two minutes of mindful silence will give you the time you need to reset and get ready to face the day.
3. Low information diet – People are constantly pelted with news and information each day. From 24 hours news channels in the lunchroom to Twitter updates and emails from newspapers, it feels like the world is one constant newsreel of bad reports and disheartening news. .
   Remember that more often than not, only the bad news is getting reported. This can sometimes make it feel like there is not anything good left in the world. This can make you feel depressed and stressed out. .
   Try cutting down on the information you ingest. Sometimes, the less you know about the details of that car fire or this attack on a village or what dumb thing that politician said, the better. Try to only check the news once a day, if at all, and don’t obsess over it. .
   Your mind will thank you.
4. Stop obsessing over email – Because people’s phones now connect them to their email 24/7, the tendency to obsess over each email you get is a serious problem. More and more, people feel like they have to respond to every email they get minutes after they receive it. .
   The truth is, you only have to check your email twice a day. By cutting down on the amount of times you check email, you will be able to focus better and get more work done. Designate two times a day to check your email and stick to it..
   Make sure that you communicate the fact that you are doing this to colleagues so that they know to call or find you in person if something it really urgent.
5. Be in the moment – Make sure that when you are doing something or are with someone you are totally invested in that moment. Not only will this help your focus and productivity, it will also help you get more done and build more meaningful connections with people..
   As an added bonus, being in the moment let’s your mind settle on one thing at a time. .
   This can help you feel less stressed and frazzled and can lead to infinitely better and more focused work and lifestyle.
6. Ditch your possessions – Truth be told, people have way too much stuff nowadays. Their lives are crowded with things that they don’t need and it can create unnecessary stress in their lives. .
   Take a weekend to go through some of your belongings and consider if it brings improvement to your life. Does it make you happy? Does it add something meaningful to your life? If it doesn’t, get rid of it..
   There is no need to keep clutter in your life as it will only stress you out more.
7. Focus on your ONE thing – As helpful as “to-do” lists are, they can sometimes make people feel overwhelmed. Feeling like you have so much to do when you look at your to-do list can stress you out and make you less productive. .
   If you want to actually finish that to-do list, you need to focus on the one thing that you have to get done..
   By taking the list step by step and prioritizing things, you will be more productive and end up getting everything done instead of getting lost in “busy time”.

Analyse and Customize

When it comes to simplifying your life, there is no one size fits all solution. You need to examine your life and figure out where you are struggling and address it. Maybe you can’t put down your email at home. Try turning off your email notification from your work account when you aren’t in the office or consider telling people you work with that you will only answer emails between 8 am and 6 pm.

Taking the time to simplify your life can make you happier, healthier, and lead to a more fulfilling life. By using these seven steps as a guide, you will be well on your way to simplifying your life and becoming a more productive and less stressed person.

image courtesy of Pixabay