Life is complicated – why not simplify it? In this article, I’m going to share 20 things that you could do to simplify your life and live minimally.
These are things that I’ve used myself and I think they’ve worked so I hope they work for you too.
today’s article, I’m gonna talk about how you can simplify your life.
1 start your day with a short to-do list
Daily to-do list which has your top priority items. So when I don’t have a list and I don’t have a plan for my day, I’m kind of all over the place.
To simplify things I really need to have a list of things I need to get done. But if you have a long list the to-do list which is 8 to 10 items it can get overwhelming.
So it’s a really good idea to have a shorter list- a list of the high priority items. These are basically items that have to get done, and because you’ve simplified your list you’re more likely to stick to it and not get distracted.
2 Make breakfast the night before
Now if you’re a morning person you probably have time to make breakfast in the morning, but I’m not really a morning person and I don’t know making breakfast in the morning seems a bit tedious.
To make it easier just make breakfast the night before – there are a lot of great make-ahead recipes out there and that way all you have to do in the morning is go into your fridge and grab breakfast and go.
3 Choose our outfit the night before
I used to do this when I used to do a corporate job and it made my life easier because I can’t figure out what to wear.
It’s always ” Oh my gosh I don’t have anything to wear! What do I do?” But I would plan my outfit the night before, put it on a hanger.
It took less than five minutes because I was in a good state of mind – I wasn’t in a rush and it became a lot easier in the mornings because I didn’t have to make that added decision of what am I going to wear.
4 Stick to fewer handbags
This is something I started to do in the last year. I used to have a lot of handbags when I wasn’t livings so minimally and it would get complicated moving things from one handbag to the other.
Now I have one handbag – it’s a black tote and I use it for almost everything and it just makes it a lot easier to use just one handbag.
5 Use a smaller wallet
There was a time when I had a huge wallet. It was big, it was bulky, it was annoying. So now I have a smaller wallet.
It probably has five to six cards and I can’t put much in it so I’m forced to declutter it all the time.
It’s just a lot easier and a lot less complicated.
6 make a list of go-to uniforms or outfits
What do I mean by this? So you know when you go into your closet and you don’t know what to wear?
It happens all the time but if you have a few go-to outfits which I call uniforms you can simplify your life.
So an example would be something like let’s say a chambray shirt and a pair of black leggings.
It’s something that’s my uniform whenever I don’t know what to wear. That is my go-to
Outfit.
So make a list of three to four go-to outfits that you like that suit your style and on those days when you don’t know what to wear, go to that list.
Go to your go-to outfit list and you will get dressed a lot faster.
7 Declutter your home
How can I talk about simplifying your life without talking about decluttering? If you declutter your home there’s less chaos.
8 Deal with paper clutter daily
So when the mail comes in my tendency in the past was to kind of let it be. Look at it three weeks later and sometimes I’d miss a bill or I’d miss something important.
So now my strategy is dealing with your paper clutter immediately as soon as the mail comes in.
Have a look at it, put it away , throw away the items you don’t need and same goes with magazines and flyers and all those things.
9 Unsubscribe from email subscriptions
you don’t need. Oh my gosh I have so many email subscriptions and I’ve lost track of them. And they go into a special folder on my Gmail so it’s not much of a problem but whenever I go into that folder it’s just chaos and I don’t like that.
So this year I’m simplifying. I’m unsubscribing from all those emails that I don’t need
and I’m also unsubscribing from a lot of the stores that keep sending me coupons
for things because I want to live more minimally.
I want to buy less so I want less temptation.
10 turn off Social media notifications
Turn them off. So I’m actually doing a month of no social media. I’m going to let you guys know how it went in March once I’ve finished the month but if social media is complicating your life and you’re getting distracted, turn off the notifications.
That way you decide when you want to go into social media as opposed to being
distracted by those constant notifications.
11 Turn on app blockers when you need to be productive
So I tend to get really, really distracted by my phone. lt’s not just social media. It’s also Google Chrome, it’s also YouTube.
So when I really need to get stuff done like when I need to be productive I turn on this app blocker called Quality Time and I can choose which apps I’m not allowed to use during that time.
And once I’ve turned on that app blocker I have no distractions.
12 don’t buy things just because they’re on sale
So I had this tendency in the past to buy things because they were on sale. Hey it’s cheap.
It’s a good deal. Let’s do this. But the problem is you end up buying things that you don’t really love.
So don’t buy something just because it’s on sale. I’m not saying don’t buy things on sale, buy something on sale if you would actually pay full price for it – like you love it a lot.
If you love it that means you should buy it but if you don’t love it and we love the price and
that’s pretty much all your love – don’t buy it. It’s just gonna be more clutter
in your home.
13 Make a want list
So I used to just buy impulsively. If I wanted something I’d buy it and then I’d end up with things that I don’t really love.
So now whenever I want to buy something, I think I want to buy it, I put it on a list – my want list and I leave that item on the list for at least a week or two.
And then I revisit that list. If in a week or two I still want that item that means I really need it or I really love it, otherwise I’m just buying impulsively.
14 Establish routines
Now I’m talking about a morning routine and an evening routine. So you might think routines are boring – I don’t like routines.
Well I used to be one of those people too, but I’ve noticed that when I have something as part of my routine I’m more likely to do it.
So for example I used to try to do meditation whenever I got a chance and it didn’t really end up happening.
Now meditation is part of my morning routine and I do it before I do anything else and because it’s part of routine, I’m more likely to do it. So think about having a morning and evening routine.
If you need ideas, there’s plenty on YouTube. There are a lot of routines out there.
15 Single-tasking
So multitasking sounds nice but it just isn’t effective.
I find that when I’m doing too many things at one time, I’m not doing anything properly.
So now I single task. That way I’m doing the work faster and in more detail and doing it properly the first time round.
16 Keep your decor simple
I’m a big believer in having simple minimal decor not because I’m a minimalist but because it makes cleaning easier.
Dusting can be really complicated when you have a lot of things but when you have fewer things in your decor, it’s really simple. It’s a lot easier to clean.
17 Tidy up daily
So in the past I used to do all of my chores on the weekend so I would never really tidy up much during the week.
I’d do the basics like the dishes, things like that. I did a lot of my tidying up on the weekend. By the time Friday rolled around my house was pretty much a mess and I don’t know- I didn’t like living that way.
So now I try to tidy up every single day. I don’t do major tidying up every day. Just a little bit every single day.
18 get rid of duplicate photos on your phone immediately
So I have a tendency to take a lot of pictures of my cats and I have a lot of duplicate
photos and they just …
It’s just too much space on my phone. So now I try to delete the photos – the extra photos- as soon as I can because you know what?
If I don’t do it now, I’m never getting around to it.
19 Limit your communication time on the phone
So in the past I used to go on to my phone whenever I got a whatsapp message and I would reply to it at that time. And the problem with that is I would get distracted.
I went on to reply to a whatsapp message but then I got onto YouTube and then you know… down the rabbit hole.
So now I limit my communication time to a block of time every day. So every evening around 8:30 to 9:00 I try to respond to all my messages. That’s what works for me.
Try to see what works for you. But I find that limiting your communication time means that you’re not going to be constantly distracted by your phone.
20 Learn to say no – don’t over commit
Learn to say no. In the past I used to say yes to every single commitment that came my way.
Someone asked me for a favor or if they wanted me to attend something with them I would say yes.
And the problem was I was busy I was getting overwhelmed and I still said yes and it just it was too much. It was overwhelming, it was chaos.
To simplify things now I only say yes to things that I really want to do and I don’t say yes just because I feel obligated to do so.
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