Simplify Your Life in 7 Easy Steps
Simplicity… Clarity… Peace of mind… When was the last time we experienced that in our lives? When was the last time we felt truly happy just being in the moment? When our thoughts were not occupied by planning, prioritizing, analyzing or worrying?
There are some days when I just want to step back, close my life, take a long deep breath, and feel tranquility and peace wash over me.
If lately you too have been yearning to bring simplicity and clarity into your life, here are 7 easy steps that will help you to do just that:
1. Get rid of clutter.
I recently stumbled across a funny picture of Albert Einstein who appeared to be looking for something on his extremely messy desk. Below the picture was a quote “If a cluttered desk is a sign of a cluttered mind, of what, then, is an empty desk?” – Albert Einstein.
And although, Einstein’s witty comeback made me smile, an empty desk does not necessarily imply an empty mind. Very rarely does clutter help us think and be more productive (like in the case of Einstein).
Usually it is quite the opposite. Psychologists have noticed that working at a messy desk impedes concentration and noticeably decreases productivity. Just as living in a cluttered house, may drain our energy and negatively affect our mood.
The first step to simplifying your life and to bring peace into your soul is to simplify the space you live and work in. Everything that is old, unneeded, unused, broken or spare needs to go! Be honest with yourself about what you truly need and what you have been holding on to without much thought. You will be surprised how refreshing it feels to reclaim your space back.
2. Get rid of mental clutter.
It is not only our homes and offices that get cluttered. Our minds get overwhelmed too with new ideas, important dates that we need to remember, things we must do and all the “where did I put it?” questions. Our mind works non-stop. Processing. Prioritizing. Remembering…
In reality uncluttering our mind is not that different from organizing our office desk – you bring order into your thinking, by not trying to keep everything in your head. This is what I do to organize my thoughts:
1. Make to-do lists, where I write down important tasks or events that I am afraid to forget.
2. Keep an idea journal for all the good ideas that I might have. I just write it down and take it off my mind.
3. Have “junk-thought” sheet by my computer, where I dump all of those negative, meaningless and distracting thoughts that keep cycling over and over, junking up my mind! Sometimes I can fill up the whole page in 15 minutes, with all those random thoughts that come to my mind. But after I am done, I always feel much more focused.
For some reason writing your thoughts down works like magic when you are trying to calm an overly agitated mind and gain clarity.
3. Separate your family from your professional life.
When we have to sacrifice our family time in order to finish an important project – we feel guilty. Whenever we are spending time with our family and think about how much we need to get done – we feel anxious. In any case life gets complicated, because you are not focusing 100% on work and you are not really being with your family. Keep your professional life separate from your personal life. When you are at work – work, when you are with your family – enjoy it to the fullest! And you will see how much simpler life gets.
4. Do not overcomplicate what was meant to be easy.
Do you know how sometimes you spend way too much time doing something that was not even that important? For example I can write a whole post in an hour and then spend the next hour looking for the right photo to put on my blog. Does having a perfect photo noticeably improve the quality of the post? Not really. But I still occasionally catch myself doing it.
I believe the main reason behind such behavior is perfectionism. We all strive to do our best, but sometimes we get too carried away by the need to do everything perfectly. Take it from me – trying to achieve perfection is the fastest way to overcomplicate even the simplest of things (and waste a lot of time for the matter). Do not get too caught up on perfecting all the tiny details, because in 99,9% of situations “very good” is good enough.
5. Rest.
If you spend 2/3 of your day being extremely busy, because you have filled it up with a thousand-and-one activities, it does not mean that you deserve a raise, compliments or a gold star. It probably means that you are tired, irritated, creatively drained and confused, because your family members do not seem to appreciate your efforts.
Whether you are raising 2 young children or running your own business, take some time for yourself, to slow down, disconnect from all the technologies, rest and regain your energy. Sometimes just getting out of the rush of activity and looking at the situating with a rested mind helps to see things more clearly.
6. Limit your options.
We believe that having options is a good thing. It is true. As long as it is a limited number of options. Psychological research showed that when we are faced with too many alternatives to choose from, we feel confused and easily enter into ‘analysis paralyses’.
For the past 2 weeks, while I have been staying in Miami, I have been watching a lot of TV.I felt that most of the commercials were dedicated to car insurance companies: “State farm has twice as many clients as Geiko and Progressive together”, “Hundreds of people have switched to Geiko, and saved up to $500”…
Luckily, I did not need car insurance, but if I did I would probably feel absolutely overwhelmed with all this information.
In a world when most of us suffer from over-choice, taking every single detail into consideration to make the optimal decision is close to impossible. To simplify your life and your decision making, it helps to identify one-two, or a maximum of 3, criteria (be it price, quality, time, risks involved and so on… ) and reduce the number of options, until you make the right decision.
7. Find inner simplicity.
They say that the outer world is just a reflection of our inner state. If you are surrounded by chaos or feel confused about what you should do,it is probably a sign that you need to find some time to get in touch with your inner self. It might be praying, meditating, communicating with God, spending time in nature, writing, painting, dancing or doing any other activity that helps you to get to know yourself better. Working on our inner self helps to identify our priorities, let go of things that we do not really need and bring peaceful simplicity into our life.
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Tags: achieve simplicity, happiness, self-improvement advice, simplicity tips, simplify life, tips to get more done
