Simplicity is good for your health, helping you to focus on the things which are really important.
When your life is very busy and you constantly feel like you’re juggling multiple tasks, it is easy to feel anxious and overwhelmed. But making a few key changes in different aspects of your life can lower your stress levels and help you prioritise what matters.
This week is Simplify Your Life week – a week in the calendar designed to encourage us to eliminate any sources of stress and make our lives happier and more efficient. Here are our top five tips on making your everyday life simpler and easier to cope with:
Decluttering your home will make it easier for you to find what you need when you need it. And reducing how much stuff you have means your home will be easier to tidy and keep clean. Having an uncluttered home is good for your physical health too as fewer surfaces will mean less dust in the atmosphere.
Japanese decluttering expert Marie Kondo, who has her own series on Netflix, swears by making sure everything has its place. She also believes you should only keep items that spark joy – anything else should be thanked and then sent on its way.
If you have a home which is jam-packed with stuff, it can take a long time to go through everything and achieve the results you want. One way of getting the simpler home you crave much more quickly is to pack up the items which need sorting through and put them into storage. That way, you won’t have to face the clutter every day and can go through it all in a neutral environment when you have time.
If you have moved all the clutter out of your home and put it into a self-storage unit then you will need to make a conscious decision to bring items back into your home, meaning you are likely to weigh up the value of each thing more carefully than if you were completing the task in your property. The act of renting a unit also means you are more likely to get on with the decluttering process as there is a financial incentive not to let the job drag on for months or even years.
Simplifying your finances can help you save money, pay off debt and achieve your goals. Go through your bank statements and look at where your money is going each month. Are there any regular subscriptions you no longer make use of? Think about any areas where you are spending too much and could easily cut back – for example, if you are buying a takeaway coffee every day, could you replace this with a homemade drink in a flask?
Set yourself a realistic budget that covers your essential outgoings and leaves you enough for some treats and luxuries. Keeping a closer eye on your finances will reduce your stress levels and help you appreciate what you do have.
When you were a child you probably had a set bedtime and, while you might not have liked it at the time, it did mean you got a consistent amount of sleep. Many people are very erratic about when they go to bed and get up and this can leave them feeling exhausted and burnt out.
Setting yourself a simple routine where you go to bed and get up at roughly the same time every single day will help you make sure you get enough sleep to function well during the day. Many smartphones allow you to set your bedtime and will go onto a do not disturb setting during the hours you should be asleep. This can help you stick to your plans.
One of the reasons people often feel stressed is that they have overcommitted and agreed to do too many things. Be realistic about what you have time for and remember to factor in some days where you have nothing planned and can recharge and relax.
Spend some time working out what you really need to do and what you really want to do and try to get rid of any commitments which don’t fall into either of those categories.
Learning to say no can be difficult at first, especially if people are used to you saying yes to everything but it gets easier with practice. Explaining that you’d like to be able to help but simply don’t have the time right now will usually be enough for most people and you’ll then be free to focus on those areas of your life which are most important.
This can be tricky but one way of simplifying your life is to spend less time with difficult people who cause conflict. Toxic relationships can be very draining so limit how much time and energy you give to people who have a negative impact on your life and surround yourself instead with those who make you feel appreciated, happy and loved.
If you aren’t willing or able to walk away from them completely, set stricter boundaries. This may mean saying no more often or reducing how often you see them.
