Want To Simplify Your Life? Apply These 5 Tips To Change Your Future For The Better

There’s no denying that trying to manage our busy lives in this day and age can be difficult since modern life tends to be complex and complicated.

However, this doesn’t mean that we can’t feel fulfilled and satisfied. There are steps that we can take to simplify our lives and change it for the better. And if you’re ready to create more ease and take that pressure off, you’ve come to the right place! In this article, we’ll share with you tips to make that happen.

5 Manageable Ways to Simplify Your Life

1. Keep a written log and track what you do

We’re pulled in so many directions at once in today's modern and busy world. It can sometimes feel overwhelming to deal with stressful life events and juggle different responsibilities like raising kids, paying bills, working, etc.

Sometimes it all just becomes too much to bear and handle, which makes you want to give up on life. However, we don’t recommend that you do that. 

When things pile up, you need a planner and create a to-do list consistently so you can keep track of your schedule, tasks and responsibilities. This is one way to make your life feel less cluttered and more organized. 

2. Practice minimalism 

Simplicity involves unburdening your life, and living more lightly with fewer distractions that interfere with a high quality life, as defined uniquely by each individual.” - Linda Breen Pierce

Another way to simplify your life is by practicing minimalism. Living as a minimalist has become a popular practice in recent years because it has a lot of benefits. To start, assess and evaluate what serves a purpose and what’s unnecessary in your life at the moment. 

If you feel like you have a lot of stuff, determine which ones you need to keep and get rid of those you don’t need anymore by donating them to charity, setting up a garage sale, etc.

You might also be guilty of spending your money on unnecessary and excessive purchases that eat up your budget and needlessly preventing you from saving money.

So before making a purchase, establish a healthy budget, then ask yourself if you really need those goods and services and whether or not you could cut down how much you buy. Also, remember that practicing minimalism is going to be an ongoing process. You’ll find ways to improve and modify your ways as you go along. 

3. Simplify your expectations

“The secret to happiness is low expectations.” - Barry Schwartz

Sometimes our expectations make things more complex and complicated than they need to be. This is the reason why we recommend you to simplify your expectations and not expect too much from people.

If you start off with lower expectations, you might end up feeling pleasantly surprised and that’s always better than feeling disappointed. 

Remember that many of life's conflicts and disappointments are caused when we place unfair expectations on others. And when you expect, you want our wishes, desires or demands to be fulfilled. So you’ll only get hurt if those weren’t fulfilled by the people you expect it from. 

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4. Take things slowly but surely

Some people find it hard to let go of certain things, habits and people in life and that’s okay. If you’re one of them, you don’t have to do a quick 180 if you’re not comfortable. 

Sometimes it’s best to take things slowly but surely. One easy way to simplify your life and get rid of those that are no longer serving you is to make a list at the start of the week of what you want to subtract from your life.

This can be anything you want, but you should limit it to two to five a week. Work on doing that during the week and remind yourself of the reasons why you need to part ways and keep them out of your life.

However, if you don’t feel ready, it’s okay to delay and remove something from your current list. There’s always a week after that or the week after that week and so on. 

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5. Cut the mental clutter from your life to improve mental clarity

Mental clutter is basically anything floating around in your head that keeps you from thinking straight. It could be those things you need to remember, upcoming events you’re planning, tasks you’re procrastinating on, negative self-talk, ideas, reminders, feelings, the list goes on.

This can definitely slow you down, affect your productivity, jeopardize your mental health, etc. if you don’t find ways to cut them from your life. This is the reason why we recommend you to cut mental clutter if you’re feeling lost and unable to focus. Some ways to do that include but not limited to the following:

• Brain dump
• Keep your work or office space clutter-free
• Develop routines and systems
• Add margin to your schedule
• Schedule some downtime and plan catch-up days
• Start meditation and journaling

Simplifying Your Life Doesn't Have to Be Difficult

You don't have to implement everything in one day, but starting to simplify your life can happen right now. Like many other things that benefit your mental health, it can take time and it is a practice, a mindset, a way of looking at your whole life. 

Be kind to yourself as you look at the things that can change your world for the better.

Photo by Brett Jordan on Unsplash