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How To Simplify Your Life
Life can be a bit hectic sometimes. Most of us have our schedules packed to
the gills with school, work, and activities...so, where does that leave time
for our hobbies, personal lives, and general wellbeing? This article shares
some tips about things we can do to make our day to day a bit easier so
that we may have time for our friends and family, as well as ourselves.
Read carefully. You may also listen to the article's audio recording if this
helps!
Create A Simplified Life? It CAN Be Done--Simply!
By Elizabeth Scott, M.S., About.com Guide
Updated June 25, 2012
About.com Health's Disease and Condition content is reviewed by
the Medical Review Board
Cutting out negative relationships and holding onto the positive ones is a
good way to simplify life and keep stress to a minimum.
Today, people tend to work longer hours, have their kids involved in more
activities, and generally maintain a busier style of life than even a few
years ago. This can be exciting and enriching1, but it can also lead to a
feeling of constant stress and chaos. If you’re looking for ideas on how to
simplify life, you’re not alone -- the concept of 'voluntary simplicity' has
been gaining popularity since the 1990s because so many people have felt
the same. Here are some of the main ways you can reduce the stress of a
life that’s packed to the hilt while still maintaining the activities that are
important to you.
Clear Clutter
Many stressed people live in cluttered homes. But, house clutter is both an
effect and a cause of stress. Clutter2 can bring a general feeling of
uneasiness, and can literally drain your energy, but getting rid of it is
difficult for stressed people with busy schedules. One strategy to simplify
life by clearing clutter is to take 15 or 30 minutes each night to tackle one
pile at a time, decluttering your house space by space. Another strategy is
to take several hours one weekend and just be done with it. Either way,
you’ll remove a subtle but significant energy drain from your life, and
replace it with the feelings of relaxation that come from having your home
be a haven from stress. (Be sure to maintain order3 once you achieve it.)
Cut Out Negative Relationships
You may already be aware of the value of solid, supportive relationships in
your life -- the friend who picks you up when your down, celebrates with
you when you’re happy, and shares events your life as they happen. You
may not be as aware of the effects of conflicted relationships -- the critical,
unpredictable, or uber-competitive friend. It turns out that these 'toxic
friendships' actually drain us more than purely negative relationships. This
is because we don’t always have strong defenses against the people who
are sometimes nice to us, so we can get taken off-guard. If you’re
wondering how to simplify life, save yourself grief, frustration and drama if
you take an honest look at the relationships in your life and decide which
are worth maintaining4 and which should be let go5. (For help with this,
check out our Social Assessment Quiz6.)
Automate What You Can
Getting some of the daily, weekly and monthly work of your life into an
automated system can help simplify life and relieve stress in two ways: You
don’t have to take time to do the work, and you don’t have to clutter your
mind by remembering to do the work. Making little changes that take steps
out of your daily routine like setting up automatic timers to water your
plants or turn off your lights, signing up for automatic bill pay options, or
getting off junk mail lists can be an easy way to simplify life. By putting in a
little initial work, you can then forget about it. (See this article for more
on automatic stress relievers7.)
Live Within Your Means
To say that money can’t buy happiness is cliché. We all pretty much know
this, and research has supported it as well. The truth, in fact, is that money
can’t even buy you out of financial stress8 if you don’t spend less than you
make. Many people who make large amounts of money simply spend more,
and carry large amounts of debt, leading to feelings of stress rather than
abundance. The key to avoiding this type of financial stress is simple, but
not always easy: Live within your means. This can be a difficult change at
first, but one that will bring great rewards, and can significantly lower your
stress levels if you’re not living within your means already. (Check out this
article for some ideas on how to move closer to living within your means9.)
Learn To Say No
While many people spend as much money as they possibly can, leaving
themselves feeling stretched to the limit, too many of us also budget our
time this way. With demands from work, school and life in general, it’s easy
to become overscheduled these days. However, if you’re always rushing
from one place to another, you may find yourself exhausted, but with no
time left to relax. While most of us have busy schedules these days, it’s
important to schedule in time for exercise, hobbies and other stress
relievers, as well as time for our relationships. One way to find this time is
to get better at saying no10 to time demands that aren’t serving you. After
you trade some of your more taxing obligations with some more self-
nurturing ones, you should see a lasting change in your stress level, and
find yourself living a more simplified life.