10 Ways To Simplify Your Life

10 Ways To Simplify Your Life

How to rock your digital, physical, emotional, and mental world

Photo by Martin Péchy on Unsplash
There are the things we do, and the people we do it with. That’s it. While we break these up into the subcategories of play, careers, volunteering, church, school, and so much more, they all fall under those two things — what we do and who we love. Living a simpler life begins with that acknowledgement.

“The question of what you want to own is actually the question of how you want to live your life.” — Marie Kondo
When I first started aiming to make my life simpler, I genuinely just thought it would be fun. I found it an interesting challenge to live my life with only a few items of clothing, and an entertaining dare to simply my digital life to just a few apps. Little did I know, it would eventually change my life and improve every area of my otherwise monotonous and struggle-ridden existence.

1 || Stop working when you get home

One of the best ways to simplify your life is to have hard and fast boundaries for the different elements of it when needed. A great way I’ve seen this implemented is by not doing work at home, and other similar boundaries. The idea here is to be present where you are, and to make it clear where different things happen. Family stuff happens at home, work stuff happens at work. I’m reminded of something I grew up hearing, “work while you work, and play while you play.” Have barriers and buffers so you can be present and productive.

“It’s up to us to choose contentment and thankfulness now — and to stop imagining that we have to have everything perfect before we’ll be happy.”― Joanna Gaines
Chip and Joanna Gaines, TV personalities from the popular HGTV show Fixer Upper wrote about this in one of their magazines — and the powerful story they shared of the boundaries they implemented have stuck with me ever since. They even went as far as to leave phones in the car, making their home the ultimate sanctuary and perfect place to really lean in and connect with their family.

If this type of boundary-setting isn’t attainable for you or you aren’t quite ready to commit, you can even simply set up zones in your home. If you’re a college student in a dorm or a professional in a small apartment, you can do this as well. However you need to and can manage, set boundaries between thee different ways you spend at home — and make sure that you always have a place to escape the madness and connect with the people, things, and places you love.

2 || Figure out a system for digital clutter

We make our lives a lot more simpler by keeping somethings together digitally — but the addition of digital clutter can cause a lot of hidden stress that we sometimes can’t pinpoint the origin of. If you take notes on your phone, figure out where they should go afterwards. If you have to save a lot of things on your desktop, find a way to organize that.

“I believe that a simple and unassuming manner of life is best for everyone, best both for the body and the mind.”
― Albert Einstein
It’s hard to have a physically cluttered space — but it’s arguably even more difficult to live your life when your digital life is cluttered, because so much of your much-needed and heavily used items can be tucked away and hidden from sight. However you need to organize your digital life, aim to have ease of access to what you need most often, and to have a laptop, phone, and other devices that make your life easier, aesthetic (if you’re into that sort of thing), and efficient. Make sure your tools are optimized to what you need.

3 || Pick a single space to plan your life in

Try not to have a planner, and a digital calendar, and to-do lists, and sticky notes, and a task manager. Figure out where your plans, schedules, and events will go — and make that a singular location if you can. If that isn’t possible, then keep your calendar in one place, your future tasks in another, and your day-to-day plans in another.

“Have the courage to build your life around what is really most important to you.”― Joshua Becker
I’ve settled on using Notion for my digital note storage, and a physical bullet journal to organize my life. I also use GoogleCalendar for my actual calendar. These all work well together, and I’ve enjoyed using them in tandem the past few months. I’ve also found myself using different planners for different things. I’ll use my GoogleCalendar for everything, Notion for my business, and a paper planner to keep up with school and academic-related tasks. These are each singular places that I plan all related things in. It’s easy to keep track of, change, and use in my day-to-day life.

4 || Never buy a storage unit

Physical clutter is the bane of my existence. It’s the thing that keeps me from going on trips, from having people over to my home, and from going on more adventures — like camping, kayaking, etc. And I’m not the only person who has this struggle. Recently, a new storage unit business went up in my hometown. It’s super close to the main road in town, too, and I was immediately shocked to see that there was such a demand.

“There is more joy and fulfillment in pursuing less than can be found in pursuing more.”― Joshua Fields Millburn
To be honest, I’m amazed, constantly, at how much people keep in storage. And I often wonder, when are people ever going to come back for that stuff? I can hardly remember that I have an extra tooth brush in the drawer before going out and buying a new one. I can’t imagine how people would remember that they have a bookshelf tucked in the back of their storage unit before going to Ikea and simply buying a new, updated one. If you want to simplify your life, make sure you keep the space for your belongings limited and well-managed. And whatever you do, don’t buy a storage unit.

5 || Block out time for different kinds of tasks

We spend a lot of time shifting gears from one thing to another — when our time might be more efficiently (and happily) spent focusing on one thing for a long period of time before moving on to the next block of activities. One way that this can be achieved is my scheduling or blocking out time for specific kinds of tasks.

“A simple life is not seeing how little we can get by with — that’s poverty — but how efficiently we can put first things first. . . . When you’re clear about your purpose and your priorities, you can painlessly discard whatever does not support these…” ― Victoria Moran
This would look like scheduling 2 hours on Sunday for your monthly home deep clean, or going to a coffee shop one afternoon or evening every week to work on your projects. As a student, I do this often — having to block out different blocks of time for different things. For me I have certain blocks for friend time, others for studying, others for schoolwork and project-based work. This keeps things simpler, and much more organized — meaning I’m running around with a task list a mile long like a chicken with my head cut off less and less.

6 || Eliminate tasks like there’s no tomorrow

If you don’t have to do it, don’t. I’m the worst about this, to be honest, but when I remember that I’m a fallible human being and will not ever be doing everything on my mile long to do-list, I’m able to clear it off, start again, and feel so much better about myself.

One key element of this involves remembering where all of your tasks are stored. I know that oftentimes I think that I’m doing well with this, eliminating tasks and thinking my life is simple, and then I realize where everything I want to do is stored. There’s some in Notion, some in my notes app, some in a planner, some in another planner, some in GoogleTasks, and the list goes on and on.

“More was never the answer. The answer, it turned out, was always less.”― Cait Flanders, The Year of Less
I’ve found that the greatest solution to keeping things simple involves putting it all together, and being able to find all of my tasks in the same place, and then getting rid of them as efficiently as I can — deciding what actually matters. This is also a great opportunity to schedule anything that you know that you have to do. I do this with assignments and important work tasks, leaving me more time to sort through the less urgent and important tasks.

Remember that your time is precious, and that very few things are important and will be able to propel you forward. Be discerning, and find what tasks will be most important for your next steps.

7 || Outsource as much as you can

If you don’t have to do it, then don’t do it. I think a great way to think of this is as automating as much as you can. Think about your taxes, finances, house cleaning, whatever else takes up a lot of time in your life and makes things harder for you — find a way to make another person (or some sort of system or technology) do it for you. It’s a small price to pay to have some of your time back.

“…there are often many things we feel we should do that, in fact, we don’t really have to do. Getting to the point where we can tell the difference is a major milestone in the simplification process.” ― Elaine St. James
Life is a lot more complicated than we ever planned for it to be, in my opinion. Make it less complicating by employing someone, which is always good, and giving to someone that which you would be doing much less efficiently. This is also an opportunity to “trade” tasks with people. If your roommate or friend really likes something and you really dislike something, and they dislike and like those things, you could do what you like, and they could do what you dislike — sharing the workload and avoiding your less favored to-do list items.

However you need to/can accomplish this, I’d recommend clearing off as much as you don’t need to do as you can. If someone else, or a system of some sort, can do something better than you can — let them.

8 || Prioritize real friends

I wish there was a statistic that told us how much time we spend entertaining and spending time with the people that we weren’t actually fulfilled by. It’s not that these people are bad, it’s just that they’re not good for us. They don’t understand us, lift us up, or aid us in enjoying some of our favorite activities.

“Find a group of people who challenge and inspire you; spend a lot of time with them, and it will change your life.” — Amy Poehler
Find the people who are your real friends, your big friendships, the people who will show up no matter the situation, who know you well, and who make you a better person. Prioritize them, and make sure you’re getting poured into my them and that you’re able to have an important role in their life as well. It might take some time, but it will overall make your life simpler, clearing up issues of drama and lack of good connections.

9 || Know what makes you happy

Find the things that make you happy. If where you live doesn’t satisfy you, find a way to fix that. If you can afford to move, do that. If you can’t, bring in things that can make it easier. Find the things that are giving you continual joy, and try and incorporate them more.

“It is the sweet simple things in life which are the real ones after all.”― Laura Ingalls Wilder
If there’s a certain type of food that you love, make an effort to have more of it, and to find things similar that will give you the same amount of joy. If there’s a hobby you love, find more time for it, or more ways to incorporate into your daily schedule and into your social life. A simple life is one where you’re self-aware, one where you’re knowledgeable of what your best life is and you’re mindfully making it more like that standard.

10 || Live from values, not for goals

Values allow for intentional and improving choices to be made.Goals tend to be stagnant, unable to change or be adapted to your current circumstances. On the contrary, values can be changed, shifted, and re-applied to every situation you may encounter. Values also help you to be more adaptable.

If something happens to where a goal can no longer be achieved or it wouldn’t be beneficial to pursue it any longer, you can make a choice to let it go — and that will not equate to giving off, but to making an intentional choice to improve your life and make space and time to pursue what you need to be pursuing in your new situation.

“When we focus more on fitting it all in instead of making time for what counts, we lose sight of how to create a meaningful life.”― Courtney Carver, Soulful Simplicity
Goals are meant to be aims, things you’d like to achieve. And values are the things you hold in your heart that help you determine what those goals will be. If you let values run the show, not only will you be a fulfilled, happy, effective human being, but you’ll have goals that align with what you stand for, and goals that are always in step with who you are and who you’re trying to be.
The simple life is a beautiful life. When done well, it is a life without unnecessary stress, toxic relationships, too much stuff, or unnecessary tasks and aims. It’s also a life full of joy and continual happiness, a life of mindfulness and minimalism, and a life that empowers you to be the best person that you can be and do the work in the world that only you can do.

I wish you the best of luck in living the simple life, and would love to hear anymore ideas on how to live the simple life and make the most of every moment. Good luck!

CONTRIBUTED BY Katie E. Lawrence

Read More:

10 Ways To Simplify Your Life

How to rock your digital, physical, emotional, and mental world

Photo by Martin Péchy on Unsplash
There are the things we do, and the people we do it with. That’s it. While we break these up into the subcategories of play, careers, volunteering, church, school, and so much more, they all fall under those two things — what we do and who we love. Living a simpler life begins with that acknowledgement.

“The question of what you want to own is actually the question of how you want to live your life.” — Marie Kondo
When I first started aiming to make my life simpler, I genuinely just thought it would be fun. I found it an interesting challenge to live my life with only a few items of clothing, and an entertaining dare to simply my digital life to just a few apps. Little did I know, it would eventually change my life and improve every area of my otherwise monotonous and struggle-ridden existence.

1 || Stop working when you get home

One of the best ways to simplify your life is to have hard and fast boundaries for the different elements of it when needed. A great way I’ve seen this implemented is by not doing work at home, and other similar boundaries. The idea here is to be present where you are, and to make it clear where different things happen. Family stuff happens at home, work stuff happens at work. I’m reminded of something I grew up hearing, “work while you work, and play while you play.” Have barriers and buffers so you can be present and productive.

“It’s up to us to choose contentment and thankfulness now — and to stop imagining that we have to have everything perfect before we’ll be happy.”― Joanna Gaines
Chip and Joanna Gaines, TV personalities from the popular HGTV show Fixer Upper wrote about this in one of their magazines — and the powerful story they shared of the boundaries they implemented have stuck with me ever since. They even went as far as to leave phones in the car, making their home the ultimate sanctuary and perfect place to really lean in and connect with their family.

If this type of boundary-setting isn’t attainable for you or you aren’t quite ready to commit, you can even simply set up zones in your home. If you’re a college student in a dorm or a professional in a small apartment, you can do this as well. However you need to and can manage, set boundaries between thee different ways you spend at home — and make sure that you always have a place to escape the madness and connect with the people, things, and places you love.

2 || Figure out a system for digital clutter

We make our lives a lot more simpler by keeping somethings together digitally — but the addition of digital clutter can cause a lot of hidden stress that we sometimes can’t pinpoint the origin of. If you take notes on your phone, figure out where they should go afterwards. If you have to save a lot of things on your desktop, find a way to organize that.

“I believe that a simple and unassuming manner of life is best for everyone, best both for the body and the mind.”
― Albert Einstein
It’s hard to have a physically cluttered space — but it’s arguably even more difficult to live your life when your digital life is cluttered, because so much of your much-needed and heavily used items can be tucked away and hidden from sight. However you need to organize your digital life, aim to have ease of access to what you need most often, and to have a laptop, phone, and other devices that make your life easier, aesthetic (if you’re into that sort of thing), and efficient. Make sure your tools are optimized to what you need.

3 || Pick a single space to plan your life in

Try not to have a planner, and a digital calendar, and to-do lists, and sticky notes, and a task manager. Figure out where your plans, schedules, and events will go — and make that a singular location if you can. If that isn’t possible, then keep your calendar in one place, your future tasks in another, and your day-to-day plans in another.

“Have the courage to build your life around what is really most important to you.”― Joshua Becker
I’ve settled on using Notion for my digital note storage, and a physical bullet journal to organize my life. I also use GoogleCalendar for my actual calendar. These all work well together, and I’ve enjoyed using them in tandem the past few months. I’ve also found myself using different planners for different things. I’ll use my GoogleCalendar for everything, Notion for my business, and a paper planner to keep up with school and academic-related tasks. These are each singular places that I plan all related things in. It’s easy to keep track of, change, and use in my day-to-day life.

4 || Never buy a storage unit

Physical clutter is the bane of my existence. It’s the thing that keeps me from going on trips, from having people over to my home, and from going on more adventures — like camping, kayaking, etc. And I’m not the only person who has this struggle. Recently, a new storage unit business went up in my hometown. It’s super close to the main road in town, too, and I was immediately shocked to see that there was such a demand.

“There is more joy and fulfillment in pursuing less than can be found in pursuing more.”― Joshua Fields Millburn
To be honest, I’m amazed, constantly, at how much people keep in storage. And I often wonder, when are people ever going to come back for that stuff? I can hardly remember that I have an extra tooth brush in the drawer before going out and buying a new one. I can’t imagine how people would remember that they have a bookshelf tucked in the back of their storage unit before going to Ikea and simply buying a new, updated one. If you want to simplify your life, make sure you keep the space for your belongings limited and well-managed. And whatever you do, don’t buy a storage unit.

5 || Block out time for different kinds of tasks

We spend a lot of time shifting gears from one thing to another — when our time might be more efficiently (and happily) spent focusing on one thing for a long period of time before moving on to the next block of activities. One way that this can be achieved is my scheduling or blocking out time for specific kinds of tasks.

“A simple life is not seeing how little we can get by with — that’s poverty — but how efficiently we can put first things first. . . . When you’re clear about your purpose and your priorities, you can painlessly discard whatever does not support these…” ― Victoria Moran
This would look like scheduling 2 hours on Sunday for your monthly home deep clean, or going to a coffee shop one afternoon or evening every week to work on your projects. As a student, I do this often — having to block out different blocks of time for different things. For me I have certain blocks for friend time, others for studying, others for schoolwork and project-based work. This keeps things simpler, and much more organized — meaning I’m running around with a task list a mile long like a chicken with my head cut off less and less.

6 || Eliminate tasks like there’s no tomorrow

If you don’t have to do it, don’t. I’m the worst about this, to be honest, but when I remember that I’m a fallible human being and will not ever be doing everything on my mile long to do-list, I’m able to clear it off, start again, and feel so much better about myself.

One key element of this involves remembering where all of your tasks are stored. I know that oftentimes I think that I’m doing well with this, eliminating tasks and thinking my life is simple, and then I realize where everything I want to do is stored. There’s some in Notion, some in my notes app, some in a planner, some in another planner, some in GoogleTasks, and the list goes on and on.

“More was never the answer. The answer, it turned out, was always less.”― Cait Flanders, The Year of Less
I’ve found that the greatest solution to keeping things simple involves putting it all together, and being able to find all of my tasks in the same place, and then getting rid of them as efficiently as I can — deciding what actually matters. This is also a great opportunity to schedule anything that you know that you have to do. I do this with assignments and important work tasks, leaving me more time to sort through the less urgent and important tasks.

Remember that your time is precious, and that very few things are important and will be able to propel you forward. Be discerning, and find what tasks will be most important for your next steps.

7 || Outsource as much as you can

If you don’t have to do it, then don’t do it. I think a great way to think of this is as automating as much as you can. Think about your taxes, finances, house cleaning, whatever else takes up a lot of time in your life and makes things harder for you — find a way to make another person (or some sort of system or technology) do it for you. It’s a small price to pay to have some of your time back.

“…there are often many things we feel we should do that, in fact, we don’t really have to do. Getting to the point where we can tell the difference is a major milestone in the simplification process.” ― Elaine St. James
Life is a lot more complicated than we ever planned for it to be, in my opinion. Make it less complicating by employing someone, which is always good, and giving to someone that which you would be doing much less efficiently. This is also an opportunity to “trade” tasks with people. If your roommate or friend really likes something and you really dislike something, and they dislike and like those things, you could do what you like, and they could do what you dislike — sharing the workload and avoiding your less favored to-do list items.

However you need to/can accomplish this, I’d recommend clearing off as much as you don’t need to do as you can. If someone else, or a system of some sort, can do something better than you can — let them.

8 || Prioritize real friends

I wish there was a statistic that told us how much time we spend entertaining and spending time with the people that we weren’t actually fulfilled by. It’s not that these people are bad, it’s just that they’re not good for us. They don’t understand us, lift us up, or aid us in enjoying some of our favorite activities.

“Find a group of people who challenge and inspire you; spend a lot of time with them, and it will change your life.” — Amy Poehler
Find the people who are your real friends, your big friendships, the people who will show up no matter the situation, who know you well, and who make you a better person. Prioritize them, and make sure you’re getting poured into my them and that you’re able to have an important role in their life as well. It might take some time, but it will overall make your life simpler, clearing up issues of drama and lack of good connections.

9 || Know what makes you happy

Find the things that make you happy. If where you live doesn’t satisfy you, find a way to fix that. If you can afford to move, do that. If you can’t, bring in things that can make it easier. Find the things that are giving you continual joy, and try and incorporate them more.

“It is the sweet simple things in life which are the real ones after all.”― Laura Ingalls Wilder
If there’s a certain type of food that you love, make an effort to have more of it, and to find things similar that will give you the same amount of joy. If there’s a hobby you love, find more time for it, or more ways to incorporate into your daily schedule and into your social life. A simple life is one where you’re self-aware, one where you’re knowledgeable of what your best life is and you’re mindfully making it more like that standard.

10 || Live from values, not for goals

Values allow for intentional and improving choices to be made.Goals tend to be stagnant, unable to change or be adapted to your current circumstances. On the contrary, values can be changed, shifted, and re-applied to every situation you may encounter. Values also help you to be more adaptable.

If something happens to where a goal can no longer be achieved or it wouldn’t be beneficial to pursue it any longer, you can make a choice to let it go — and that will not equate to giving off, but to making an intentional choice to improve your life and make space and time to pursue what you need to be pursuing in your new situation.

“When we focus more on fitting it all in instead of making time for what counts, we lose sight of how to create a meaningful life.”― Courtney Carver, Soulful Simplicity
Goals are meant to be aims, things you’d like to achieve. And values are the things you hold in your heart that help you determine what those goals will be. If you let values run the show, not only will you be a fulfilled, happy, effective human being, but you’ll have goals that align with what you stand for, and goals that are always in step with who you are and who you’re trying to be.
The simple life is a beautiful life. When done well, it is a life without unnecessary stress, toxic relationships, too much stuff, or unnecessary tasks and aims. It’s also a life full of joy and continual happiness, a life of mindfulness and minimalism, and a life that empowers you to be the best person that you can be and do the work in the world that only you can do.

I wish you the best of luck in living the simple life, and would love to hear anymore ideas on how to live the simple life and make the most of every moment. Good luck!

CONTRIBUTED BY Katie E. Lawrence

Read More:

10 Ways To Simplify Your Life

How to rock your digital, physical, emotional, and mental world

Photo by Martin Péchy on Unsplash
There are the things we do, and the people we do it with. That’s it. While we break these up into the subcategories of play, careers, volunteering, church, school, and so much more, they all fall under those two things — what we do and who we love. Living a simpler life begins with that acknowledgement.

“The question of what you want to own is actually the question of how you want to live your life.” — Marie Kondo
When I first started aiming to make my life simpler, I genuinely just thought it would be fun. I found it an interesting challenge to live my life with only a few items of clothing, and an entertaining dare to simply my digital life to just a few apps. Little did I know, it would eventually change my life and improve every area of my otherwise monotonous and struggle-ridden existence.

1 || Stop working when you get home

One of the best ways to simplify your life is to have hard and fast boundaries for the different elements of it when needed. A great way I’ve seen this implemented is by not doing work at home, and other similar boundaries. The idea here is to be present where you are, and to make it clear where different things happen. Family stuff happens at home, work stuff happens at work. I’m reminded of something I grew up hearing, “work while you work, and play while you play.” Have barriers and buffers so you can be present and productive.

“It’s up to us to choose contentment and thankfulness now — and to stop imagining that we have to have everything perfect before we’ll be happy.”― Joanna Gaines
Chip and Joanna Gaines, TV personalities from the popular HGTV show Fixer Upper wrote about this in one of their magazines — and the powerful story they shared of the boundaries they implemented have stuck with me ever since. They even went as far as to leave phones in the car, making their home the ultimate sanctuary and perfect place to really lean in and connect with their family.

If this type of boundary-setting isn’t attainable for you or you aren’t quite ready to commit, you can even simply set up zones in your home. If you’re a college student in a dorm or a professional in a small apartment, you can do this as well. However you need to and can manage, set boundaries between thee different ways you spend at home — and make sure that you always have a place to escape the madness and connect with the people, things, and places you love.

2 || Figure out a system for digital clutter

We make our lives a lot more simpler by keeping somethings together digitally — but the addition of digital clutter can cause a lot of hidden stress that we sometimes can’t pinpoint the origin of. If you take notes on your phone, figure out where they should go afterwards. If you have to save a lot of things on your desktop, find a way to organize that.

“I believe that a simple and unassuming manner of life is best for everyone, best both for the body and the mind.”
― Albert Einstein
It’s hard to have a physically cluttered space — but it’s arguably even more difficult to live your life when your digital life is cluttered, because so much of your much-needed and heavily used items can be tucked away and hidden from sight. However you need to organize your digital life, aim to have ease of access to what you need most often, and to have a laptop, phone, and other devices that make your life easier, aesthetic (if you’re into that sort of thing), and efficient. Make sure your tools are optimized to what you need.

3 || Pick a single space to plan your life in

Try not to have a planner, and a digital calendar, and to-do lists, and sticky notes, and a task manager. Figure out where your plans, schedules, and events will go — and make that a singular location if you can. If that isn’t possible, then keep your calendar in one place, your future tasks in another, and your day-to-day plans in another.

“Have the courage to build your life around what is really most important to you.”― Joshua Becker
I’ve settled on using Notion for my digital note storage, and a physical bullet journal to organize my life. I also use GoogleCalendar for my actual calendar. These all work well together, and I’ve enjoyed using them in tandem the past few months. I’ve also found myself using different planners for different things. I’ll use my GoogleCalendar for everything, Notion for my business, and a paper planner to keep up with school and academic-related tasks. These are each singular places that I plan all related things in. It’s easy to keep track of, change, and use in my day-to-day life.

4 || Never buy a storage unit

Physical clutter is the bane of my existence. It’s the thing that keeps me from going on trips, from having people over to my home, and from going on more adventures — like camping, kayaking, etc. And I’m not the only person who has this struggle. Recently, a new storage unit business went up in my hometown. It’s super close to the main road in town, too, and I was immediately shocked to see that there was such a demand.

“There is more joy and fulfillment in pursuing less than can be found in pursuing more.”― Joshua Fields Millburn
To be honest, I’m amazed, constantly, at how much people keep in storage. And I often wonder, when are people ever going to come back for that stuff? I can hardly remember that I have an extra tooth brush in the drawer before going out and buying a new one. I can’t imagine how people would remember that they have a bookshelf tucked in the back of their storage unit before going to Ikea and simply buying a new, updated one. If you want to simplify your life, make sure you keep the space for your belongings limited and well-managed. And whatever you do, don’t buy a storage unit.

5 || Block out time for different kinds of tasks

We spend a lot of time shifting gears from one thing to another — when our time might be more efficiently (and happily) spent focusing on one thing for a long period of time before moving on to the next block of activities. One way that this can be achieved is my scheduling or blocking out time for specific kinds of tasks.

“A simple life is not seeing how little we can get by with — that’s poverty — but how efficiently we can put first things first. . . . When you’re clear about your purpose and your priorities, you can painlessly discard whatever does not support these…” ― Victoria Moran
This would look like scheduling 2 hours on Sunday for your monthly home deep clean, or going to a coffee shop one afternoon or evening every week to work on your projects. As a student, I do this often — having to block out different blocks of time for different things. For me I have certain blocks for friend time, others for studying, others for schoolwork and project-based work. This keeps things simpler, and much more organized — meaning I’m running around with a task list a mile long like a chicken with my head cut off less and less.

6 || Eliminate tasks like there’s no tomorrow

If you don’t have to do it, don’t. I’m the worst about this, to be honest, but when I remember that I’m a fallible human being and will not ever be doing everything on my mile long to do-list, I’m able to clear it off, start again, and feel so much better about myself.

One key element of this involves remembering where all of your tasks are stored. I know that oftentimes I think that I’m doing well with this, eliminating tasks and thinking my life is simple, and then I realize where everything I want to do is stored. There’s some in Notion, some in my notes app, some in a planner, some in another planner, some in GoogleTasks, and the list goes on and on.

“More was never the answer. The answer, it turned out, was always less.”― Cait Flanders, The Year of Less
I’ve found that the greatest solution to keeping things simple involves putting it all together, and being able to find all of my tasks in the same place, and then getting rid of them as efficiently as I can — deciding what actually matters. This is also a great opportunity to schedule anything that you know that you have to do. I do this with assignments and important work tasks, leaving me more time to sort through the less urgent and important tasks.

Remember that your time is precious, and that very few things are important and will be able to propel you forward. Be discerning, and find what tasks will be most important for your next steps.

7 || Outsource as much as you can

If you don’t have to do it, then don’t do it. I think a great way to think of this is as automating as much as you can. Think about your taxes, finances, house cleaning, whatever else takes up a lot of time in your life and makes things harder for you — find a way to make another person (or some sort of system or technology) do it for you. It’s a small price to pay to have some of your time back.

“…there are often many things we feel we should do that, in fact, we don’t really have to do. Getting to the point where we can tell the difference is a major milestone in the simplification process.” ― Elaine St. James
Life is a lot more complicated than we ever planned for it to be, in my opinion. Make it less complicating by employing someone, which is always good, and giving to someone that which you would be doing much less efficiently. This is also an opportunity to “trade” tasks with people. If your roommate or friend really likes something and you really dislike something, and they dislike and like those things, you could do what you like, and they could do what you dislike — sharing the workload and avoiding your less favored to-do list items.

However you need to/can accomplish this, I’d recommend clearing off as much as you don’t need to do as you can. If someone else, or a system of some sort, can do something better than you can — let them.

8 || Prioritize real friends

I wish there was a statistic that told us how much time we spend entertaining and spending time with the people that we weren’t actually fulfilled by. It’s not that these people are bad, it’s just that they’re not good for us. They don’t understand us, lift us up, or aid us in enjoying some of our favorite activities.

“Find a group of people who challenge and inspire you; spend a lot of time with them, and it will change your life.” — Amy Poehler
Find the people who are your real friends, your big friendships, the people who will show up no matter the situation, who know you well, and who make you a better person. Prioritize them, and make sure you’re getting poured into my them and that you’re able to have an important role in their life as well. It might take some time, but it will overall make your life simpler, clearing up issues of drama and lack of good connections.

9 || Know what makes you happy

Find the things that make you happy. If where you live doesn’t satisfy you, find a way to fix that. If you can afford to move, do that. If you can’t, bring in things that can make it easier. Find the things that are giving you continual joy, and try and incorporate them more.

“It is the sweet simple things in life which are the real ones after all.”― Laura Ingalls Wilder
If there’s a certain type of food that you love, make an effort to have more of it, and to find things similar that will give you the same amount of joy. If there’s a hobby you love, find more time for it, or more ways to incorporate into your daily schedule and into your social life. A simple life is one where you’re self-aware, one where you’re knowledgeable of what your best life is and you’re mindfully making it more like that standard.

10 || Live from values, not for goals

Values allow for intentional and improving choices to be made.Goals tend to be stagnant, unable to change or be adapted to your current circumstances. On the contrary, values can be changed, shifted, and re-applied to every situation you may encounter. Values also help you to be more adaptable.

If something happens to where a goal can no longer be achieved or it wouldn’t be beneficial to pursue it any longer, you can make a choice to let it go — and that will not equate to giving off, but to making an intentional choice to improve your life and make space and time to pursue what you need to be pursuing in your new situation.

“When we focus more on fitting it all in instead of making time for what counts, we lose sight of how to create a meaningful life.”― Courtney Carver, Soulful Simplicity
Goals are meant to be aims, things you’d like to achieve. And values are the things you hold in your heart that help you determine what those goals will be. If you let values run the show, not only will you be a fulfilled, happy, effective human being, but you’ll have goals that align with what you stand for, and goals that are always in step with who you are and who you’re trying to be.
The simple life is a beautiful life. When done well, it is a life without unnecessary stress, toxic relationships, too much stuff, or unnecessary tasks and aims. It’s also a life full of joy and continual happiness, a life of mindfulness and minimalism, and a life that empowers you to be the best person that you can be and do the work in the world that only you can do.

I wish you the best of luck in living the simple life, and would love to hear anymore ideas on how to live the simple life and make the most of every moment. Good luck!

CONTRIBUTED BY Katie E. Lawrence

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