- Your meals
- Your routines
- Your processes
- Your wardrobe
- Your finances
Your meals
The first area that you can simplify your life and that made a huge difference in my own life was in simplifying my meals. I had always struggled with meal planning and knowing what to cook. As someone who eats small portions I found that whenever I used regular cook books I would end up with large amounts of leftovers which I would store in the fridge for a few days but then end up putting in the bin. It was only when I bought a book called Nosh for One that my eyes were opened.
Nosh for One is a book that has recipes that make a single portion. For someone like me, who eats small portions anyway, I found the portion sizes were big enough for both me and my son Shepherd to share a single portion (and sometimes still have leftovers!). The book gave mealtime a simplicity that had previously been lacking. Preparation time was hugely reduced, less ingredients meant less mess and less mess meant time saved in cleaning up after meals.
I also made a decision to simplify meal times by making a conscious choice that not every meal had to be a proper recipe from a recipe book. I decided that some meals, either lunches or dinners, would be simple things like pasta with a jar of sauce or a microwave jacket potato with some easy toppings.
Making decisions to consciously choose simplicity in my meal times took a lot of stress out of my life. I created a weekly meal plan that I repeated each week which contained a variety of simple recipes and meals. This allowed me to simplify buying groceries and streamline meal times as a whole, also making a huge difference to my overall mental health.
Your routines
Another area where I made a conscious decision to simplify my routines was in my daily routines. I work full time and look after my son whenever I am not working, so time to myself is pretty limited. Social Media is full of “that girl” routines and I have been tempted to try these from time to time but for me simplicity rules over all.
I have made a conscious decision to keep my routines simple and manageable. My routines should serve me rather than weigh me down. They should be easy to complete and add value to my life rather than making me feel guilty when I don’t complete every task on a long list.
After I had my son Shepherd I struggled badly with post natal depression and completely neglected to look after myself both physically and emotionally. I started to use the Me+ app and decided to set up simple morning and evening routines that involved a small element of self care in terms of both physical and mental health. I made a conscious decision to keep my routines simple and short. I didn’t want them to become something that made me feel like I wasn’t measuring up but rather I wanted them to be something that kept me on track.
I often add and remove things from my to do list over the weeks and frequently review it to see if it has become too big and cut it down to keep it simple. This is another thing that has really helped to reduce stress in my life by taking out unnecessary things and keeping a focus on the most important aspects of my life.
Your processes
This is something that I realised relatively recently, that the processes I was using were in fact causing me hassle rather than helping me to lead a simple life. It was only when I really took stock not only of how I was spending my time but WHY I was choosing those things that I was able to identify the fact that the processes in my life needed to be changed if they were going to help me reduce stress and increase joy in my life.
I love looking at Bible journaling posts on social media. I love how beautifully some people are able to decorate their Bibles and how that beauty reflects the time they have spent in the Word. For years I tried to do the same. But to be honest, I was only doing this because I wanted to be like them. I didn’t feel I got much out of it and always came away feeling like I could have used my time more wisely. It was only when I was willing to accept that maybe I was different and that Bible journaling wasn’t for me that I realised this process I had been following blindly for years wasn’t actually serving me.
I am an audio person. I learn best by listening. I have always been a fan of audio books and when I identified this fact and embraced it, was when my life started to change for the better. I packed away all of my physical Bibles and got the app instead.
Then something amazing happened. I was able to become consistent in reading (or in my case listening) to the Bible daily. It didn’t feel like a chore, it didn’t feel something I was doing because I had to, but rather I enjoyed it. I got far more from my daily listening than I ever had in my years of trying to be like other people.
I also changed my processes in terms of books. While I enjoy listening to audio books I do also enjoy reading too. But I have a whole book shelf of books I have never read. Why? Because the process did not work for me. Instead I changed out my books for a Kindle and also get the Kindle app on my phone.
Doing this had two implications for me. First it meant that I could read where I only had a few minutes spare. If I found myself having a few spare minutes, instead of opening up social media, I could open up my Kindle app on my phone and pick up reading where I left off. This meant that where I previously found no time for reading books, I suddenly found myself being able to actually get through books again albeit in short snippets of time that eventually added up.
The second implication was that it actually saved me money too. I subscribed to Kindle Unlimited which is almost like a library subscription. You get access to a whole catalogue of books that are included within the monthly amount. This meant I wasn’t buying individual books anymore but rather I prioritised taking books out from the library that were included in my subscription.
The added benefit of this was that most of the books also came with audio as well. That meant when I had time to read I could read but if I was short on time to sit down, for example if I was washing dishes, I could listen to my book picking up from where I left off when I was previously reading.
Your wardrobe
My wardrobe is another area I made a conscious decision to simplify my life. I went through my wardrobe and packed away in boxes everything that I didn’t think was an essential item or things that I just didn’t wear very often. This meant that my actual wardrobe only had things that I was actually going to wear. This also took care of the problem of overcrowding in my wardrobe. I often found myself in a place where I didn’t want to put away laundry because I knew my wardrobe was already so full that it was bursting at the seams!
Consciously trimming down my wardrobe had a big impact on my life. For example when it came to choose clothes to wear in the morning, I’d open up my wardrobe and I would already be presented with the clothes that I would typically wear on a daily basis. This saved time sifting through things, trying to decide what to wear by looking through a bunch of things that I knew I wasn’t gonna wear anyway!
As part of this process, I also focused on building looks that were practical. Not just things that I like to look at, but the things that I would actually wear and be comfortable in. This is a key part of optimising this process. Don’t just leave in your wardrobe the things that you really like. Leave the things that you know you will wear. Focus on building outfits based on your favourite or most comfortable clothes.
For example, I love to wear hoodies. I realised I had a number of beautiful items of knitwear that I just didn’t wear simply because I work from home and they weren’t comfortable to sit at my desk all day. I decided to build outfits based off my hoodies, items of clothing that I feel most comfortable in and I wear all the time. In the end this actually saved me a lot of money. When I actually analysed the clothes that I wore most of the time I realised that most of the clothes that I have been buying didn’t actually fit this. This meant, I have been buying clothes that I probably wouldn’t get much wear out of thereby wasting money.
You finances
Another area where you can really simplify your life is with your finances. Most people today have a banking app on their phone which is a really great way to start simplifying your finances. Have a look through your recent transactions and be honest with yourself about which ones you probably could have avoided. Maybe you went out shopping because you were bored and ended up spending money that you shouldn’t really have spent.
Also have a look at your subscriptions. Make sure you actively manage anything that you’re subscribed to on your phone and cancel anything that you no longer use. It’s easy to let subscriptions run and forget about them because they are not a huge amount each month however, small amounts do add up.
Something I like to do when I sign up for a free trial is to go into my settings on my phone and cancel it immediately. Usually this means you will still have access to your free trial but it won’t auto renew which means you don’t have to worry about remembering to cancel at some later date.
Simply going through your recent transactions on your phone can save you a lot of hassle later on. It helps you to highlight where things should’ve been cancelled that you can now take action on. It might also reveal to you where you have spent too much or spent as a result of bad habits, such as boredom. The key is to be honest with yourself when doing this. Don’t feel guilty but use it as a lesson to change going forward.
Summary
Confucious said life is really simple, but we insist on making it complicated.
Having analysed my own life, I have realised this to be true. I have definitely made my life complicated in ways that I need not have done. One of the key ways I realise I have been complicating my life is by being wasteful.
This wastefulness seems to have overlapped into every area of my life. From my finances, to my clothing, to my time. It’s only when you really take stock of your life and start looking at it critically that you can cut out this wastefulness and get back your simplicity. It’s definitely not an overnight job and something that has taken me many months if not years. I’m still not where I want to be in terms of living a simple life. I often find I have to revisit these areas many times over and I still find areas of waste, which is causing my life to be more complicated than it needs to be.
Having said that though, I think that these five areas are key in terms of getting started. Have a look at your own life in these five areas and think about where you can simplify, starting with where you have overcomplicated by wasting. You might just be amazed at what you discover.