A toolbox to simplify your life

This text has been adapted, with permission, from an article [in French only] published in Coopérateur magazine.

Your life is complicated and overloaded. That’s why you should eliminate or reduce non-essentials and make room for what’s important. Here are a few examples of categories to help you get started.

1. Possessions

These are the objects you own, or the concrete, physical things you can touch. While they bring pleasure, they also require management. For example, the more clothes you have, the harder it is to organize them in your closet and dresser.

You can, for example, make changes to:

• clothing

• the contents of your buffet

• knick-knacks

• dishes and cooking appliances

• tools

• paper clutter

• equipment

• machinery

2. Decision-making

Decision-making requires energy. The more decisions you have to make, the more exhausted you become. To counter this, you can set up routines, protocols or systems. The brain, knowing in advance what it is being asked to do, won't have to decide on new information. For example, in the morning, when you eat the same breakfast and wear the same clothes, you conserve energy for the other tasks in your day.

3. The to-do list

It includes all the things that keep popping into your head and never go away. Just cross the items off your list. You'll see, it can be very beneficial.

4. Projects

There's a difference between having projects that energize you and having too many. As a result, you can become disorganized and stressed. This can lead to abandoning projects, reducing their size and frequency, or postponing them until the following year.

5. Activities for parents and children

Many well-meaning parents want the best for their children. However, you might be overloading your calendar and leaving yourself very little free time. Some people don't have eight grandparents to take the kids everywhere. Eliminating activities will give you a chance to catch your breath.

6. Commitments

Promises, volunteering, meetings... if you say yes to these, what are you saying no to? Before saying yes, you can apply the 48-hour rule to think things over with a clear head.

7. Expenses

If you can afford it, you will have more flexibility in your choices. However, if your resources are limited, every spending decision will involve a trade-off – money invested in one area will not be available elsewhere. So, it is best to really know how to manage your budget:

1. restaurants and food delivery
2. clothing
3. vehicles
4. tools
5. businenss development
6. machinery
7. activities and entertainment (free or not, as a couple, with the children, etc.)

8. Interpersonal conflicts

You must pick the battles that are worth fighting. If your head is filled with thoughts about conflicts that happened in the past, learn to let go.

9. Distractions

From noise, invasive technology, and alerts, to subscriptions – every time a cell phone makes a sound, you lose energy that could have been used elsewhere.

10. Experiences

You can't do it all, live it all, or see it all. You have to choose. FOMO (fear of missing out) should become JOMO (joy of missing out)!

Of course, it's impossible to tackle every category at once. It's best to choose one to start with, because simplifying your life is a journey, not a destination.

Article by: Stéphanie McDuff
Adapted by: Mélanie Lagacé