10 Easy Ways to Simplify Your Life
10 Easy Ways to Simplify Your Life
So, you’re sitting there with 100 different items on your to do list, paralyzed by not knowing what should get done now and what can wait.
*Disclosure: some links may contain affiliate links. For more information on what this means, visit my disclosure page.
You’re sick of writing down the same tasks every single day!
You’re sick of writing down the same tasks every single week.
Every single month.
You’re probably wishing that there was an easy way to simplify your life with everything that’s going on. Because, let’s face it, we’re moms; we have our schedule and to do’s to worry about, and then we have everyone else’s.
That’s A LOT to remember!
And, if you’re anything like me, your memory isn’t the greatest.
Ever told yourself that you didn’t need to write something down because you’ll remember it……yeah, that’ll last about 30 seconds, if you’re lucky.
Now, what if you found a way to organize everything you had to do on a daily, weekly, and monthly basis so you only had to put in the effort of writing it down once a month? Then, simply check off that you did it and you’re done.
Awesome, right?
Well then, you’re going to want to check out these ‘Simplify Your Life’ Templates and start using them ASAP. No worries, they are easy to set up and quick to use, saving you valuable time!
If you’re not as psyched as I am about having easy to use templates to simplify your life, here are the 10 easy ways to simplify your life.
Simplify Your Life Way #1: Stick to a Schedule
One of the best things we can do for ourselves, and our children, to simplify our lives is to create, and stick, to a regular daily schedule.
This not only helps us know what is going to happen, and when, each and everyday; it also gives our brains space to think about other things, increase our memory stores, and more.
See, when we have the same schedule everyday, the tasks we do turn into habits. Habits are played out by a different part of our brain than things we do intentionally.
We, in a way, don’t even have to think about it.
If it makes more sense to you, think of it like muscle memory.
Ever take a dance class or play a sport when younger?
Remember how once you got a routine, or a certain skill, down, you didn’t have to remember how to do it anymore; your body would just do it for you. Same for habits.
Learn more about habits and daily schedules:
10 Unique Tips for Breaking Bad HabitsÂ
10 Tips for Creating Habits You Need in Your Life!Â
5 Reasons Your Child (and You) Need a Daily ScheduleÂ
Simplify Your Life Way #2:Â Have Morning and Evening Routines or To Do’s
Similar to sticking with a schedule, morning and evening routines are like the bookends of that schedule.
Morning routines help you ease into your day and make sure what needs to get done in the morning, to have a successful day, does indeed get done.
Evening routines help you prepare for the next day so you don’t feel overwhelmed in the morning.
No one wants to feel overwhelmed when they first wake up!
And, no one wants to start the day off on the wrong foot.
So, do yourself a favor and follow a morning and even routine. Have certain tasks laid out that need to, or should, get done in order to calm the chaos and make your life easier, and therefore simpler!
You can even use the ‘daily to do’ chart in this bundle of templates so you only have to write the task down once a month. Simply check it off once you do it. Eventually, these tasks should become habit and you’ll no longer have to write them down; giving you more space on the chart, and more time to get more done each day
Learn more about morning and evening routines:
5 Vital Things to Include in your Morning Routine as a Stay at Home MomÂ
9 Simple Tips to Create a Stress Free MorningÂ
Simplify Your Life Way #3:Create a Cleaning Schedule
Do you struggle with keeping a clean home?
Do you think you’ll never have a clean home while your kids are living with you?
Don’t worry, you’re not alone, not even in the slightest.
Kids are learning and testing their limits everyday, it’s only natural for them to make messes. If we were to obsess about keeping our homes spotless, then we wouldn’t really ever get anything else done.
But, that doesn’t mean we can give up cleaning our homes altogether. There’s a reason why people clean their homes. And, no, it’s not just so they can make those of us with messy kids feel jealous of them.
It’s actually to keep our homes in a livable condition; prevent mold, avoid us and our families from getting sick, eating out all the time because the dishes aren’t clean, and avoid wearing clothes that don’t have spit up or coffee on them.
You know, be able to live in our homes and not feel disgusted or disgusting.
There are usually cleaning tasks that need to get done everyday, like dishes. Weekly, such as laundry. And, monthly, like deep cleaning. For us moms who don’t like cleaning, or don’t have the time, this could be: cleaning bathrooms, cleaning kitchen appliances, a quick declutter, etc.
The daily, weekly, and monthly to do charts in this Simplify Your Life Template Bundle is perfect for making sure you get these tasks done as often as they need to get done.
Simplify Your Life Way #4:Â Reset Each Week
If you’re living day to day and don’t have a plan for the week, then your week is going to be chaotic and the farthest thing from simple.
Same thing when you don’t take a few moments, or a couple hours, over the weekend to reset for the week.
Resetting for the week could look like:
- simply filling out your planner for the next week
- meal planning/ buying food/ meal prepping
- picking up, and putting away, all items misplaced in the house from the week before
- laying out all the clothes you’ll be wearing for the next week
- mentally preparing for the week ahead
Resetting each weekend will lesson the chance you have a chaotic week and become overwhelmed.
Use this weekly to do chart to write out everything you need to make sure gets done during your weekend reset!
Simplify your life by making sure you check off everything on your list.
Learn more about having an easier week with weekend prep:
5 Ideas for a Productive Weekend to Have an Easier Week!
Simplify Your Life Way #5:Â Choose When You Will Do Once a Month Tasks
Simplify your life by not only knowing what you need to do each month, but also by knowing when you have time to accomplish them.
This will differ depending on the task, how long it’ll take you, and when you have the time in your schedule.
For example, if you want to set aside each month to work on your overall budget, there are two times of the month where this would make most sense; at the beginning of the month you’re budgeting for, or at the end of the month when planning your budget for the upcoming month. If you wait too late in the month to work on that months budget, then you may have an unexpected surprise when you check the balance in you bank and realize you don’t have enough to pay your bills.
Therefore, knowing when to budget each month is vital, especially if you live paycheck to paycheck, or close to it, or if you’re trying to pay off debt or come up with a down payment for a house or car.
Other tasks may not have as extreme consequences. But, you might as well simplify your schedule and plan out, ahead of time, when to do each of the monthly tasks; this way you know that they will actually get done.
Don’t forget to check off that you completed them on the monthly to do template from the Simplify Your Life Template Bundle!
Learn more about budgeting:
How to Budget (when You Have No Money)Â
Simplify Your Life Way #6:Â Budget Once: Adjust Each Pay Day
So, you already know how important it is for you to budget for the month, once a month, and preferably before the first bill of the month is due.
But, you probably get paid more than once a month.
And, the amount you get paid each pay day is probably, at least slightly, different each time.
So, you may need to adjust your budget, or at least figure out which bills can pay each time you get paid. And, budget for the rest of your expenses til you get paid again.
You could easily do this with the budget sheet template in this template bundle. To make it easier, set up your bills by date, like in the example provided in the template bundle, then draw a line to separate which bills you’ll pay with this pay period vs. the next pay period.
Simplify your budget by only working on it, or stressing over it, when you get paid; no other time.
You can only pay what you can pay. If you don’t make enough to cover your bills and expenses, cut out some expenses, ask for a raise, or start a side hustle.
Don’t forget to download the Ibotta app to get money back on groceries.
Simplify Your Life Way #7:Â Keep Track of Your User Names and Passwords
Please tell me I’m not the only one who can never remember their passwords.
For bills that are paid once a month, it’s especially hard to remember usernames and passwords to get into the account and pay the bill. You only go onto the site once a month.
So, simplify your life (and stop using the reset password feature), and just write down all your usernames and passwords. Just be sure to keep it in a safe place, where you won’t lose it and where others won’t find it.
(Find a sheet to write these down, here!)
Simplify Your Life Way #8:Â Meal Plan
Another way you can simplify your life, save your sanity, save money, time, and feel less stressed ALL week long is by meal planning.
This is one of those things that will make or break you week!
If you do it; you won’t have to worry about what you or your family will eat for any given meal, and it’ll be less likely that you eat out. Double win, saving money and eating better!
However, you could be like someone I used to know (aka me) who would religiously meal plan every week and then not follow through with it.
Maybe the place you write down your meal plan right now is in your planner, or on a normal sized piece of paper that you keep in a binder or don’t want to clutter the fridge with.
These two places discourages following the meal plan, what you’ve planned to eat for the day isn’t in your face when you’re in the kitchen. Out of sight, out of mind.
You could try writing down your meal plan for the day on a whiteboard on the fridge…if you remember to every single day.
Or, you could fill out a meal planning template that was designed to be cut on the dotted line (like in elementary school) and posted on the fridge one day at a time.
This way, no extra writing, simply cut it out and use a magnet to keep it on the fridge.
Get your meal planning template that will help you stick to your meal plan here!
Learn more about meal planning:
How to Make a Healthy Meal Plan on a BudgetÂ
How to Meal Plan (when you have no motivation to do so)Â
Simplify Your Life Way #9:Â Meal Prep
If you believe in the power of meal planning to simplify your life; then try taking it one step further and meal prep once a week!
This could mean anything from simply washing all your produce for the week, chopping all the veggies and getting meals ready to be cooked; all the way to fully making all your meals ahead of time, so all you have to do during the week is eat them, or heat them up.
This is a major time saver!
And, honestly, a whole lot easier to remember to do when you work outside the home and are busy.
This can be difficult to remember to do when you don’t write down your meal prepping plan. Or, if you’re a stay at home mom and think you don’t have to because you’re home basically all day.
Trust me, us stay at home moms need to still meal prep; to save our sanity through out the day, and to prevent having to quickly make a meal when our kids are hungry.
To help you out, there’s a template in this bundle for you to write down all of your meals and snacks for the week, your grocery list, and your meal prep plan. It’s a cut on the dotted line sheet, as well. So you don’t have to bring a whole piece of paper to the store, or hang a whole sheet of paper on the fridge while you’re meal prepping.
If you’re nervous about making the leap to meal prep each week, to save time, money, and improve your eating habits; sign up for Wholly Prep to learn how to, with a down to earth instructor!
Learn more about meal prepping:
The Benefits of Meal PreppingÂ
Simplify Your Life Way #10:Â Stick With It
So far you have learned 9 different ways to simplify your life and save your sanity through weeks and months.
But, these actions to simplify your life will only work to simplify your life if you implement them and stick with it.
At first, it may seem like they take more time.
And, that’s true, it will take a little bit more time initially to fill out these templates. But, you only have to fill them out once a month, or once a week; not everyday like with your to do list. Leave your to do list to specifics that you need to get done that day; not a repeated task.
Once you have everything filled out, you’ll actually spend less time every week, and every month thinking about what you have to do and writing it down per day.
These templates will help you stick with it, and sticking with this system to simplify your life will actually help you simplify your life.
I can’t do all the work for you to simplify your life; just provide you with the tools and instructions and hope you follow through and stick with it.
What You’ll Get Out of Simplifying Your Life
Like any new habit, or new system, it may take a little bit of time to get use to. If you stop before you get the hang of it, then you won’t benefit from it.
But, if you continue to use it for a week or so; you’ll see how much easier, and simpler, life will be.
You’ll use less brain space and memory for those repeated tasks. And have more time and brain space to get more done each week.
This could mean more time with your family, to relax, or even to start a side hustle or business!
You’ll stress less and will most likely have a more clear mind.
(I’m not in your head and don’t know all that you think of and what’s on your mind; so I can’t guarantee a clear mind.)
But, you’ll at least have a few less things on your mind. And, a few less things you’ll have to worry about each week.
So, go ahead, grab this Simplify Your Life Template Bundle and start living a more simplified life today!
Related Posts:
How to Create a Weekly Schedule that Actually Works!
How to Find More Time in the Day
and
I love your tips here and I plan to use them for sure! Great advice with a cleaning routine, I really need to adopt that one! I totally agree with a schedule too. It makes everyone happier and I have less behavior issues with my 5 year old I feel like.