You may find your life to be complicated and pulling you in a million directions which leads you to feeling overwhelmed sending you into a spin out. This is something a lot of people struggle with. Our lives today have so many different components and people want to do it all. We continuously pile things on our plate. There are ways to simplify your life and stop wasting your energy. Putting your focus on where you want and need it will help you create a simple and abundant life. I’m not going to tell you to give up going to brunch if you enjoy going to brunch on Sundays. There is room in your life to do everything you want to do. You have to be purposeful on where you put those things and how you do it. Here are the four tips you need to simplify your life and stop wasting your energy today:

One of the best parts of life is that you get to make a choice on what you want to do. No one has control over you. You can truly make the choice to do whatever you want. Of course, there may be consequences that comes from those actions but you get to make the choice if you are going to do it. I don’t know about you but that is an empowering thought for me. Do you use a calendar? If not, start today. It is truly life changing. Spend some time putting together a calendar for the week. G-Calendar is a free tool you can use, they have an app or you can use it in a web browser. When I put together my calendar the only things on it are things that I make the choice to do, nothing else. If you don’t want to do it, don’t do it. Putting things on your calendar that you only want to do also simplifies your life by removing some of the noise in your head on whether you want to stick to your calendar or not. If, there is something on there that you dread you are much more likely to avoid not only that part of your calendar but your whole calendar. After you spend an hour or two putting together your calendar once a week you will reap the benefits. Each day will be simple, you pull up your calendar and see what you need to be doing at that time. There is no guessing on where you should be putting your energy and you’re not wasting energy figuring out what to do!

An easy way to simplify your life today is to stop making everything in your life urgent. Most things really aren’t but you have made them to be. Checking every text or phone call as soon as it comes through really is not necessary. Social media notifications are not urgent. They can wait. When you put yourself in the moment and attend to the task at hand you will accomplish more. When you pick up your phone to check on one of those things you are shifting your focus there. You are wasting energy shifting your focus back and forth. This is particularly true when you are doing any type of focused work. Not checking your notifications also applies when you are with friends or family. That person should get all of your attention. You chose to spend time with that person because you want to (it’s on your calendar, right?). That calendar that we spoke of above should have a spot to check your notification, emails, texts, and anything else if it is something you want to do. Other things that we mistake as being urgent are the dishes, laundry, cleaning the floor, watering the garden, etc. Before you take time to do any of what I like to call supporting life tasks ask yourself if it is really necessary to be doing right then. I recommend putting these things on your calendar as well. Set aside the time so you don’t have the excuse to put something else on your calendar off to take care of them. There will always be exceptions to what I talked to above. If, you have kids then set a special tone for your kids’ school or daycare so you know to check those. That would truly be something urgent that you would want to shift your focus to. Being really curious on the family drama that is going down in the group text is not urgent. Your dog having an accident on the floor you probably want to take care of ASAP, wanting your sink to always be empty of dishes not so urgent. Be careful about what you assign urgency to in your life. Your energy and time are precious don’t waste it on false senses of urgency. Don’t let other people or things dictate what you want to take center stage.

Your environment can have a big impact on how you exist within it. Having a lot of stuff around can be overwhelming to your mind. Removing that block will help you simplify what you are doing every day by having to focus on taking care of all it. Think of all the stuff you have, how much energy do you spend either cleaning it, moving it out of the way, or anything else. Allow your space to have empty space. Be deliberate about what you put in your rooms. It really isn’t necessary to have every inch of a room to be filled. Find items that you really love and place them in there. Each thing should serve a purpose and should not overwhelm you. I try to find items that serve dual purposes, such as items that are decorative but also could be used as storage. I have four fur babies that track in so much dirt and shed so much. I would spend hours cleaning inside anything that is open to the air. Now I only buy items that are enclosed. I simplified my cleaning routine and don’t spend as much energy worrying about it all. A bonus to decluttering and keeping items in your space minimal is the money you save.

Some choices you have to make every day. What you are going to eat and what you are going to wear are the main ones. Simplify your life by limiting what choices you have available to you. This is easier to do than you think. Each morning you waste energy by trying to put together an ensemble that goes together. Put a limitation in place that you buy neutral colored clothing. You can pick one color that you add in there that would always match. For instance, I buy mainly black clothing items but, I love the color pink so I allow pink clothing items. If, I pick up a piece of clothing and it isn’t a neutral or pink then it goes back. This simplifies my life so much. I can go in my closet and pick out an outfit in less than minute. Try putting some limitations on what goes into your closet and see how much energy you stop wasting. Food is another area you can simplify and set limitations for yourself. You can go to the extreme and remove certain food categories from your life. You may stop eating meat or bread. People generally don’t want to go that far and you don’t have to. A less extreme way to help you stop wasting energy on figuring out what to have for dinner is assign categories to each day. Monday you may eat chicken, Tuesdays are for tacos, Wednesdays are for seafood, Thursdays are casserole days, and Fridays are for pizza. Adjust the schedule to what will work for you or your family. This makes you focus in one area rather than having endless options for food. Another calendar tip is to put time to set up outfits for your work week and put together recipes for each day of the month.

Final Thoughts –

You will always have options available to you because people like having them. Limit yourself on what those options are. I don’t like to bucket them as rules but rather a way to focus on what you truly want in life.

You really do not have to go have coffee with that coworker if you don’t want to. You do not have to do laundry every night, everyone has enough clothes in their closet for the next day they can make it work. That knick-knack at TJ Maxx is adorable but you don’t need it, it won’t serve you to have it. Mondays are for chicken, don’t even waste your time thinking about pork chops.

The options that are available to us can cause us to constantly shift our focus wasting our energy and complicating things. The four things above can help you simplify your life and stop wasting energy. Everything above can be used today. Start living your simplified life and put your energy to good use.