How to Simplify Your Life to Reduce Stress

In today’s busy world, families are busier than we’ve ever been. Working parents are putting in more and more hours at the office, The kids are involved in non-stop activities. And in general, our schedules are jam-packed leaving little room for the more leisurely lifestyle that previous generations enjoyed. While this can be motivating and exciting, it may also lead to feelings of overwhelm, disorganization, and stress. If you’ve been thinking of ways to simplify your life to reduce stress, you have lots of company. 

Here are some ways you can simplify your life and reduce stress while still enjoying a full family schedule.

How to Simplify Your Life and Start Reducing Stress

Say “No” More Often

If you don’t value your time, others won’t. As we work through our crazy daily schedules, we are in a vicious cycle of putting others’ priorities first. We over-extend our selves and over-commit to requests from friends, family, work, and school. Stretching ourselves this thin leaves virtually no room in our schedules for “me” time or family time. 

Despite having a busy day or week, don’t forget to schedule time for hobbies, exercise, and relationship-building activities. This could mean enjoying an uninterrupted conversation with your spouse every day. Or you can take a walk outside during lunch-time or breaks or work out a few times per week. Choose something that you will commit to doing regularly.

Doing these things for yourself means you’ll have to start setting limits on other things that absorb your time. And way to reclaim your time is to practice saying “no” to requests that don’t align with your family or personal initiatives. Once you relinquish some of these draining obligations and prioritize self-care, you will be well on your way to simplifying your life and reducing stress.

De-clutter Your Home

If your schedule is full you’re likely to feel there’s little time to spend on organizing and de-cluttering your home. While being busy may cause the clutter, having the clutter may also trigger more stress and uneasiness. It may seem like a vicious cycle once again. Keeping a home that is organized and clutter free can help to simplify your life and reduce stress in everyday living.

While clutter can feel draining and overwhelming, eliminating clutter may also bring on stress and overwhelm. An easy baby step you can take towards getting clutter under control is to identify one room that you’d like to work on first. It may even help to identify one area of a room (such as a pile of clothes that need to be donated).  Once that area is complete, move on to another area.  Determine a realistic amount of time to dedicate towards your de-clutter project each day or week, and when you will work on your decluttering (eg. every morning for 15 minutes when I wake up; or 1 hour every Saturday morning) and stick to that schedule.

Cut Out Negative Relationships

Having authentic, supportive relationships in your life is something that cannot be overvalued. Having people around who you can confide in when you’re down, or who can celebrate your wins when you’ve had a success is priceless. It’s comforting to just know that you have people to share life experiences with. 

Set Tasks on Auto-pilot

Have you ever wished that certain daily, weekly, or monthly tasks could just go away? Well, some of them actually can. Putting some of your recurring work on automation can help simplify your life and reduce stress, freeing up much more time for yourself and family. And there are many benefits to automating tasks. First, you eliminate how many different “things” you’re doing each day, week, or month. Second, you’re recouping a lot of the time you’d normally be spending doing these tasks. And third, you’re freeing up mental space as once your systems are set up you no longer have to remember to do these things – perhaps just check them periodically.

So what can you automate? Depending on how much you have going on you may opt to set up automatic bill pay, automatic responses for emails you send repeatedly, a meal kit delivery service or more.

Live Within Your Means

We often hear this term expressed but do you really know what it means to live within your means? Nowadays, people from Millenials to Baby Boomers are plagued by financial worries. These include paying off college debt, paying the mortgage or mortgages, to having enough money for retirement. Many people are carrying hefty amounts of debt triggering stress over the inability to make payments, unpaid medical bills, bill collectors, garnishment, credit scores, and more.

If you’re already over-extended then “living within your means” may seem like a far-fetched cliche. But it can be the reality. Getting a handle on your finances is a great way to simplify life and reduce the stress that stems from the way you earn and utilize money. 

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