By Kate Dobbertin Bernola, manager, Global Social Marketing, Xerox
Last week was Simplify Your Life Week, but I was too busy focusing on more important things to finish other than this blog post (see tip #1!). Though I missed the party, simplifying things at home and in the office never goes out of style. With that in mind, here are five easy ways to simplify your life.
- Prioritize. If your to-do list is 100 items long, chances are you feel more frustrated than empowered when you glance at it. So throw it out and start fresh. Before you even turn on your smartphone each morning, list the top three things you want to do, then get started. At the end of the day, you can breathe easy knowing you’ve tackled the most important tasks.
- Expedite. Choose a daily routine, then write down every step (wake up, brush teeth, shower …). Tomorrow, use a stopwatch to time each step. With data in hand, challenge yourself to take five minutes out of your ritual by eliminating time-wasting steps. (“I spent three minutes searching for socks? Maybe I should buy a few more pairs and throw out the mismatches.”)
- Purge. Empty your desk drawers, and put back only the essentials. At home, do the same with closets. Everything goes into one of four bins: keep, donate, recycle, trash. A good rule of thumb is that if you haven’t used it in the past year, it isn’t allowed to stay.
- Outsource. A wise Xerox executive once told me: “It is less expensive for me to send my kids’ baby-sitter to the grocery store than it is to go myself. She sticks to the list; I get distracted and add extra items to the cart.” Lately, many businesses have begun to offer delivery services for groceries and dry cleaning. Examine all your resources, then divide up the tasks.
- Relax. Making yourself a priority will boost your work efficiency in doing everything else. Schedule time with a book, treadmill, or a group of friends, and treat it just like you’d treat any other appointment.
Will you be trying one of these tactics, or something similar? Tell me how you’re simplifying your life in comments section below.
Great list to attempt to implement. Man, we are all on overload in this country so your tips may really help. I especially liked the Purge step and strategies.
Thanks for your comment, Steven! I sometimes struggle to get rid of things I no longer need, but rarely find that I miss them once I do.
Thank you for these words of wisdom! Much needed!
Lots of good ideas except for one. I’m not planning to take a stopwatch and time my showers, brushing my teeth, and getting dressed just to save 5 minutes. That’s a bit much for me.If I’m running that close to not having enough time to dress for work, etc. then I probably need to get up a little earlier and not rush. It’s not worth the stress for me. Same applies to getting to work on time. It’s always best to allow yourself some extra time in case you run into unexpected heavy traffic or public transportation delays.Thanks for the ideas.
Amy – thanks for your comment!
Paul – certainly, this practice won’t make sense for everyone. I, personally, will go to great lengths for an extra “snooze” in the a.m., knowing I’ll still get to work on time!
I like to set out my clothes the night before
No matter what, any of these could be taken too far. Wasn’t there a Verizon employee who outsourced his job to China at 1/5 of his wage? Talk about a time savings! 🙂
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Points no 1,2,3 and 5 is always my routine work means I am following the same but I will try to follow the point no 4 as well.