Most of us would love to reduce the busyness in our lives? But for most people it seems so far out of our reach. Everything seems too important and too crucial that it feels like it must be done. Does it really?
What if, instead of all the busyness of work and those tiresome obligations, you could do all the things you really wanted to?
Like spending more time with family, read a book, go for a run, have long conversations with your best friends, do yoga or mediation, take a nice long walk on the beach and have lunch with your loved ones afterwards. Wouldn’t that be nice?
Doing fun en enjoyable activities most of the time without the voice in the back of your mind reminding you to do more important stuff.
How nice to live a life of less busyness and more time to live life your way. Well let’s take a look.
Here are 20 ways to reduce busyness and find peace of mind:
1 – Make a not-to-do list.
Make a list of all the things and people that diminish your energy level. Write down everything that doesn’t deserve your attention and fills up your schedule but are not real priority.
Write down all the things that you normally do on a daily basis, the unimportant repetitive tasks (social media, surfing the net, etc), things that are not the core activities that will lead you to your dream goal, make you grow as a person or add to your ideal lifestyle.
Once you’ve written down all these things make sure you reduce, remove and eliminate all these things from your life. If not possible right away, then find a way.
2 – Be unavailable
Be unavailable from time to time. When you need time or peace, let the phone ring and don’t pick it up. Turn on voicemail and let people send you an email so you can respond later. Let the small bad things happen to enjoy the greater things in life.
3 – Make less commitments.
Schedule less meetings or appointments where you are obligated to show up. Try to solve problems via phone or email.
4 – Work less.
Try to cut time off your work day or week. You will see how valuable the free time will be that you get in return.
5 – Stop watching TV.
You can miss the news really. People will let you know if you’re missing something important. Enjoy real life instead of being a slave to the tv screen. Start running, bicycling, learn an instrument or have dinner with friends and family.
6 – Unplug one day a week
Choose one day a week where you are going to unplug entirely. Turn off your internet connection on all devices. Turn off your smartphone and enjoy talking to people face to face or spending time alone meditating or going for a nice walk in the park. Inspiration will strike and lead to wonderful new opportunites and life changing moments.
7 – Outsource
Make a list of all repetitive tasks that you rather don’t do and find a way to delegate or outsource them. Find someone who is good and finds joy in those difficult and unpleasant tasks and in return you can do something for that person that is real easy for you. Become creative in outsourcing.
8 – Clear your space
Declutter your home. Less stuff means less cleaning, organizing and maintaining. Less stuff means less distraction which means more peace and time for the good things.
9 – Number one priority
Start with the uttermost important first thing today and forget about everything else. Don’t you dare to check Facebook or Twitter first unless that’s the most important thing. Once you get rid of that burden you’ll have more peace of mind and better about the rest of your day.
10 – Brainstorm daily
Think everyday for 10 minutes what you can delegate, reduce or eliminate in your life. Write it down and act on it.
11 – Schedule leisure time
A day of completely free time. Write it down in your agenda, cancel every other appointment or obligation and turn off internet and cellphone. This is YOUR time!
12 – Less email
Unsubscribe from lousy email newsletters. Create filters for email that are not priority. Work towards checking email only twice a day and later towards once a day. Checking email more than twice a day is unnecessary and a waste of your precious time.
13 – Smart planning
Finish work assignments ahead of time to reduce pressure and take off the heat. This will give you peace of mind.
14 – Learn to say no (politely).
Don’t say yes if you think no. Be honest to yourself and to the person in front of you. Learn to be creative saying no without hurting someone else feeling. Think ahead.
15 – Give things a home
Have a place for everything, so you don’t have to search for your keys, money, important papers, etc. It saves you a lot of frustration and useless discussions over who left stuff where.
16 – Think before act
Step back, observe and think towards an effective, efficient and creative solution instead of just acting without thought. This can save you a lot of time and work. Be absolutely sure that what you’re about to do is really really necessary and can not be postponed, delegated or eliminated. If not, do it now, enjoy the activity as much as possible and think how you can simplify it for next time.
17 – Head start
Get up early to get a head start on your day. The feeling of silence and undistracted productivity in the early morning is the best there is. Wake up at 5 a.m. to do some serious work right away and feel fulfilled and energized for the rest of the day. Creating some extra hours in the day takes of the pressure and gives you the chance the realize all your dream goals.
18 – Make it short
Make absolutely important repeated tasks more economical. Tasks that are hard to avoid or outsourced and HAVE to be done repeatedly should be done as efficient as possible. Make sure you make the task as easy and fast as possible. Think hard and use your imagination.
19 – Automate
Automate your bill payments and savings. Save time to avoid unnecessary repetitive tasks and spent this time to do some push-ups, sit-ups and stretch exercises. Work on your health instead.
20 – Cut back
Force yourself to cut back on your busyness and at the same time strive to accomplish more. This forces you to think creatively, and out of the box. Think different. This is when you get the best results with achieving more with less.
Do you have any tips that reduces the busyness of everyday life?
Please share in the comments. I appreciate it.
Hello,
I have submitted my email and would like a reply to the following:
I have written a homeschooling book and would like to use this list of 20 ways to reduce busyness in my book. Would you email me to let me know if I have the permission to do so. I have given the following as credit to you: The list can be found at http://www.simplifyyourday.com, a blog post written July 30, 2015 by Klaus Crow.