1. Clear your space
You are probably tired of everyone trying to Marie Kondo your life at this point. If you need more proof, check out this Stanford article. According to the researchers at Princeton University Neuroscience Research Institute,
Multiple stimuli present in the visual field at the same time compete for neural representation by mutually suppressing their evoked activity throughout visual cortex, providing a neural correlate for the limited processing capacity of the visual system.
Article by Erin Doland
clearing unwanted things and organizing your room can greatly reduce any stress and overwhelm that you are experiencing right away. Removing clutter can in fact
- Reduce visual overload
- Reduce feelings of stress and anxiety
- Help focus on whatever matters
- Provide a calm environment to work in
- Help improve productivity
- Allow for relaxation
2. Fully engage in relaxation
Deep into adulthood, a lot of us keep looking for more and more ways to be productive. Sometimes, feeling restless can be a sign of having too much going on and all you might need is some downtime to refresh and rest up. Pick your most favorite way to relax and commit an evening towards engaging in such an activity and not anything else. You are doing your best and you deserve this time for yourself. Here are some ways to spend your time that will surely relax you. I particularly like those that initiate movement in the body because this relaxes the mind and the muscles.
- Stretch/ yoga for 30 minutes
- Meditation for 10 minutes
- Workout followed by a nice warm shower
- Sip on a warm cup of tea (no phones please)
- Book a massage or a pedicure
- Take a nap
- Spend time with your pet
3. Remove social media
This is the easiest way to simplify your life right now. Delete apps from your phone that swallow your time for 3 to 5 days.
Not using social media for a few days also means less fear of missing out, less comparison of our life with others, preventing passive consumption of content, less fragmentation of our attention, less restlessness and anxiety, more time with real life people and more time for yourself as well as all the things that you love doing.
4. Get it all out on paper
If there are ten things that need to be done, our heads are probably planning those ten things about one hundred times and constantly jumping among all the tasks that need to be done without actually doing them. In that case, it’s a great idea to write down everything that comes to your mind, especially tasks that need to get done.
This is so that you can free up more of your thinking and worrying time and stay peaceful knowing that it is tracked somewhere and you can get to it. From now on, every time you remember something that needs to be done, write it down and free up your brain.
5. Today – do only one thing at a time
This is a follow up of point 4. Once you have all the things that need to be done written down somewhere, pick only one task at a time and focus on it unless it’s like doing laundry that you can parallelize with other types of work.
Tasks that especially need focused attention and long stretches of quiet time to be worked on benefit from this approach. When you are focused on one task, don’t think about any others until you’re done completely. Take a break and then focus on the next item on the list. One of the best ways to simplify your life and live more mindfully is to focus on one thing at a time as much as possible and return back to it whenever the mind wanders.
Hope you enjoyed learning some ideas to simplify your life right now. Nothing changes unless we implement the things that we learn, so good luck and stay simple!