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You may have heard of the simple living movement and dreamed of living a more simplified life. But revamping your entire life feels like an intimidating – and ironically, complicated – project to take on. I’m providing this list of easy ideas to simplify your life today for those wondering, “Where do I start?”
It may feel like you’d need to take a sabbatical, attend a healing retreat, and clear out your entire house to get started. And that perception can keep us stuck. Even when we know that simple living would greatly improve our lives.
Simple living guides I’ve seen are usually about big habit changes or things to implement this year. But below I’ll share 10 ideas for how you can simplify your life today.
You’ll be astounded by how much you can change in a single day. And it will give you the momentum you need to make more radical shifts.
10 Ideas to Simplify Your Life Today
Let’s look at some options you can take today – like, right now – to meaningfully simplify your life.
1. Unsubscribe from E-mail Lists
E-mail is now ubiquitous for both our professional and personal lives. And once you let your inbox get out of hand, it can feel hopeless to try to get on top of it again. That bold “99+ unread messages” note causes so many people feelings of stress and overwhelm.
But here’s the thing. If you’re feeling the simple living bug today, there are immediate steps you can take to tackle this. And they don’t involve dealing with every unread message waiting for you (yet).
The main reason our inboxes get out of hand these days is marketing. Every time you type in your e-mail to buy or subscribe for something, you are signing up for regular e-mails.
It doesn’t have to be this way. You can unsubscribe!
So, here’s what to do today. Look at the first page of your inbox and click on anything that is a marketing e-mail. Or a newsletter that no longer interests you. Open the message, scroll to the bottom, and take the link to unsubscribe.
Many of the messages clogging your inbox are repeats from the same companies. A single “unsubscribe” can save you weekly or even daily messages piling up.
Give yourself 20 minutes for this project. Once you’ve unsubscribed to as many lists as you can, move on to the next item on this list.
And in the future, as soon as you see a message that doesn’t interest you, unsubscribe immediately. That habit has saved me so many headaches in recent years.
2. Sign Up for Paperless Communications
Another common source of overwhelm in our modern era is physical mail. It can be even worse than e-mail because it literally clutters our space.
For many people, envelopes pile up on an entryway table or the kitchen counter. In other words – very visible spaces you see several times a day.
And those piles sit there, reminding you that you’ve failed to stay on top of things yet again.
Even though you know most of these are junk mail or simple “FYI” communications like bank statements, the pile is so big that you procrastinate dealing with it. When the procrastination leads you to miss something important, you feel even worse.
Here’s the solution. Today, look at the pile. You don’t need to open or deal with anything just yet. Just notice who the letters come from.
Then log into your accounts online and quickly choose the “paperless communication” option. This is available for most services like banks, credit cards, insurance, wireless and cell services, medical providers, etc.
Now, you may be asking, “Won’t this increase the number of e-mails in my inbox that we just talked about in #1?” The answer is no, because most of these companies use both e-mail and physical mail to get your attention.
Also, once you’ve unsubscribed to unnecessary messages, your inbox will be much more manageable. It will feel easier to quickly click these e-mails when you receive them and note if they require any action.
3. Limit Your To Do List to 3 Main Things Per Day
This was huge for me. I love my Passion Planner and little to-do list cards. These help me stay organized. The problem arises when I dump every possible productive thing I could do today onto my to-do list.
Or maybe you’re like a friend of mine with just one running to-do list that is now 11 pages long and makes his head swim when he sees it.
Staring at a list of 15+ items, it’s not uncommon for people to simply give up and do nothing all day.
So, here’s how you simplify your life today. You change your to-do list habit.
Write just the three most important things to get done today.
Personally, I use different work and personal to do lists. So, I have three main things for my workday. And three main tasks for my personal life.
Do this in the morning to set realistic priorities for the day. Below, we’ll talk about keeping a running list of tasks to do somewhere outside your head. But your daily to do list should be much shorter.
Remember – you don’t need to write things you’re going to do daily anyway. Drop your kid off at school, go to work, etc. Just write the things that you want to make sure you don’t forget. Think: take a package to the post office, call your mom, organize an unruly pile of mail, start a website for your side hustle.
This goes back to realistic time management, and essentialism in general.
Having too many goals and things you aspire to do often freezes you in inaction. Getting realistic about what you can accomplish – and, therefore, what you want to accomplish most – frees up time and energy to get it done.
4. Change Your Approach to Cooking
Cooking is one of the most common chores I hear mothers complain about. Getting a healthy dinner on the table every night feels like an extra part-time job. Finding new recipes, shopping for groceries, prepping ingredients, following the recipe, cleaning up, and doing dishes is a lot. And it never ends.
Plus, you may have picky eaters in your family. It feels impossible to find recipes that are healthy, easy, affordable, and that everyone likes.
There are two issues making this task so difficult. 1. You think you need to vary recipes or your family will get bored, and 2. You’re cooking every day.
Here’s how you simplify your life in terms of cooking today.
Brainstorm 4-5 recipes you’ve made that fit your criteria. These are easy to make and that were a hit with your family.
Write them down or favorite links to the recipes online. There – you’ve created your recipe book for the rest of the season.
For the next 3 months, make these dinner recipes on repeat. Double or triple them so you can batch cook just twice a week. You’ll get so good at these that you can grab the necessary ingredients from the store without a list and whip them up in no time flat. And that also means major dish and kitchen cleaning happens only twice a week.
I promise, your family will be fine eating the same thing two nights in a row. And repeating recipes for a few months.
If they do complain, make them an offer: They can find a new recipe, make a grocery list, and help you buy groceries and learn to cook it.
And as for today, your only action item is to choose those recipes and make the decision to move forward this way.
5. Close Your Tabs
This entire list comprises of ideas to simplify your life that will take you no more than 20-30 minutes. My goal is to give you ideas for making your life noticeably easier in just one day.
And this one is perhaps the easiest of all.
Just…close your browser tabs.
Many of us – especially those with ADHD – keep dozens of tabs open at a time. You think, “I might need to come back to this, so I might as well leave it up.” Or, “I don’t have time for this but don’t want to forget it, so I’ll leave the tab open.”
That sounds reasonable until you have so many open tabs you can’t find anything you’re looking for. And your computer slows to a crawl.
You may think this is a harmless quirk. But like the mountain of unread e-mails and the envelopes piled on your counter, just seeing these can raise your stress in ways you may not even notice.
Has your computer ever crashed and lost all your tabs? And after a moment of panic you felt…relief? That’s exactly what you’ll feel when you finally let these go.
Remember that your browser’s history can likely pull up anything you previously viewed if you realize that it was vitally important. (But like with physical decluttering – that almost never happens.)
Close your browser tabs on any device you use – computer, tablet, phone.
Then breathe a little easier.
6. Hide Your Social Media Apps
In a post about breaking your phone addiction, I mentioned a tip from Cal Newport’s book, Digital Minimalism.
He suggests deleting social media apps from your phone. But keeping your accounts to log in via computer. This works because every feature that makes these apps addictive only works on mobile.
So that’s one thing you can do today.
However, I discovered another shockingly effective hack.
Pull any addictive apps into a folder on your phone’s home screen. I did this with Reddit, for example.
I knew opening the app would send me on an endless scroll of things that mostly didn’t interest me. But every once in a while there was a post that intrigued me. And that inconsistent reward was enough to activate the “slot machine” aspect of the app, as Newport calls it.
Although I knew it wasted my time, I would mindlessly click the icon when I was bored with my current task. And then 20 minutes would go by as I filled my mind with a stream of nonsense. And worse, news causing anxiety and outrage.
Frustrated one day, I moved the app into a random folder on my phone. Throughout the day, I’d find myself swiping on my home screen mindlessly and wonder, “Wait, what am I even looking for?” I realized I was looking for the Reddit icon completely unconsciously. When I couldn’t easily find it, it snapped me “awake.” And I realized I had a million things I’d rather be doing with my time.
Which apps do you interact with this way? It takes seconds to slide these into a folder or delete them.
But this 10-second action can simplify your life more than you’d ever expect by clearing your mind of time-wasters and junk information.
7. Declutter One “Easy” Area
I mentioned in the introduction to this post that the idea of embracing simple living can feel like an intimidating project to take on.
And one of the most daunting tasks involved is decluttering your home. Most of us have – without meaning to – acquired thousands of things in our homes. They stuff our drawers and closets and pile up on surfaces. Just looking at the clutter can raise your cortisol.
Creating a peaceful, minimalist home is too big a project for one day.
But you can take action towards it today. Look for one “easy win.” Some suggestions: a pile of unopened mail, expired food from the fridge or pantry, your sock or underwear drawer, kids’ clothes, your bathroom cabinet.
Give yourself permission to simply throw things away and not try to find good homes for them.
This will take around 20 minutes. But it will energize you for decluttering. By tackling a discrete area, you’ll also realize that decluttering isn’t nearly as hard as you assume it will be. You’d be surprised how few more 20-minute sessions you need to make a huge difference in your living space.
Like the opposite of clutter, every time you see your little clean area, you’ll remember that you can do this.
8. Do a Brain Dump
We talked in #5 about closing your browser tabs. Well, most of us also have dozens of “tabs” open in our minds. Things hanging over our heads that we need to remember to take care of.
Getting this out on paper via a “brain dump” frees up your mental space.
Here’s your task for today: Get out a notebook. Write a bullet list – in no particular order – of everything that comes to mind as something you need to take care of.
Then, shut the notebook. That’s your only task for today when it comes to the brain dump.
You’ll use this notebook in the future. In the morning, when you brainstorm your three-item to do list, reference this longer list. Are there any things from that list you can tackle that day? Great – add it to your daily list.
Then ignore everything else, resting easy that you’re not going to forget.
You’ll also reference this list on a life admin day – which will talk about next.
9. Schedule Some Life Admin Days
A “life admin day” is one day fully dedicated to catching up on all those to-dos that you don’t have time for in your daily life.
The idea is to clear your schedule that day. Take leave from work, find childcare for your kids – whatever you need to do. And just focus on those little things that you never seem to have time for.
What kinds of tasks are these? Some examples: making appointments, paying bills, answering e-mails, reaching out to friends to schedule get-togethers, buying gifts, paperwork, store returns, post office visits/other errands. (For more ideas, go back to your brain dump from #8.)
These are all small things, but when they pile up, they can feel impossible to tackle. Some days you’re simply too tired from all your usual responsibilities to add even one simple call to the doctor’s office.
A life admin day frees up your schedule to tackle all those little things at once without overwhelm.
But today is not a life admin day. All you need to do today is schedule a few life admin days in the coming weeks and months.
Look at your calendar. Find days that would be ideal to “take off.” Then, request leave from work, contact a babysitter, or whatever you need to do to make sure you have eight hours to dedicate to personal tasks that day.
And for today, that’s it! Now you can relax and forget about your mental to do list. Because you know there are days coming up soon when you’ll be able to take care of it.
10. Take a Rest – Right Now
If you clicked this post, you’re likely feeling overwhelmed. You want to simplify your life. But you don’t have the energy to tackle a big life change.
The quick, easy tasks above will certainly help.
But you know what else helps? Rest.
I don’t mean you need to buy magnesium and change your sleep schedule.
What I’m asking you to do is to rest. Right now.
So many of us feel rest is a luxury we can’t afford. We’re overwhelmed because we have so much stuff to do! Resting will only make that worse, right?
But ironically, rest is the answer to your overwhelm. And it’s not something you earn by “finishing” your to-do list. (Which will never happen, as Oliver Burkeman points out in Meditations for Mortals.)
When you rest, your mind clears. You’re able to separate the essential from the unimportant. In that state, it’s not so overwhelming to imagine you can radically simplify your life.
Think: could you give yourself permission to rest right now? Call in sick to work? Order a pizza instead of cooking? Leave dishes in the sink overnight?
And make sure it’s quality rest. This doesn’t mean lying on the sofa and scrollin rage bait.
It means: Taking a walk , sipping tea and staring out the window, meditating, reading fiction, stretching, taking a nap, listening to music, wandering through a bookstore.
Once you’re less fatigued, your to-dos aren’t nearly as intimidating as when you were in survival mode and running on too much caffeine.
Resting is an easy step you can take today to massively shift your mindset. When your mind is clear, you’ll realize you do have the power to simplify your life. Suddenly, it’s not such an impossible project. It’s something inspiring to look forward to.
What Do You Think?
What steps have you taken to simplify your life? Which do you think had the biggest impact? I’d love to hear from you in the comments!
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