Photo by Jake Hills on Unsplash
Running around constantly trying to completed tasks stressing about what your not doing while your doing something else this is me so Im actively simplifying my life my one step every week.
This is my blue print
Simplifying life by one step.
To do this you will firstly need to know the daily, weekly, monthly and yearly tasks in your life,
at first thought this doesn’t seem a lot, but now think about writing it down is not so easy.
When you start to think about your routine your commitments in your daily life and work schedule.
Stop now and writing these down all the commitments in your life, before you know it you will have an overwhelming activity list that make you think how the bloody hell do i have time for all this, You don’t there will be items in this list that just don't get done or if the do they get done badly and are not monitored regularly enough to make your work on them worth while.
Writing invoices
Vat returns
Calculating profits
Writing intentions for the day
Being mindful
Showering
Getting dressed
Accounts
Chasing invoices
Quoting jobs
Paying bills
Writing a journal
Writing blog posts
Taking daily notes
My Actual list is a longer than this in fact it’s nearly 60 activities long .
Simple hack run back though list and ask your self are there any activities there i can just get write off?
I did this for “supporting others that need it” I didn’t cut everyone that need help out of my life, but their became a growing number of people around me that constantly needed assistance and I was slowly becoming the first point of call, I had to learn to say No!
Now we have a long list of daily personal, work and other peoples tasks that need your attention you did include these right.
For the second step to simplifying life by one step, it’s an easy win look back though the list and group certain activities a much better word for a task kinda takes the obligation out out of it. together with activities you think can be carried out at the same time.
Writing invoices
Vat returns
Calculating profits
Accounts
Chasing invoices
Quoting jobs
Paying bills
Writing intentions for the day
Writing a journal
Writing blog posts
Taking daily notes
Being mindful
Showering
Getting dressed
It doesn’t stop there all these task have some form of external factor required in order for you to complete them,
for example pen paper or software you use, now you have bunched these activities together think about the tools required, see if you can use the same tools for completing the activity this will simplify the amount of steps required carry out the.
For example I have the following bunched together
Writing a journal
Writing blog posts
Taking daily notes
Writing intentions for the day
By using the same app for theses task I can have all the information in one place my app of choice is Notion this way my thoughts, plans and daily notes are all in one place.
It doesn’t stop there because I use my intentions for the day to help me write my journal i can quickly jump between notes to jog my memory so i can remember what it is i set out to achieve. this works the same for my common place book I use this to write ideas down that i get though out the day.
So i use notion for daily notes and my journal, what else can i use notion for?
As I look back though my list, I can see multiple activities that require me to take notes so I use Notion for helping me carry out these tasks.
Creating copy
Taking note on site surveys.
New product development
Common place book
This starts to keep all my information in one place, simplifying life by using a minimal amout of tools to complete activities in my life.
At this point Notion acts a central knowledge base for all my thoughts, personal and business notes and my content creating a second brain!
Then I looked at the next group
Writing invoices
Vat returns
Calculating profits
Accounts
Chasing invoices
Paying bills
Quoting jobs
By having all our business finances in one application Xero!, I am able to perform all the above task in one app, turning a quote into an invoice and automatically sending invoice reminders saving time on writing and chasing invoices.
There are lots of other features and will cover this in a separate post
Now we have taken a around a third of our list and put it to two apps, so instead of scheduling time for all these activities individuals schedule time for the apps either daily weekly this will vary dependant on work load.
What about the activities we cant use an app for such as showering, getting dressed and Mindfulness ok there are lots of apps for this now but mindfulness has been around for about 2500 year, they definitely didn’t have apps back then.
Starting with this if we use an app we are required to take time to use the app this is taking time out of our days and not simplifying anything, what about introducing mindfulness in to our daily routine?.
In the book Mindfulness on the go by Padraig O’morain he talks about just being present while carrying out daily activities and by being present we are being mindful with no need to introduce yet another app into our lives this is defo a good read if your into mindfulness.
For showering I do this as part of my morning routine or before bed and getting dressed i have a very limited wardrobe and any thing goes with anything so I don’t need to spend much time thinking about to wear.
Simplifying life is simply getting rid of unnecessary activities and grouping activities together so they can be carried out at the same time.
Apps and books mentioned in this post are linked below.
I hope I get value from this and if any one else is reading hope you do too!