Develop Systems and Simplify Your Life

If you feel like your life is chaotic, it’s probably because you haven’t organized the way you handle the different things in your life into systems.

Systems are anything that happens regularly in your life — errands, laundry, email, kids lunches, etc. They can be either simple or complicated – depending on whether you’ve given them some thought and organized them.

Make a list of all the systems in your life that you could simplify. Here are a few more examples:

Mail
Bills
Phone Calls
Lunches
Cooking
Exercise
House Chores
Travel
Yard work
School or work
Appointments
Bookmarks and saved information from the web

Now here are some suggestions for creating simple systems:

Give your system a name – Formalizing the system will make you more likely to stick with it. Also, write it down, step by step, and post it up somewhere.

Designate things – It’s best to have designated days for things, and designated areas. That gives order to your week or day, as well as your working or living space. It turns chaos into simplicity.

Group things – Grouping all errands into one day, for example, saves time and money.

Stick to the system – It will take a little while, but you’ll need to focus on sticking with your system at first. After awhile, it’ll become second nature.

Re-evaluate the system – Every now and then, it’s good to step back and take a look at whether your system is working, and if it can be further streamlined or improved. No system is perfect.

Here are some additional tips:

• Rethink the commitment based on your life’s goals and eliminate it if it doesn’t fit.
• Practice saying, “no,” so that this word is on your lips when asked to make a commitment you are not willing to accept.
• Use either a paper or computer-based organizer to write down your systems schedule and names and phone numbers.
• Arrange your work hours so that you start earlier, avoid the commuting crowds, and give yourself more daylight hours off work.
• Anticipate and avoid peak use time for stores, streets, restaurants, services, and offices.
• Establish a regular, weekly shopping and errand day. On your shopping day, do all your grocery, clothing, or supplies shopping. Also do your bill paying, banking, and other errands.
• Schedule genuine down time and fun time.
• Break down your projects into chunks and then to specific tasks, and then work on the tasks regularly. Work on project tasks in scheduled time blocks.
• Prepare in advance the time, tools, training, and information you need to work on your project tasks.

Reference:
You can simplify your life

About timethief

A down to earth woman, a passionate wordpress blogging tips blogger, a meditator, and a conscious living and self improvement blogger.

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