Let’s face it, no matter who we are or what we’re doing, life is stressful! Creating the time and opportunity to do nice things for yourself and doing things to simplify your schedule will help you to stay sane and keep enjoying life. Doing this will also make those stressful times a little easier to get through, so regardless of how many of these things you do, it’ll be a win-win. So without further ado, here are three simple steps you can take to make life easier and get some hours back in your day…
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1. Take some time to research what you want
This step may seem clichéd but it’s so important. Take a step back and look at your life from all angles so you can define what you want and why. If you can determine the things that are holding you back from enjoying life and set specific goals to improve things, then you’ll be more likely to succeed.
A great way of doing this is to make a list of all the things that make you happy or joyful and that you hope to do more of. Once you’ve done this, choose the top two or three most important activities and concentrate on achieving those. Once you’ve achieved these goals, you can then move onto two more and so on, until you’ve ticked off everything on your list.
Next, start taking note of how you’re spending your time on an average day. Doing this might show how little time you’re spending on quality family time, ‘you time’ and other things that make you happy. If you can see you’re wasting time on monotonous routine or meaningless tasks, proceed to step 2.
2. Declutter your life
This may seem surprising, but the old belief that multitaskers or super-parents achieve more than everyone else is a myth! As much as we’d like to believe we’re achieving super-humanness by cramming in multiple tasks, we’re actually just making life harder for ourselves and causing undue stress. Instead, research has shown that to achieve more productivity and creativity, you have to do one task at a time and relax between tasks. If you don’t do this, you’ll end up losing motivation and focus and end up wasting valuable time by procrastinating.
Have a look at your list from step one and ask yourself the following:
Can I delegate activities to anyone else?
If you’re at work, can you delegate activities to junior staff? Can you get the kids or your partner to do some of the household duties you usually handle? Sure, perhaps they won’t do the job as good as you do, but if you get a spare ten minutes here and there to spend on yourself, you’ll be grateful later.
Can I outsource some activities?
It may seem like an expensive choice to outsource things like house cleaning and cooking, but if you consider what your own time is worth, then calculate the time it takes you to do these chores yourself, you’ll likely find it’s well worth it.
A good example of the benefits of outsourcing is having your meals delivered by a quality brand like Chefgood. This fantastic brand not only delivers truly affordable and delicious meals right to your door, but their range is designed to provide you with nutritional meals that promote fitness and/or weight loss. Chefgood’s meal plans are perfect for busy people hoping to outsource shopping, meal preparation and cooking!
Can I stop being a perfectionist?
If you’ve completed a task and it’s good enough, then stop! Unless you’re a surgeon or similar, it’s such a huge time waster to do everything perfectly. Save your energy for only the most important tasks.
Can I eliminate distractions?
Prevent procrastination by settling some firm limits. As an example, if you’re working, don’t check emails or take calls until you’ve finished what you’re doing. For other distractions such as TV, simply turn it off and do something physical instead.
3. Clean up your schedule
If you’ve followed the above two steps and managed to free up some time, congratulations! Now you have to decide how to spend that time. Fill out a new schedule with some activities you love to do between all the tasks you don’t really want to tackle. If you start your day with a joyous task — say, enjoying a coffee and chapter or two of a good book while sitting in the sun — then following that with a chore or work, followed by a happy task, then more work, you’ll find it’s much easier to get through the hard tasks when you have something to look forward to afterwards.
Over time, you’ll realise that the time you’re saving by decluttering your life and outsourcing things — such as outsourcing your shopping, cooking and meal prep to great meal delivery services like Chefgood — is highly valuable and when you use it for things that make you happy, you’ll be… well, happy!
Chefgood is a commercial partner of RESCU
