20 ways to simplify your life & be happier

The other day we took 10 minutes to choose batteries at the store.

10 minutes of our day.

To be clear: we have no idea what good batteries are like. Don’t know what we're actually looking for besides their size. We have no idea how much they cost on average.

So that decision should have taken us no more than 30 seconds. It cost us 20x more.

We have the tendency to overthink.

To overcomplicate things, so we can make them seem worth it.

After all there’s no point in doing something that’s simple, right?

Good things are difficult.

Huh.

It’s simple to get overwhelmed by the choices we have and by looking around at what others have or are doing. Always makes us feel like we're not doing enough. Like we don’t have enough and never will.

Even though we do get into this trap more often than we'd like, now we know how to deal with these things and to get it over with quicker. Those 10 minutes with the batteries would’ve been 20 min a year ago. And we would probably go back to return them the day after.

But now, once we catch myself overthinking a simple thing we make a decision and that’s it. Look at us letting go, next year: 5 min thinking about batteries.

We learned how to keep our life simple. Or to make it simpler. This is what we believe.

Good life’s about knowing what you want, what you need and keeping it this way. Not overloading your life with things, people and dreams you don’t actually need or want.

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Okay, now here are a bunch of things that help us simplify our life and save us time, money and energy! We're pretty sure most (if not all) of them will work for you too!

20 ways to simplify your life. Our new DIY project: organize our life and keep it simpler. Here are 20 ways to stop overthinking and…

20 Ways To Simplify Your Life And Be Happier

1

Have go to’s.

Usually we do have them anyways, but feel the need to explore EVERYTHING. Like what we know is not enough. While we're not saying don’t explore (see below) – there’s nothing wrong with going to the same bar or restaurant more often than not. We have go to workouts, go to salads and favorite go to places. But we also like to try something new every day.

2

Spend 10 minutes every day tidying up

Make your bed, clean up your desk, clean the kitchen counter, keep your rooms tidy. Doesn’t need to be Monica-clean, just tidy. You’ll find things (and you won’t buy them again) and you’ll take better care of the things you have.

3

Put things in their original place after using.

Again you’ll find things faster! That reminds us – have place for everything. For example, we always leave our keys at the door. We save a lot of time not looking for them.

4

Make fast decisions.

Remember the batteries? Well, after those 10 min we spent 10 minutes deciding which roses we should get for our sister and mom, because we wanted to surprise them (Like who buys batteries + roses?). They all looked the same. Those decisions shouldn’t take much time. If it isn’t something that’s gonna matter in a month from now, we try not to spend too much time thinking whether it’s worth it.

5

Go out for walks.

If you look around at what everyone else is doing you can go crazy. You suddenly might feel the need to go to a spa, get a massage, go hiking somewhere exotic or jump out of an airplane. Well, today what’s gonna make you feel good is taking a walk and taking time for yourself.

Related Article: How to make walking fun

6

Forget about what others are doing

Speaking of, stop looking at what everyone else is doing. When you stop looking at others and focus on you, you’ll understand you have more than enough and you’ll decide what you REALLY want to do. What’s making others happy might bore you to death when you actually try it, TRUST ME.

7

Have just a few goals.

Yesterday we met a positive and nice woman who retired a few years ago. She said after she retired she said she’d go wherever she always wanted. And she did! But she didn’t have goals like – see the whole world. She had a few specific destinations where she wanted to go. And she knew where she didn’t want to go for sure. So decide what you want to do and what you definitely don’t want to do!

Related Article: 25 goals that will transform your health

8

Accept the situation as it is (if you can’t change it).

Don’t try to fix things that are unbelievably broken! Sometimes it’s easier to build something from the ground up than build on a broken foundation that falls apart all the time. (Undercover poet?) All we're saying is – if it takes more time fixing and seems impossible – let go and start brand new.

9

Which clothes do you actually wear?

Why buy more clothes? Keep what you actually like and NEED. Things that are timeless. You don’t need to go with every trend out there. We still have clothes from high school. And we buy clothes only when we like something. Same with apps, furniture and decoration.

10

Cut out non-essential things that don’t bring you much joy anyway

How often do you go to the gym, watch TV or use other subscriptions you have? Last moth we joined a gym thinking we'd work out more often if we had a gym membership. That whole month we went 5 times. And we hated it. When we do our workouts at home, we do them every day. Even if it’s 10 minutes. So now, we will do our workouts at home and if we ever feel like it, will visit a class for a one time fee.

11

Have one planner for EVERYTHING.

Work, personal, grocery list, workouts – have all that in one planner. We learned this the hard way – at one point we had about 15 planners and there was a little bit of everything in each one. It was an overwhelming mess. When you use one – you’ve got everything there!

12

Make sure to do the things that make you happy daily.

To us that’s go out for a walk, exercise, spend time with people we love and do something daily for this blog. We try to do these things every day, not because we're motivated to do them, not because it’s a part of our morning routine, but because we know they make us happier. So take note of what makes you happy and make it a part of your daily routine.

13

Spend some time on your own.

Make time to reflect on what has happened in the past and what you want to do in the near future. Maybe even keep a journal to track your progress.

14

Finish things that are worth it and let go of things that aren’t.

Look at your to do’s and see what you need & WANT to do and what’s old news. If you feel you’ve outgrown something – don’t keep it on that list. It’s okay to delete it. On the other hand, finish the things that you need to do, so you can move on and clear some mental space.

15

Don’t follow diets/diet plans.

There’s ton of information out there on how to lose weight. There are also tons of workouts and recipes out there – both things you need to actually lose weight. In our experience trying to follow a diet can make you insane. Too many restrictions and you gain all the weight back when you stop following the diet (we've seen this multiple times with our mom). Go with common sense and make it a priority to eat your fruits and vegetables and to move your body every day for 20-30 minutes. You can always change things up by trying out new recipes or workouts.

16

Try new things and accept disappointment

Don’t beat yourself up for trying new things and not liking them more than your go to’s. A lot of the overcomplicating happens like this: Why did we do this, we could’ve done that instead…Accept that it didn’t work out and move on. The quicker you do this, the further you’ll go and the better you’ll feel.

Related Article: How to eat out and still lose weight

17

Let the other person be right.

You know what? We fight way too often about things that are even less important than batteries. To us in most cases: better happy than right. We let that person be right for a second. If it’s a person we don’t like – it’s mostly not worth fighting with. And if that’s a person we love – it’s never worth fighting with. If you want to do something for yourself, but people disagree with you, there’s no need to explain yourself. Do it.

18

SET TIME FOR SOCIAL MEDIA

Related Article: 3 morning habits for more happiness

19

BE GRATEFUL

Be grateful for the things you have. When you’re grateful for what you have, you will look less for other things to make you grateful (or happy). It makes you want & need less things.

Related Article: 11 Ways To Reduce Stress Naturally

20

AUTOMATE

Automate or set a reminder for paying bills/ other boring tasks. Finally, as boring as they are, you probably have to pay bills, taxes and do boring things that no person in the universe wants to do. You cannot let these things go, you can’t ignore them, because they would make your life more complicated later. Solution: make it less painful and get it over with! Set a reminder and finish it.

Well, those are the things we do to keep our life simpler and they all need maintenance! It’s not like you do it once and it’s done. Good things in life need maintenance and reminders.