Tips to simplify your life – 5 Easy ways to make life a little easier
Aren’t we all looking for little ways that can help to make life easier? A moment with my husband this evening, picture this: We’re laying down getting settled in for bed and all was quiet before he suddenly startled himself out of an almost-snore exclaiming,
“I have to set my alarm!”
There he goes again, I thought, all the time with this. But then it hit me, after these 12 years together I have just now realized that he has been MANUALLY setting his alarm!! Every. Single. Night. Like…every night y’all!!
In the name of all that is efficient, why would someone do this to themselves?? It’s just another thing to remember, to risk forgetting, and then to have to be late for whatever it is the next day. For my husband, it’s getting up extremely early to go to work Monday through Friday.
So I asked him, “Why don’t you just schedule an alarm for every weekday?” To me, it was the most obvious thing. Why make yourself have to remember to do things that you always have to do anyway? His response ran something along the lines of “Why don’t you just schedule an alarm for your butt?” Cue eyeroll.
But it really started me thinking, what are some of those little things you should do in advance or even daily to make your life simpler and easier? Hence today’s topic: 5 Little Ways to Make Your Life Easier.
#1 Schedule Your Alarm
As I mentioned above, if you have a regular time you need to wake up on the daily (and if you don’t you really should set one) you need to schedule your alarms in advance.
This seemed like a no-brainer to me, but my husband proves the need for this one. It’s a one time set it and forget it deal, and will save you those heart attack moments when you wake up late for work because you forgot to make sure your alarm was on. That’s never a good way to start the day!
#2 Automate Your Bill Pay
There are some pros and cons to this one, as summarized perfectly in this article by NerdWallet, and I’ll go into more detail regarding this in a future post also, but for summary’s sake you should put as many bills as you can on auto pay and get into the habit of checking up on them once a week or so.
Now, this is not for the reckless. You MUST have a budget in place before you go all autopay crazy, because if you don’t you could get yourself into a snowball of disaster. Stay tuned for more discussion on this soon.
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#3 Prepare for the Morning
Even if it’s just setting the coffee pot. I’m definitely not a morning person. So, if I have to be somewhere early, you better believe I’m doing everything I can the night before.
Laying out the clothes, pre-making breakfast, setting up whatever I need to take with me by the door. Heck my cousin even said she puts the toothpaste on the toothbrush the night before! Whatever helps.
#4 Keep Your Keys in Just One of TWO Places
My husband thinks I’m ridiculous, but guess which one of us has never locked herself out of the house (or car) before? Yep, for the last 15 years my car and house keys are only ever in one of two places: the ignition or my purse.
That’s it, no exceptions. I pull them out of my purse to lock the front door to the house on my way out and take them straight to the ignition. I take them out of the ignition and in my purse they go.
Sometimes I even put them in my purse during the 10 second walk from the car to the front door and have to fish them back out again to open the front door (to my husband’s incredulous laughter) but that’s a much smaller problem than being locked out!
#5 Stick to Routines
Morning routine, evening routine, shower routine – Seeing the bigger picture here? The more you can autopilot, the more you can focus on what really matters to you, and the less important little stuff you’ll forget to do.
Whether that’s planning your next vacation or remembering something cute your cat did that day, when you’re doing stuff in a routine, your mind is free to think. Or not think, which is good too. It will also help you not to forget to do all of the important steps in the routine.
The Final Word on How to Simplify Your Life
So that’s it for today’s 5 Little Ways to Make Your Life Easier. I hope you can use these little tips immediately to start making your life better. If you have some more ideas to add I’d love to hear them in the comments!
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