Two Tricks to Simplify Life
Two Tricks to Simplify Life
Simplifying will give you breathing room to do the things that truly matter. Try these two tricks to simplify your life!
“The ability to simplify means to eliminate the unnecessary so that the necessary may speak.” — Hans Hofmann
Forget about perfection.
Don’t worry about it. You can’t achieve it, so don’t try. Give yourself permission to do your best and that’s it. Instead of impersonating Betty Crocker, send store-bought cupcakes in for the school snack. Set a deadline date for a project, finish it, and then move on. Don’t go back and redo something that is just fine the way it is. This is hard to do. You have to feel as though your best effort is good enough.
Let me tell you a short story. I learned my perfection lesson early. When I had my first child, I always made a huge effort to get him dressed every day. You’d think he was going for a photo shoot. But on the days that I went to work early, my husband would dress our son and take him to daycare. Sometimes, when I’d pick the baby up from daycare I’d wonder if the DH had dressed him in the dark. What was he thinking – those pants with that shirt? But, did it really matter? My daycare provider and I would have a laugh over it and move on. Does anybody remember this now, years later? No (just me). Is my son scared by his fashion faux pas? No. He dresses better than his father.
Don’t worry about variety.
Does your family care if you work your fingers to the bone making a fancy meal every night? No, they just want to be fed. People tend to have their favorites and keep going back to those, so why go against that? I’m not saying to never try something new, but just not every night. Make up a meal schedule and stick to it to simplify food shopping, food prep, and clean-up. The same with clothes. Buy classic, well-fitting items that you can mix and match for a bit of variety. Shopping for new clothes for variety’s sake can be a time-consuming budget killer. Again, we all have pieces of clothing that we love, and that make us feel good when we wear them. Stick to those items instead of looking for that feeling at a shopping mall.
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Leaving these two things behind will not only simplify your life but also your time and your budget. Simplifying will give you breathing room to do the things that truly matter.
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Janet Schiesl
Janet has been organizing since 2005. She is a Certified Professional Organizer and the owner of Basic Organization.
She loves using her background as a space planner to challenge her clients to look at their space differently. She leads the team in large projects and works one-on-one with clients to help the process move quickly and comfortably. Call her crazy, but she loves to work with paper, to purge what is not needed and to create filing systems that work for each individual client.
Janet is a Past Board Member of the National Association of Productivity and Organizing Professionals and a Past President of the Washington DC Chapter of NAPO were she has been named Organizer of the Year and Volunteer of the Year.
Janet Schiesl
Janet has been organizing since 2005. She is a Certified Professional Organizer and the owner of Basic Organization.
She loves using her background as a space planner to challenge her clients to look at their space differently. She leads the team in large projects and works one-on-one with clients to help the process move quickly and comfortably. Call her crazy, but she loves to work with paper, to purge what is not needed and to create filing systems that work for each individual client.
Janet is a Past Board Member of the National Association of Productivity and Organizing Professionals and a Past President of the Washington DC Chapter of NAPO were she has been named Organizer of the Year and Volunteer of the Year.
These are the absolute best things to remember. Doing your best and being good with good enough is an important lesson. I also love your point about variety. They say that variety is the spice of life but aren’t we all really comfortable with the things that we know we like?
I agree. People know what they like.
These are great ways to simplify life. Perfection is unachievable, as you said. Focusing on learning, having a growth mindset, doing your best, or even “good enough” is more helpful.
Your story about your husband dressing your son is so funny. It reminded me of when Steve took our new baby out for a walk in the stroller. He was on Dad duty that day and was responsible for getting Allison dressed. One of my neighbors, who saw them walking, told me Steve had put her hat/cap on upside-down or something odd. He was a new Dad and didn’t know. No damage was done. It sure makes a good story. As new parents, you do your best and learn your way forward.
Glad you liked the story. I really have to choose my battles. Let’s all get to Good Enough!
Your first point echoes what I always remember as “Don’t let perfect be the enemy of good.” In her entire adult life, my mother has never left the house without her hair and makeup being perfect, and for many years, I did the same. And then a little over a decade ago we had tornadoes in the area and power was out for several days. I had no choice but to go do professional things with my (clean, but cold-washed) hair in a pony tail and only minimal makeup. I felt naked and flawed. And then I got over it.
As for variety, I’m lucky that I can happily eat the same thing for breakfast or lunch every day for decades, and am fine wearing jeans and any color of the same style T-shirt every day when I’m not working. I think consistency is calming; it requires fewer decisions and fewer working parts.
You’re absolutely right, and if someone follows just these two steps, they’ll already be able to lead a simpler life.
Julie, I love your story. Sometimes Mother Natural forces us to change.
I have a love/hate relationship with our company uniform. I’ve worn it for so many years that it’s become boring. But I’d rather wear it than have to pick up clothing every day.