It’s nice to know that there are tiny ways to simplify life today. While some changes take longer, this list will offer some immediate relief and simplicity.
I don’t know if I want to laugh or cry when I think about the big changes I tried to make in my life. Fast and furious, quick fixes never worked. I finally had to change the way I change. I traded pushing through and exhausting myself for slow, steady, simple changes that didn’t wear me out. It took hundreds of tiny steps to simplify my life, and they made a big difference.
10 Tiny Ways to Simplify Your Life Today
Enjoy some immediate satisfaction with these 10 tiny ways to simplify your life today. You’ll not only enjoy more simplicity, but confidence and momentum for ongoing simplifying.
1. Join a Declutter Hour.
Commit to one hour of decluttering a specific area of clutter. Declutter paperwork, digital clutter, your closet, kitchen or skincare products. Harness collective decluttering energy and my support to work through stressful decluttering. Learn more here.
2. Create space on your calendar by canceling things.
Under-scheduling yourself is a tiny way to simplify life. Audit your calendar and see what you can cancel or move to create space. Even if this is temporary, creating room to breathe will help you see what’s really important.
3. Simplify life with a donation station.
Create a donation station in a common area of your home or by the door. Use the box or bag you set up as a reminder to drop a few things for donation every day. This tiny way to simplify your life only takes a few minutes and it will reduce the friction of letting go. Once the box or bag is full, donate it. Check out this ultimate guide of where to donate things.
4. Take a tiny walk after a meal
I love this recommendation from this article about tiny habits. Rather than sitting on the couch after I eat a meal, I’ve been going for a 2 to 5 minute walk. Rachel Fairbank, a journalist with The New York Times, shared the findings (NYT gift link) of a meta-analysis that “compared the effects of sitting versus standing or walking on measures of heart health, including insulin and blood sugar levels.” Researchers discovered that very tiny walks – between two and five minutes – “had a significant impact in moderating blood sugar levels.”
5. Regift your books.
Books can be hard to declutter but if your focus is reading more instead of collecting more, it’s easier to let go. Regift your books to friends with a little note inside about why you think they’ll enjoy reading it. Passing on good books actually feels good and it usually comes around. If you have a bunch of books to declutter here are 25 places to donate books.
6. Turn off your phone notifications.
It takes an average of 23 minutes to bounce back from a distraction. Stay more focused with notifications off. Try this and other tiny steps to simplify the time and attention you give your phone. Turn off social notifications, breaking news updates, useless reminders that apps send you to keep you engaged and anything else that removes you from your life.
7. Turn off your phone completely.
Our phones get our attention just by being in the same room. Try turning it off and putting it in another room for a few minutes and then for longer stretches of time. When you are ready try taking a full day off every week. Tiffany Shlain will help you with her book, 24/6, Giving up Screens One Day a Week to Get More Time, Creativity, and Connection (A Guide to Unplugging).
8. Give yourself a simple pleasure every day.
Simplicity isn’t always about removing things. Sometimes adding something is a tiny way to simplify life. Try adding a simple pleasure. Simple pleasures are usually ordinary things, something so ordinary that we forget to see them as a pleasure.
If you have trouble identifying a simple pleasure, think about what pleases one or more of your five senses. A soft blanket can be a simple pleasure for your sense of touch. A small piece of dark chocolate may be just right for taste buds. A spritz of your favorite perfume or lighting a scented candle will be a pleasure for your sense of smell. Looking at images from your favorite artist or reading a book may serve your sense of sight. Beautiful music or listening to the birds is a simple pleasure for your hearing.
9. Hide your clutter and forget about it.
There may be clutter you aren’t sure about. You think, “I might need that someday.” or “I’ll keep it just in case.” Box up all of that clutter. Then, instead of donating the bag or box (which may feel like a big step), hide it for 30-60 days. If you don’t miss it, donating it will feel more like a tiny step because you’ll break the emotional hold and realize that you enjoy the space more than the stuff.
10. Be gentle with yourself.
Always start here. Be gentle with yourself. Make things easier in your life. Take care of yourself when you actually need to take care of yourself. Prioritize tiny habits over radical change. Rest before pushing through. Just give yourself a break. You are doing so much better than you think. For more encouragement to be good to yourself, read my book, Gentle, Rest More, Stress Less and Live the Life You Actually Want.
Tiny ways and simple shifts are more sustainable and enjoyable than big sweeping changes. If you want to simplify your life and make it last, what you do everyday matters more than what you do once in awhile. Consistency is more powerful than intensity.
