Four Routines That Will Simplify Your Life
Picture this: You come home from work and set the mail on the kitchen counter. The house is trashed, and there are toys strewn everywhere, but you’re mentally drained from your long-ass workday. So you sit on the couch next to that heaping pile of clean clothes. The kids are wondering what’s for dinner, but you haven’t thought that far ahead yet.
This, my friend, is decision fatigue. When you have trouble making decisions because of the number of choices you are faced with. The average adult makes over 30,000 conscious decisions every.single.day, which explains why you avoid that pile of mail and that pile of laundry. You’re overwhelmed with choices – from what to wear in the morning, to what to eat for breakfast, whether or not to answer a call or reply to an email, spending money, cleaning, and paying bills… And you really don’t want to decide what to make for dinner.
So how can you offset all of those decisions? With a routine! Routines take brainpower out of the equation, which means you can accomplish your usual set of tasks without even thinking about them. Today, we’re going to cover 4 different routines that will simplify your life.
So let’s get right into it!
SIMPLIFY YOUR LIFE WITH A MEAL PLAN
Have you ever opened the fridge, hoping to find something to eat, only to be let down? You’re hangry, but the only thing available is 5-day old leftovers and sandwich meat.
Or maybe 5 o’clock rolls around and you’re putting of starting dinner because you don’t know what to cook and you don’t feel like flipping through a hundred recipes.
The dinnertime struggle is real! But it doesn’t have to be! By following a meal planning routine, you can take all of the guesswork out of dinner and simplify your life.
Your meal plan can be as simple or as elaborate as you want. All that matters is that you plan out a couple of meals for the coming week. Then, when 5 o’clock hits, you can walk right into the kitchen and know EXACTLY what you’re going to make for your family!
So commit to spending 30 minutes this weekend planning out your meals for the following week. It will save you time in the kitchen and it could even cut your grocery budget in half!
And best of all, it will simplify your life because you won’t have to face that dreaded question of “what’s for dinner?”
If you’re ready to get started with a meal plan, you can grab a copy of my free meal planner. Or check out this post to find out how to meal plan for beginners.
SIMPLIFY YOUR LIFE WITH A PLANNING ROUTINE
Have you ever missed an appointment because you simply forgot all about it? Or rushed out the door like a madwoman because you were running super late again?
Or maybe you’re constantly running to the grocery store because you keep forgetting essential household items?
Managing a home is tough work, and unfortunately, it doesn’t come with an instruction manual.
It’s hard to know what to focus on from one day to the next and sometimes it can feel like you’re just treading water, trying your best to keep your head afloat.
As a mom of multiple children, I have had my fair share of struggles. When my kids hit school age, I quickly figured out what the “weekly chaos” was all about.
I felt like I was failing at this whole motherhood thing because I couldn’t get my shit together. But once I started practicing a planning routine, everything suddenly became easier.
For the first time in my life, I felt like I was in charge of the week. I had ownership over my day, and I stopped letting our messy life dictate our schedule.
A planning routine can be as quick or as detailed as you want. It all depends on your personal lifestyle.
Planning routine
- First, check your monthly calendar, where ever that may be. You might use a planner, a free printable, or Google calendar. Or, you could have a bunch of post-it notes scattered all over your kitchen counter and appointment cards shoved in the bottom of your purse. You’re looking for any important dates or appointments that were scheduled months ago.
- If there’s anything important happening in the coming week, add it to your weekly planner under the corresponding day.
- Once you have all of your timely appointments figured out, you can decide when you will go to the grocery store, when you will tackle big goals you want to get to, and when you will focus on your personal to-do list.
My weekly planning routine almost always happens on Sundays. But you can plan for the week on any day of the week that makes sense to you.
The main purpose is to make sure that you’re prepared for the coming week.
SIMPLIFY WITH A CLEANING ROUTINE
I don’t know about you, but I hate to clean. I would much rather spend my free time on self-care activities or personal development.
Or maybe you don’t mind cleaning, but you have trouble remembering what to clean and when.
Whether you love to clean or hate it, a cleaning routine can simplify your life and make your cleaning tasks SO much easier!
My regular cleaning tasks would be forgotten if I didn’t make a routine out of them. Here’s a sneak peek of my weekly cleaning routine:
M: Wash all the towels, sheets, and blankets
T: Dust the house from top to bottom
W: Vacuum all the carpet
T: Clean the bathrooms
F: Sweep and mop
S: Miscellaneous and groceries
S: Prep for the coming week
I’ve been following this same cleaning schedule for almost 2 years, and it has served me pretty well. I don’t even have to think about what I need to do.
When the kids are in school, I focus on my daily cleaning task the minute I come home from morning drop-off. It’s like second-nature!
SIMPLIFY WITH A PAPER PROCESSING ROUTINE
Ah, the dreaded incoming paper.
Paperwork comes in our homes day after day, week after week, month after month, for our entire lives.
It literally never stops! Which is why it’s so important to sort through it regularly.
But sorting through your kid’s artwork and unopened bills? Well, that’s more decisions to be made!
To simplify your life and beat decision fatigue, you can follow a paper processing routine once a week.
As with the other routines outlined above, it will eventually become a habit.
Here’s a quick look at my paper processing routine:
- First, I gather all of the paper that has accumulated in my house over the past week.
- Then, I sort through all of the paper and decide on everything. Take action, file, save, or trash.
- Every single piece of paper ends up in one of those 4 categories. File and save are essentially the same thing, but “save” is for paperwork that I want to reference throughout the coming week (like free printables or well-child checkups).
- The “take action” category is usually for bills or other items that I need to decide on.
The whole point of a paper processing routine is to act on every piece of paper before the start of next week. This is the best way to prevent paper piles from accumulating in the future.
When you’re first getting organized, you may need to set up some temporary systems for your household paper. A file organizer and a simple basket is a good place to start!
READY TO SIMPLIFY YOUR LIFE?
Well, there you have it! Four routines that you can put in place in your home that will simplify your life.
If you’re feeling overwhelmed and stressed by all of the decisions you are faced with on a daily basis, start with one of these routines:
- Meal plan
- Planning routine
- Cleaning routine
- Paper processing routine
Pick just one to start with; don’t try to practice all 4 of them at once! I recommend choosing one based on the area of your life you are really struggling the most with.
And then take some time to focus on that routine until you feel like you’ve got the hang of it!
Simplifying your life is a big undertaking that won’t happen overnight. But you CAN get started today! Choose one of the routines above and be sure to follow along on Instagram for more of a behind-the-scenes look into my routines.
