How To Simplify Your Life In 7 Days

In this post I’m sharing how you can simplify your life in 7 days, these tips will help you to change your perspective, declutter your life and your mind, and focus more on the things you do want in your life and less on the things you don’t want. 

How To Simplify Your Life In 7 Days

• Day 1: Brain dump
• Day 2: Rest your space
• Day 3: Declutter social media
• Day 4: Create routines
• Day 5: Decide what you do and don’t want
• Day 6: Plan your time
• Day 7: Set your intentions

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Day 1: Brain Dump

Sometimes our mind becomes overrun with thoughts such as things we need to do, things we need to discuss and things we want to create. By getting all of your thoughts out of your mind and onto paper you can give yourself a clear understanding of what you need to focus on and what areas of your life are causing you the most stress.

The idea behind a brain dump is to write down all the thoughts taking up space in your mind and weighing you down. It can be the smallest thing such as booking a dentist appointment or maybe a fallout with someone which is still taking up space in your mind.

Step one of doing your brain dump is to grab a pen and paper and I recommend writing your brain dump instead of doing it digitally. Write down everything which is on your mind, things you need to do, things you need to discuss, ideas you have and goals and projects you’re working on.

Now you want your brain dump to be messy, in fact, it needs to be messy! So don’t try to make this look cute, the idea is to have a messy page but a clear mind!

Step two of your brain dump is to categorise your brain dump.

For example:

• Home
• Health
• Career
• Future
• Goals
• Garden

One way to layout your categories is by having one category per page and then dividing the page into section for each action.

For example:

• To do
• To eliminate
• To create
• To discuss

Day 2: Reset Your Space

Simplify your life by regularly resetting and decluttering your space. When your environment is clean and clutter-free your life and your mind will feel a lot less messy as well. I recommend reading The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying* by Marie Kondo, her book will help you to transform your home into a clutter-free space using the KonMari method.

Tip: When resetting your space make sure everything has a home and if you don’t have a place for an item ask yourself if that item is actually something you need? Does it serve a purpose? Does it bring your joy? When you have too many items without a place to go, your home becomes more cluttered and harder to clean. Finding a home for everything will allow your home to feel less cluttered, your space to feel tidier and you will find things much easier.

Day 3: Declutter Social Media

I’m not against Social media. I think it’s brilliant how it connects people across the world, it gives a platform for people to share their voices, their ideas and their opinions. We really do have a lot to be thankful for when it comes to social media, yet too much time online can have a negative impact on your self-esteem.

If you find yourself comparing yourself to strangers on the internet then you are in need of a social media decluttering.

Step one to declutter your social media is to:

• unfriend
• unfollow
• unsubscribe

Start with the accounts you use the most, if any accounts you follow bring you any negative feelings then you need to unfriend, unfollow and unsubscribe from those accounts.

Only follow accounts which inspire, motivate and connect with you. I also think when you follow too many accounts on social media you end up losing sight of what’s important to you online because your page is taken over by so many accounts you’re going to miss out on what your friends and family have posted.

Day 4: Create routines

Simplify your life by creating a morning and an evening routine. Starting with your morning routine, how can you create a morning routine that will simplify your life?

Whether you want to start your morning with exercise, catching up on errands, working on your side hustle or just having a slow morning so you don’t start every day feeling stressed and rushed.  By waking up 15-30 minutes earlier every morning you can simplify your life and your morning.

6-morning habits that you can start doing right away that will transform your life. These habits are from Hal Elrod and his amazing book The Miracle Morning.

Morning routine 

Silence

The idea is to start your morning with a clear mind, the most effective way to do this is through daily meditation. By practising daily meditation you’re training your mind to be present and allowing your emotions to come and go.

Affirmations

Affirmations are positive statements which you repeat to yourself in a way to support your success.  They can help you to develop a more positive perception of yourself and your life.

Visualisation

The best way to incorporate visualisation into your morning routine is to first spend some time creating a vision board.  

Exercise

Incorporate exercise into your morning routine will mean that you start your day with more energy and enjoy the sense of achievement

Reading

The idea behind incorporating reading in your morning routine is to read something which will inspire you or motivate you. You want to read something which will take you one step closer to becoming the person you want to be.

Journal

Journaling is the perfect way to practice self-care and to reflect on your life. Use your journal to manage your thoughts, you can do this by writing down your feelings, ideas or goals.

Evening Routine

How about your evening routine? Is there anything you can do in the evening to prepare for the next day? Such as packing your bag, preparing your lunch and choosing your outfit. When creating a morning and an evening routine, decide what time you will start, how long it will take and what you will do during your routine.

Set a bedtime

Our bodies function better when they’re on a regular routine and the more regular sleep that you get the more balanced you’re going to feel.

Switch off

By turning off electronics you can start to unwind and prepare your mind and body for sleep. 

Plan

Planning your morning the night before is essential as you don’t want to waste any brain power thinking about what to do and what order to do it in.

Pamper

A nighttime pamper routine doesn’t need to take a lot of time, it’s just about practising self-care by maintaining hygiene and making yourself feel good!

Read or journal

Choose a relaxing activity to do before you go to sleep such as reading or journaling. This will help you to avoid mindlessly scrolling through your phone.

Day 5: Decide what you want

Simplify your life by being clear to yourself, about what you do and don’t want, so you can stop wasting your time, money and energy on things which don’t bring you joy.

Inspired by the book The Life-Changing Magic of Not Giving a F**k*, simplify your life and get rid of any unwanted obligations, shame, and guilt. Start saying no to the things which you don’t want to do and stop being sorry and feeling guilty for saying no. Concentrate on spending your time, energy and money on the things that really matter.

Ask yourself the following questions:

What do you feel like you should be doing?

And by this I mean, are you seeing trends online that your friends or maybe just strangers are doing, and therefore feeling as if you should be doing this as well. But actually, if you think about it, you have zero interest in these things. 

What are you stressed about?

What’s bringing stress into your life right now? Think about different areas of your life, such as your home, your work or education your relationships, and your health. Even things such as your creativity and self-care, maybe these are things which bring you joy but you don’t currently have enough time to enjoy them.

Write down everything and anything which is causing you to stress right now and what you can do to fix it. To fix the issue you will either need to completely ditch it or alternatively find a solution to help reduce the stress.

Who is bringing negativity into your life?

Are there any toxic people in your life who are bringing you down? Can you spend less time with these people or completely cut them from your life? Surround yourself with people who encourage you and support you.

Who and what brings you joy?

Write down all the people in your life who bring you joy and all the things in your life that bring you joy.

How can you have more of this in your life?

It could be as simple as making a phone call once a week to someone you love. Or it could be making time every day to do something you love, think about your morning and evening routine, how can you make more time in your life for the things which bring you joy?

Day 6: Plan your time

Simplify your life by planning your time. Now if you’re anything like me then you will have a huge list of things you want to do. But finding the time in your busy, jam-packed schedule can be pretty difficult, but it doesn’t have to be. You simply need to be more mindful of how you’re spending your time.

When planning your time I suggest you choose a time and day when you will review and update your calendar for the upcoming week. Try to do it on the same day every week, as this will help form the habit.

Next, I suggest adding in your non-negotiable items such as work or school, then add in items such as seeing your friends, and family, exercise and self-care. Finally, add tasks from your to-do list, or any projects and goals you want to work on.

How does your planner look? If it’s looking a little packed then I suggest you re-think your time. You want this schedule to become part of your routine therefore you need to allow yourself downtime, otherwise, you will burn yourself out.

If you can’t fit everything you want to do into your schedule, then pick your favourites for this month and then next month you can mix things up. You can do this exercise on a weekly or monthly, whatever works best for you. Remember, you are in control of your time.

Day 7: Set your intentions

Writing out your monthly intentions is a great way to simplify your life as it reminds you what’s important and what your goals are. Intentions are very different to goals as goals focus on how you will achieve something, but intentions define who you want to be and what you want to do as if it has already happened.

Goals are something that you can cross off your list when they’re accomplished, intentions are a definition of who you are. When setting your monthly intentions you want to make sure it’s coming from a place of contentment rather than a sense of lack or need. You also want to focus on how you want to feel each month and lately, you want to dream big and not set any limitations on yourself.

Laura x