Top Tips to Simplify Your Life

As we near the first week of August, plan how you'll celebrate "Simplify Your Life Week" with baby steps you can take to streamline, cut out the clutter, make life easier and better invest your limited resource of time. With a few tweaks to how you get things done, you can better focus on what matters most, making greater progress on your priority goals to achieve your desired results.

Per Dictionary.com, simplify means "to make less complex or complicated; make plainer or easier." Invest some time in simplifying to limit stress, more quickly find what you need when you need it, have a clear grasp on what needs to be done at any moment and stop wasting precious moments of time. Make every minute matter!Ⓡ

Here are tactics to jumpstart your efforts at simplifying your life:

• Deliberately choose how you invest your time. Develop habits such as a weekly strategy session and daily wrap-up to map out a specific game plan and stay on track.

• Learn to say "no". What actions are being asked of you that don't actually need to be done? Are there tasks on your to-do list that could be delegated to someone else that can do them equally well if not even better so you open time for what only you can do? Alternatively, should you consider "not now" for something that can be delayed until a later deadline?

• Stay true to your priorities. When you know what matters most, you can more intentionally align your actions with those areas of importance, avoiding burnout. As priorities shift, you can be flexible and shuffle how to invest your time so you keep your actions focused on your goals.

• Utilize work-life integration for greater overall success. By studying research by Wharton's Work / Life Integration Project along with my experience with clients' best practices, I know first-hand how you can create harmony with goals for home, work, society and yourself complementing one another rather than competing with each other. Focus on actions that can accomplish multiple goals at once, plan how you can invest your time with each of your most important priorities at the forefront of your emphasis and maintain pliability to easily address your priorities as they evolve over time.

• Respect the value of your space. Whether it's in your physical space, electronic files or calendar, keep only what is accurate, applicable, useful, bringing you joy and not just as easily found with a quick Google search. If something filling your physical space, electronic files or calendar no longer meets those requirements, remove that clutter.

• Plan to have the tools you need nearby when needed. Do you utilize a smartphone, tablet or laptop? If so, you are well aware of all the accessories needed, especially when you are working on-the-go, like charging cords, earbuds and the like. Rather than depending on whether you remember to bring "all the stuff" with you whenever you work outside an office, keep multiple sets of accessories (one for the office, one in your vehicle, one for your bag), bundling your tech tools together with the GRID-IT or a canvas pouch that's easily portable.

• Address email. Unsubscribe from eNewsletters you are no longer reading, consider bundling subscriptions that you do read via Unroll.me and shift from checking to processing newly received messages, moving to-do items to your task management system, adding requests for your time to your calendar, shifting retention items from your inbox to personal folders and using delete as your friend to remove trash or junk.

• Save time with forms, templates and checklists. If you regularly send the same reply, create a template that can be easily plugged in and tweaked as necessary, saving time by not starting from scratch each time. Create a packing checklist so you don't forget anything needed for travel. Design a form for your grocery shopping list so you remember to restock the essentials each time and save valuable minutes by listing the items in order of the aisles at your store.

• Automate daily processes. "Set it and forget it" may be the greatest time-saver. Investigate options such as IFTTT, Podbox and Zapier to find the best solution for your needs. In addition, add an automated cloud back-up solution, such as Backblaze, Carbonite or CrashPlan, and consider which social media management solution will allow you to automate putting the right message in front of the right audience at the right time.

• Cut back on distractions with fewer pings and dings. When distracted, it can take us an average of 23 minutes to fully re-engage in the task at hand. Each time we receive a notification for a new email, social media update, text message or voice mail received, those are distractions that rob us of valuable time. Turn off the notifications and schedule set times to check each platform. For folks that do require an immediate response (like key account clients or your direct supervisor), make them VIPs so you can utilize Do Not Disturb on iOS and Priority Mode on Android.

Where do you see excess in your life or time being wasted? How can you take action in tiny steps that will assist in simplifying your life so you get to your goals more easily?

Stay on Track with a Daily Wrap-Up

Are you familiar with the quote "the best laid plans of mice and men often go awry"? This is a common experience for people as they strive to boost productivity. The week starts with a plan, something shifts, and that initial plan seems to no longer fit. Maybe a client has an urgent, unexpected issue arise and needs your time to get the situation resolved. Or a team member calls in sick, leaving you to cover the tasks that can't fall through the cracks. Perhaps one of your employees needs direction to meet a deadline, pulling you away from your must-do list to answer questions.

There are two ways to respond: either feel like the week is lost or make adjustments to get back on track. I find daily adjustments enable achieving my priority goals and fuel my desired results.

Completed at the end of each day, the following checklist enables the necessary adjustments and better empowers staying on track:

• Communications - Get end-of-day updates from appropriate team members, touching bases to drive awareness and get everyone on the same page; think outside the box to include all team members, like employees, subcontractors, vendors, family members, roommates, volunteer committee members and more. Touch bases with new and returning "hot prospects" to increase your awareness of what is happening while keeping you in the other folks' awareness. Verify you're up-to-date processing received emails and following up on voice mail.

• Tasks - Review your must-do list from the day that's ending and look over the next day's anticipated to-do list. Are all important tasks included that need attention to meet impending deadlines? If something wasn't completed today, determine at what point in the next few days time can be allocated for completing those carryover tasks. It is realistic to plan for fulfilling 3-5 actions on any given date, and knowing beforehand which are your must-do items for the next day will allow you to hit the ground running when you return to work.

• Time Commitments - Evaluate your schedule for the next day and verify that you are prepared for everything scheduled. If you are not prepared, when will that preparation occur? Does your calendar include buffers and time to get where is needed?

• Space - Whether you're in 4 walls, an open office space, a vehicle or working from a bag, tidy up your workspace. File new items and put that day's work back into each item's home, creating a blank slate for the next day. Make sure what you need for the next day's activities is ready and accessible.

• Successes - We live in a do, do, do society, meaning we don't necessarily take time to reflect on meeting the goals for which we strive. Instead, each day, celebrate all you've accomplished in the day that's ending. If you got out of bed, you accomplished something, and acknowledging that is motivating. Stop the monotony of simply getting things done, and acknowledge what you've successfully completed to encourage continued productivity. Make sure you take time to celebrate daily successes, no matter how large or small.

• Gratitude - As there is a vast amount of research regarding the many ways gratitude improves productivity, use the power of gratitude to drive your daily productivity. End each day with gratitude, and denote that for which you are grateful each day. Don't stop with simply thinking of that for which you are grateful; actually say it out loud or document in a gratitude list at least 1 thing for which you feel grateful every day.

What is your experience? Do you take time at the end of each day to properly wrap-up the day that's ending as well as plan for the next day? What successes can you share from practicing this habit? On the flip side, what issues have arisen when you've been unable to regroup daily and end each day getting back on track? What aspects of this checklist can you start implementing today?

Always Complete Your Daily Wrap-Up

As we discussed in yesterday's post, it is imperative to create a weekly strategy so you are proactively taking control of how your time is invested; however, we live in the real world, and things happen to derail even the best laid plans. You get pulled into an unexpected project, an emergency arises, a colleague calls in sick or your client desperately needs your help immediately.

To stay on track amidst all the curveballs that life will throw your way, end each day with your daily wrap-up, where you address these items:

- Communications: Get updates from team members and "hot prospects", both new and returning; touch bases to increase your awareness of what is happening while keeping you in the other folks' awareness.

- Tasks: Review that day's to-do list; determine which incomplete items will be completed when. Ready the next day's "must-do" list, remembering that a list of 3-5 items will be realistic and allows you to hit the ground running.

- Time: Evaluate your schedule for the next day, verifying that you're prepared for it all. If not yet ready, when will you allocate time for those preparations?

- Workspace: Tidy up... File new items and put that day's work back into each item's home.

- Successes: Celebrate all you've accomplished in the day that's ending. If you got out of bed, you accomplished something!

- Gratitude: Make note of that for which you are grateful at the end of each day, whether one item or a list of things.

How do you resolve on the loose ends at the end of each day? What is your response whenever your weekly strategy is thrown off course? Which of the items in this daily wrap-up do you find most valuable? What can you start today?

Proactively Stay on Track with a Daily Wrap-Up

Successful professionals start each week with a plan, prepared to address what's important and having scheduled all priorities. Yet, then, things can get thrown off track. A client has an urgent, unexpected issue arise, desperately needing your time to get the situation fixed. Or a team member calls in sick, leaving you to help with some of his responsibilities. Maybe some of your employees need your direction on meeting a deadline, having had questions arise while working on the project. Whatever has popped up to detract from your game plan, it is vital to reboot as best you can and get back on track.

I encourage you to end each workday with a Daily Wrap-Up, which can be imperative in getting your week back on track and helping to maintain what you created in your Weekly Strategy Session. Work through each item below to keep each day productive and help you organize for success:

• Communications - Get end-of-day updates from appropriate team members, touching bases to drive awareness and get everyone on the same page. Verify you're up-to-date processing received emails and following up on voice mail.

• Tasks - Review your to-do list from that day and look over the next day's to-do list. If something wasn't completed today, determine at what point in the next few days can time be allocated for completing it. 3-5 items on any given date's to-do list is realist and allows you to hit the ground running when you return to work the next day.

• Time - Evaluate your schedule for the next day and verify that you are prepared for everything scheduled.

• Space - Whether you're in 4 walls, an open office space, a vehicle or working from a bag, tidy up your workspace... File new items and put that day's work back into each item's home. Finally, make sure what items you will need for the next day's activities are ready and easily accessible.

• Successes - We live in a do, do, do society, meaning we don't necessarily take time to celebrate when we achieve the goals for which we strive. When we take time to celebrate our successes, we are better motivated to keep working towards even greater accomplishments. Therefore, make sure you take time to celebrate daily successes, no matter how large or small.

• Gratitude - While there is a vast amount of research regarding how gratitude improves productivity, you can click here for 20 such ways as shared by Lifehack. With that in mind, you can use the power of gratitude to drive your daily productivity. End each day's Daily Wrap-Up with gratitude, and make note of that for which you are grateful each day. 

Share your story... Do you take time at the end of each day to properly wrap-up that day and plan for the next day? Alternatively, what issues have you encountered when you haven't been able to regroup and end each day by getting back on track.