It’s time to start treating your time as your single most valuable asset, because it is!
Don’t settle for letting people walk all over your plans and your commitments.
Know what’s important to you by setting clear goals and then use as much of your time on those things as you can. That might mean more time with family, it might mean writing that novel.
Anyone who takes that time away from you is taking you away from the things you love and from your goals. Treat this seriously and guard your time jealously!
THE STREAMLINED MIND – Checklist
Decision Fatigue
Reduce decision fatigue by:
- Reducing the number of clothes you own
- Making a plan for what to wear at the start of the week
- Making a plan of what to eat at the start of the week
- Preparing some food and keeping the extras in Tupperware in the fridge for when you’re pushed for time
- Set-up a standing order for your weekly shop with your local grocers
- Eat the same breakfast and lunch
Tidying
Tidying is one of the best ways to help yourself relax and to organize your mind. Take these steps:
- Keep one room clear and tidy to relax in
- Designate one room for activities that create clutter (like ironing)
- Outsource if you have the money – to a cleaner for instance
- Set up systems to make it easier to stay on top of work
- Throw things out – this will leave a better average quality item behind and make your home easier to keep clean and tidy!
- That includes crockery which will force you to wash up more often.
- You can even eat off of paper plates and throw them away at the end
Socializing
Socializing takes a lot of time and energy and is surprisingly stressful. Fix it with these tips:
- Learn to say no & value your time and recognize that you can’t please everyone
- Prioritize the people and things that are most important to you
- Know your goals
- Use a calendar to avoid overbooking yourself
- Treat your plans and chores just like social engagements & as immutable. If someone invites you out on Wednesday but you are cleaning the house that day, that’s all the excuse you need to say no!
- Cut out the people in your life that aren’t there for you & there’s no time now for frenemies
Work
If you are constantly put under pressure at work, you need to optimize the way you’re getting through your tasks and you need to rethink the nature of how you’re working.
- Don’t make tea or check Facebook & make these rewards for completing set amounts of work
- Set out your to-do list and to the biggest and most taxing task first
- Cut out all distractions
- Remove communication overhead. That means stopping checking emails, keeping necessary phone conversations short and asking your boss if you really need to attend that meeting.
- Consider trying to work from home or get flexi time. This can benefit everyone, you just need to be brave enough to suggest it.
Reduce Information and Stimulation
One of the biggest issues is the amount of information and stimulation coming our way from all the technology in our lives.
You can overcome this in the following ways:
- Use a smartwatch so you can check notifications without opening them
- Only check email at certain times of day & have an autoresponder with an emergency contact number in case of emergency
- Have half an hour of screen off time before bed
- Cultivate some habits and hobbies that don’t involve technology
THE STREAMLINED MIND – Mind Map
THE STREAMLINED MIND – Resources
Many of us blame technology for our stress. We accused technology with keeping us constantly connected to our employers and our clients and we feel that it’s screens and constant notifications that often make us feel so jumpy, wired and tired by the end of the day.
But technology can also be helpful. In fact, there are plenty of resources online that can help you to organize your mind and a bunch of apps that you can use to automate some of your most time consuming and fiddly tasks.
In this list, we’ll look at a ton of those resources as well as some books and other things you can use to further your education and make life that little bit easier!
Services
Bodychef – http://www.bodychef.com/
Bodychef is a diet system that delivers fresh meals to your door every day. We’re not necessarily recommending this brand or saying that it’s better than any other – we’re just saying that you should consider something like this as a great way to simplify your life. Especially if you’re trying to lose weight.
Virtual Assistants – http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/245561
This is an article over at Entrepreneur that describes how to find a virtual assistant. This is someone who can help you complete some of the tasks you don’t want to complete yourself as long as they’re online and don’t require specialist skills or great English!
Style Assistants
- https://www.trunkclub.com/
- http://www.bombfell.com
- https://www.sitchfix.com/
Tired of worrying about what to wear? Any of these services can help make that concern a thing of the past. You get personalized recommendations about what to wear and then have brand new clothes that form matching outfits sent to you regularly. This way you always have something new and interesting to wear and you never need to think about it!
Coffitivity https://coffitivity.com
Coffitivity is an alternative to a white noise generator that instead uses the soothing noise of people chatting. Great for blocking out distracting chatter and putting yourself in a state of mind for work!
Apps
Closet – http://closetapp.com/
This is an app that lets you upload your wardrobe so that all your clothes are easy to flick through and so you can visualize how they go together in different outfits. Of course it also features the ability to let you plan ahead so that you can know what you’re wearing for the coming week.
Todoist – https://en.todoist.com/
Todoist is a great app that lets you build to-do lists. These can then be accessed online, or by using a mobile app. You’ll receive notifications and it can even play nicely with a range of other services.
Google Calendar – https://www.google.com/calendar
One of the best calendars available for your smartphone or the web. This app syncs with just about any other app you can imagine, it ensures you can access your schedule from anywhere in the world and lets you share it with others too.
Asana – https://asana.com
Asana is one of many different project management apps, with others including the likes of Basecamp. These are great for working collaboratively and also just keeping track of what you have left to do in a day.
Fabulous: Motivate Me – http://www.thefabulous.co/
A beautifully designed website and app that uses a ‘science based’ coach to help you achieve your goals and stay on track.
Pomodoro Keeper – https://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/pomodoro-keeper-free-timer/id867374917?mt=8
Try the Pomodoro technique yourself and start working on your tasks in blocks of time, free from distractions.
Freedom – https://freedom.to/
This app will help you to block distracting apps and set a range of rules to govern your online behaviour.
Headspace – https://www.headspace.com
This is an app that will teach you the basics of meditation.
Books
Looking for some further reading? These books can help you a great deal to automate, optimize and organize!
The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying
This book from Marie Kondo very quickly took the world by storm and introduced many of us to the cathartic power of throwing out junk and organizing what remains. This is the ultimate guide to getting your home more organized and is very motivating.
How to Save an Hour Every Day
This book by Michael Heppell has a lot of tips and ideas to help you save time every day – many of which go a lot further than saving time. In fact, this book shares a lot of tips with the last one, demonstrating just how powerful a bit of organization can be!
The Four Hour Workweek
Tim Ferriss introduced the world to the concept of ‘lifestyle design’ with his book The Four Hour Workweek. This is all about living the life you want now and making work fit around what you want to do (instead of the other way around). For that to work, there are a lot of methods he recommends to
Further Reading Online
The Four Hour Workweek Blog
http://fourhourworkweek.com/
Tim’s website is jam-packed with more tips, ideas and advice that can help you to accomplish more and reduce the distractions you face.
The Pomodoro Technique
http://pomodorotechnique.com/
This is the official website that is filled with tips, ideas and advice for using the Pomodoro technique effectively.
Morning and Evening Routines
http://www.artofmanliness.com/2011/09/05/bookend-your-day-the-power-of-morning-and-evening-routines/
This is a great article from The Art of Manliness on how to use morning and evening routines to optimize your day.
Gadgets and Devices
The Microsoft Band 2
https://www.microsoft.com/microsoft-band/en-gb
There are a number of great smartwatches/fitness trackers on the market but this is a great one for helping you to stay on top of your health and your notifications. Receive notifications on your wrist so that you can stay more ‘present’ and in the moment while at the same time tracking your exercise, your sleep and your overall health.
NeuroSky Mindwave
Think your brain is fit to burst? Then try ‘NeuroSky Mindwave’. This is a device that teaches you to calm your brain and actually reads your brainwaves to help you do this more effectively.
Planners
There are a large number of food planners and diaries out there on the market. Likewise, there’s no shortage of workout planners, journals and diaries – invest in some nice ones that you will enjoy writing in!
Follow the tag THE STREAMLINED MIND to read the complete series.
