5 Tips To Make Your Life Easier
Our lives are busier now than at any other time in history. Some people might very well do more in a day than their ancestors living a hundred years ago did in a month. What’s more, the pace doesn’t seem to be slowing down. It seems that the more progress civilization makes and the more advanced our technology gets, the busier we seem to be.
What’s the solution? It’s actually quite simple: Deliberately set systems in place to make life easier.
Here then are 5 tips to get started:
1. Get totally organized.
One reason why things can appear overwhelming is that there is no clear path through your day on how to begin and end it. You are not sure what to do and when to do it.
This means you start the day feeling scattered and by the end of the day you’re exhausted. Worse still, you go to bed with this uneasy feeling that you forgot to do something important.
While there are many ways of getting organized, do what Sir Richard Branson does to run his 80 + global companies around the world—create a to-do list.
.
.
2. Keep your to-do list as short as possible.
One simple reason you may never finish your personal to-do list and your work to-do list is that you have too many items on your list. Just looking at a long list is enough to knock the wind out of you.
The way to trim the list is by prioritizing it. Make an ABCD list.
A is what is urgent.
B is what is important, but not urgent.
C is something that can be done at a later time.
D is something that can either be delegated or discarded.
If you can get your list down to 20 items, you might be able to finish everything by getting up early and going to bed late. If, however, you can trim it down to 10 items, you will get it all done, with some breathing space in between to answer a few personal phone calls and respond to a few emails and comment on a few blog posts.
.
.
3. Simplify the steps of everything you have set out to do.
Everything that has to be done probably requires a number of steps to take.
If you can shorten the number of steps or chunk related things together to do within the same time frame, you will be able to move through your list much more efficiently.
You may find that you are overcomplicating things and that far fewer steps are necessary to do everything on your list well.
.
.
4. Straighten out your online life.
If you use a computer or mobile device a lot, you should keep your desktop clear and your tabs on your browser neatly organized. This will make it easier to find things and to get from one task to another faster.
Also, find ways to simplify your email system.
One good method is STAR.
S is for scan. Look over all the names and subject lines without opening up any.
T is for trash. Keep the emails you believe are important and simply delete everything else. Much of what you get in your inbox is probably solicitations for things that you have long since lost interest in.
A is for archive. Create a file labeled Archive, where you put the emails that are interesting but not urgent.
Finally, R is respond. Answer those emails that require a rapid response from you.
Using the STAR system you will be able to get to inbox 0 in thirty minutes or less. After you get good at sorting out your emails before you even begin reading them, you will get it down to 15 minutes.
What about passwords?
Do you have all sorts of weak passwords all over the place? By using a password manager, you will be able to store all your passwords in a secure vault and will only need one primary password to access the vault. The best password manager software will fill in forms and logins for you and use keystroke encryption to protect you from cybercriminals.
.
.
Finally, there are all sorts of software online that you might want to look into to make your life easier:
· Project management and collaboration software
· Search engine optimization software (if you write blogs or have an online business),
· File management and storage software
· Social media management software
· Organizational software (for replacing your to-do lists, for keep track of important events and appointments, and for taking notes).
.
.
5. Reduce clutter and clean up messes everywhere you.
You do this by getting rid of the little things and by cleaning as you go. The reason you might accumulate clutter and create a small mess is because you plan on cleaning up later when it’s more convenient.
However, the most convenient time never actually shows up, and these accumulated messes soon become overwhelming. Finally, the little things that would have taken less than five minutes to clean up or put away now becomes a major house or office-cleaning session that will take at least 3 hours to get your life back.
.
Conclusion
These five steps are simple and easy-to-do. By doing them all each day, you will have more time to do the things that you enjoy doing instead of spending all your time trying to stay on top of everything.