26 Things to Do to Make Your Life Easier - Life's Little Pleasures and Struggles

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Often we tend to make things more complex than necessary. With complexity comes unnecessary difficulty, stress, and conflicts. When you make your life easier, you make room for what is important and meaningful, reduce your stress, improve the quality of your relationships, and enjoy life more. Here are some effective things you can do to make your everyday life easier. Try them out for yourself and see which ones work for you.

1. Be intentional with your time

Be intentional with your time and spend it wisely. When many of us say that our life is too complicated, what we actually mean is that we’re just too busy. If you can find ways to slow down and be less busy, then maybe life might feel a little simpler and easier!

Being less busy isn’t always easy to achieve in normal everyday life. The key to making it work for you is to be intentional about your time, try to do fewer things but only focus on what is essential, and say ‘yes’ to the things that truly add value to your life.

Related post: 8 Amazing Benefits of Becoming Unbusy

2. Define your priorities

Have you thought about what your true priorities might be? Not just the ones that shout loudest from your diary or To Do list. A nicer car or a bigger house? Or would it be spending your time and money on beautiful and meaningful experiences, making wonderful memories with your loved ones, and living a debt-free life?

Take a few minutes every day to think about your true values and priorities, and appreciate the intrinsic value of the simpler things in life. Ask yourself how your schedule, your spending habits, and even your home reflect this vision. Go through your priority list, remove those that don’t go with your current values and principles, and take note of the people, activities, places, and experiences that excite your spirit and mean the most to you.

Understand that everything being a priority actually means nothing is a priority.

3. Have manageable goals and write those down

If you want to make your life simpler and easier, reduce the number of goals you have. Many of us have tons of goals in life that keep us busy with things that are not truly important and meaningful. Also, it’s a lot harder to accomplish things when you have more goals than what you can manage to achieve. That can make you feel overwhelmed, frustrated, and unhappy.

Go through your priority list, remove those that don’t align with your current values and principles, and write those down. Studies have shown that spelling out your dreams and goals in ink can make them feel less intimidating and more attainable. It will help you stay focused so you don’t waste time on tasks of low importance. And by reducing the number of goals that you are striving to accomplish, you will improve your focus and your success rate that will also increase your happiness.

4. Plan and prepare

Planning and preparing for what’s ahead will definitely help make your life easier. It will help you:

Avoid overwhelm
Be less likely to forget things
Know what needs to be done and when
Foresee and avoid any problems before they come up

Some of us are better at planning than others. If you find it difficult, just remember that it doesn’t have to take ages and the time you’ve saved planning can more than cover the time you waste dealing with the fall-out of not being prepared!

Make life easier and do some regular forward-planning. Check your calendar weekly so you know what’s happening and what’s coming up. Keep a visual “To-Do list” on paper or on your phone so you know what you need to do. Don’t rely on storing this information in your brain where you’re likely to forget it! Write it down.

5. Don’t put things off

Nothing adds stress to our lives like waiting until the last minute. You can take breaks from time to time, but can’t always put things off for later times when you are able to do those on time with little efforts and planning.

Constant procrastination creates burden that hampers the progress you might be making in simplifying your life. It overwhelms you and makes you lose focus on what you want to achieve in your life.

6. Simplify your finances

In order to create a more peaceful and less stressful life, you must form the habit of simplifying your finances. Financial concerns rank top on the list of what causes people stress. A person’s financial situation has a significant impact on their mental and physical well-being.

WebMD lists finances as a major stressor that’s capable of triggering long-term diseases – causing you more stress and busting your budget even more. Take the time each month to do a sustainable budget, track your expenses, and check that against the money you have coming in.

Make it easier on yourself to stay on track with your money by simplifying your finances.

7. Get organized

Life can be so hectic these days, so hectic that everything feels messy, and it’s like everything is happening all at once. But that’s just not the case.

It’s time we all admit that we need help in organizing our lives. It’s going to be a chore to do all this, but staying organized makes life easier in the long run. Organization provides a sense of control, reduces stress, and is a great confidence booster. It also allows you to focus on the things that really matter avoiding unnecessary stress. Just think about how easy it’ll be to find stuff you need and avoid last minute hassles.

Putting systems and procedures in place so you’re generally more organized, efficient, and productive can make life simpler and easier. Some examples could be: regular weekly meal-planning and food shopping, filing systems for paperwork and important documents and spreadsheets to track your spending, and giving everything you own a proper place so you can find things easily when you need them.

8. Establish daily routines

A great way to your life easier is to create daily routines to get your important tasks done on time without rushing or stressing over things. Running a home can be a real drain on your time and your energy. Cleaning, washing, tidying, sorting. It all needs to be done even if you don’t feel like it.

Get some regular routines in place and stick to them, and your home will function so much better without you running out of food, clean clothes, or having to do a whole day deep cleaning session.

Be intentional about how you structure your day. Develop a solid and consistent morning and evening routine. You will be able to start and end your day knowing what you need to do, how and when you are going to do it, and how much you have accomplished.

9. Identify the biggest cause of your stress

Is there something in your life that causes you a lot of stress, heartache, or overwhelm? You need to identify and take care of that so you don’t feel that stressed out anymore. Maybe it’s your health and you’d like to improve it? A relationship that feels a bit one-sided or selfish? Not enough time for yourself or for the things you love to do? Or your job that’s hectic or isn’t flexible enough for your family life?

Choose just one thing that’s making your life harder, and make a plan to deal with it in next few weeks. Then, pick another one and take actions to improve that situation. That way, your life will get easier and more peaceful.

10. Be kind to yourself

One of the best things you can do to make yourself happy is to be kind to yourself intentionally. Life will become easier, your relationships will most likely improve, and you will experience more peace and happiness. When you practice self-love and be kind to yourself, it lessens your stress and anxiety and so much of your struggles.

Treat yourself the way you would treat a friend or someone else you cared about. Forgive yourself when you are not perfect. You owe yourself the love that you so freely and willingly give to others. You deserve the same level of care and respect from yourself.

11. Get enough sleep

We all know, more or less, the importance of getting enough sleep. Yet most of us are guilty of depriving ourselves of a good night’s sleep. I hear a lot of people brag about staying up late doing their ‘important things’. But what they fail to realize is that lack of sleep leads to depression, obesity, weight- gain, diabetes, high blood pressure, and memory loss. And it also causes irritation and impatience with others.

Even a little bit of sleep deprivation can alter your mood and cognitive abilities. When you are sleep-deprived, you feel tired, sluggish, and unproductive. Lack of sleep also ages your skin and makes it look unhealthy. So, make it a habit to go to bed early, and get a sound sleep for 7/8 hours. Your body and mind – both will thank you for that.

12. Wake up early in the morning

When you go to bed early in the night, and wake up early in the morning, you can be more productive on that day. Your day will feel longer, and you can accomplish more. You can do so much in those extra 2 hours – going for a morning walk, reading, writing, organizing, cooking, gardening, spending more time with family, and many other things that you enjoy without having to rush.

13. Make your bed when you wake up

Making your bed first thing in the morning is probably one of the best things you can do to start your day that will, in turn, give you a sense of accomplishment.

Having a nice, tidy, and organized start to the day can lower your stress levels, and increase your happiness and productivity. Also, crawling into a neatly made bed at night yields a sounder sleep than plopping on top of your wrinkled, tangled sheets. It’s a wonderful feeling, indeed!

14. Declutter your space

Keep your home clean, clutter free, and organized. Let go of the things that are neither useful nor beautiful. Make room for those that are necessary and meaningful, and that add value to your life and make life easier.

Find a place for everything you own. Clutter takes up your precious living space and creates mess and chaos. It also takes more time cleaning up and tidying up which increases your stress level – both physically and emotionally. Keeping only the stuff that bring joy and ease will make your life so much easier, happier, and meaningful. Plus, you will have a renewed sense of energy after discarding the items that weighed you down.

15. Move and shake your body

When you exercise, your brain releases endorphins, adrenaline, dopamine and serotonin. These are chemicals that work behind the scenes to make you feel happy. So, get some body movement every day, preferably in the morning.

It doesn’t have to be complicated or professionally trained. It can be running, walking, cycling, swimming, playing basketball, gardening in the yard, lawn mowing, vacuuming and mopping the floor, or even furniture rearranging. Just make sure you get your 20-30 minutes of workout daily. Staying active has infinite physical and mental benefits that can’t be ignored.

16. Cut off the negative people

The quickest way to make a positive change in your life is to change who you surround yourself with, and it’s totally within your control.

Set some boundaries, and cut off the people who only bring negativity into your life and make it complicated and stressful. Surround yourself with the people who are positive minded, and who truly care for you, encourage you to do better, and add value to your life.

17. Spend time with those who matter to you

Make more time to spend with those who truly matter. Once you get rid of the things and people that are unnecessary and don’t add value to your life, you will have extra time to spend with your loved ones.

Spending time with those who you love and care for will increase your happiness and improve your quality of living. We get so busy in the day to day grind and we start to lose sight of the things that are most important to us!

Take time to nurture your most important relationships and make your life better and more enjoyable.

18. Check your expectations

By nature, people are not perfect. So, you should not expect them to act perfectly. What you expect from yourself or from others should be realistic or practical.

Too many expectations can make life difficult, cause stress and frustration, and even put strain on your important relationships. Set your expectations straight regularly, and you will experience more peace and less disappointments or frustrations.

19. Stop multi-tasking

Do one thing at a time and enjoy what you are doing. That way you won’t have to deal with the pressure of doing several things at once, and you can accomplish more things in a productive manner. Doing two or more things at a time can be overwhelming and very stressful.

Multi-tasking doesn’t always increase your productivity either. While you focus on more than one task at a time, you usually accomplish less and feel more stressed in the process.

20. Ask for help when you need it

Don’t shy away from asking for help when you need it. It’s not a sign of weakness. Rather, it’s a sign of your maturity. Instead of trying to do something all by yourself when you can’t do it right, seek help and learn from others.

We can’t always do things on our own, and it’s okay to ask for help. If you have trouble, reach out to someone and ask for their assistance. It will reduce your stress and frustration. Also, you can accomplish more, learn new things, and feel happier.

21. Make peace with yourself

Accept yourself for who you are and what you have. Stop trying or wishing to be somebody different. Spend time improving your own life rather than being envious of others and you’ll find your life will be much easier!

Don’t compare yourself to others and make yourself feel miserable. Everyone is dealing with their own challenges, struggles, and setbacks. Comparisons are unhealthy and detrimental to your own self-esteem.

Instead of comparing yourself to others, focus your energy on being the very best version of yourself. Try to be better than what you were yesterday. Focus all your energy and attention on your own goals and dreams. Do what is required to achieve them.

22. Stop worrying about the future

You may be complicating your life by worrying too much about your future. There is a direct connection between staying in the present and living a more peaceful life. Practice gently bringing your thoughts back to the present because worry doesn’t solve anything or automatically make things better.

There are some things you can’t control, and you can’t change them no matter how much you worry. So don’t waste your time and energy trying to predict what can happen tomorrow. Because worrying doesn’t take away tomorrow’s trouble; it takes away today’s peace. Worry won’t stop the bad stuff from happening, and it just keeps you from enjoying the good in your present life. As the old proverb goes, “Worry is like a rocking chair. It gives you something to do, but it won’t get you anywhere.”

Make your life easier and more enjoyable by choosing joy over worry. Make the best of your present life, stay positive, and concentrate on your goal. This will surely make your life more peaceful and less stressful.

You may also like to read: The Side Effects of Worrying—and What to Do Instead

23. Practice gratitude daily

Gratitude is all about shifting your focus from what your life lacks to all the things you currently have – big and small. Gratitude makes people more resilient, improves physical, emotional and mental health, and reduces stress. Research has shown the link between living with gratitude and multiple health benefits including better sleep, less stress, improved relationships, and increased happiness.

Focus on all the good things in your life, appreciate all your blessings, and express gratitude for those. Make your own gratitude list and read them often. Every day find at least 3 reasons/things to be thankful for. Just by doing that consistently, you will notice a significant increase in your happiness and overall well-being.

24. Let things go

Knowing when to let go is never easy, but that certainly makes your life easy and more peaceful. The harder and tighter you hold on to something, the deeper it hurts. In order to create a simple, peaceful life, you need to stop dwelling in your past, let the grudges go, and focus on your present life.

When you decide to forgive someone, you let the grudge go that was weighing you down emotionally. You free yourself of the anger and bitterness that were only causing anguish to yourself. For a peaceful life that is free of mental burden, you need to forgive others, accept your past, learn from it, embrace change, and move on. By living in your past, you are unnecessarily complicating your present life.

Also, learn to forgive yourself. You are not perfect, and like everybody else, you screw up, too. Accept your imperfections and learn from your mistakes. If there are any apologies you owe for wrongdoings but you have been putting off, get them out immediately. And forgive yourself for the things that you are holding yourself guilty for a long time. It’s really important that you show kindness and compassion to yourself as well as to others.

25. Know that saying “no” is a good option

By doing more than you should, you are complicating your life. Stop saying “yes” to everything and learn to say “no” more often. If you say “yes” to every request, you will spend all your free time and energy by keeping busy with the things or people that will not leave any quality time in your schedule for yourself or for the things that matter most to you.

Remember that every time you say “yes” to something you don’t like to do or don’t have time to do, you are saying “no” to something else that you truly want/need to do. Saying “no” when you need to say “no” is actually one of the key habits to make your life simpler and more peaceful.

26. Simplify your life

Life has a tendency to get easily complicated and stressful if you don’t take time to simplify things. A simple life is usually a happy life. Simplifying your life will bring you balance, freedom, joy, and peace of mind.

Keep things as simple as necessary, and that will reduce your stress, boost your happiness significantly, and make life easier. Because it’s easier to be happy when you are not surrounded by the confusion and the clutter of your life.

If you want to know how you can simplify your life to make it easier, read this to get some amazing ideas. Simplifying your life has great proven benefits that can’t be ignored.