Did you know that last week was National Simplify Your Life Week.  The perfect week to highlight my work as a time strategy visionary.  (Goodness, I teach people effective time management strategies for a living – and one of the major components is to simplify . . . your calendar, your goals, your environment,  . . . )

However, I found myself overwhelmed trying to decide which ideas to write about (so many options!) and feeling like I needed to pick exactly the “right” ones,  that I ended up not sharing ANY strategies.  (Hmmm, an unwritten post certainly doesn’t assist my readers with their time management challenges!)

“On course doesn’t mean perfect. On course means that even when things don’t go perfectly, you are still going in the right direction.” ~Charles Garfield

Hmm . . . sound familiar?  Have you ever found yourself in this position?  You know you want to move forward – but 1) you have so many ideas you don’t know which to pick or 2) you want the end result to be perfect, so you are paralyzed and unable to begin.

Today, this is what I did to break through the log jam . . .

  1. I took the pressure off!  I reminded myself that my National Simplify Your Life Week posts didn’t need to be perfect.  I defined my “excellence” for this series – each post needs to contain one easy to understand and actionable step.
  2. Then, I created a list of all my possible ideas (and there were a lot!) and chose 3 for the National Simplify Your Life Week posts.
  3. The remaining ideas, I slotted into my editorial calendar as ideas for future posts.
  4. Finally, I set my timer, and started typing.

Today – as you start to celebrate Simplify Your Life Week, I encourage you to follow my first step as I started to write this post.  Take the pressure off and define your reality.  Follow the advice of Stephen Covey and “Start with the End in Mind”.  Don’t worry yet about HOW to accomplish your vision – for now, just define it.

What does a “simplified life” look like for you?

  • Think about your day – what time will you get up, what activities will you spend your time on during the day, and what time will you go to bed?
  • How do you want to feel as you go through your day?  Energized, relaxed, comfortable, calm, excited . . .
  • Think about your physical space – describe the layout of your ideal office, home, car.  How much “stuff” is there?  Envision the surfaces, closets, drawers . . .
  • How do you want to feel in your space?  Energized, relaxed, comfortable, calm, excited . . .
  • Think about your big goals – what do you want to accomplish over the next week, year, decade, lifetime?
  • How do you want to feel after accomplishing your goals?

Once you are able to clearly define your “excellence” in regards to a simplified life – you will be able to apply some strategies to turn this vision into reality.  To assist you in pursuit of your vision – I’ll post some ideas to help you create an effective calendar system and save time using checklists.  Be sure to stop back!

What does a simplified life look like?  Please post below!