“With a few flowers in my garden, half a dozen pictures and some books, I live without envy.”
~Lope de Vega
1. Follow Occam’s razor: “All things being equal, the simplest solution is the best.”
2. Surround yourself with beauty.
3. Declutter and organize: set up your space to support the things you’ve identified as important.
4. Don’t spend time with toxic people who drain your energy and vitality.
5. Spend time in the unhurried contemplation of nature’s beauty.
6. Let go of a viewpoint or opinion you’ve been passionately holding which no longer serves you well.
7. Plant your own herbs; consider starting off with basil, chives, parsley, and mint.
8. Identify what’s important to you; choose your priorities.
9. Drop activities that don’t bring you joy and don’t move you closer to your dreams.
10. Spend time with beloved friends.
11. Write down the steps you follow to complete each task you perform on a regular basis and find a way to streamline and simplify the process.
12. Create rituals, routines, and traditions.
13. Be spontaneous.
14. Buy organic and/or local food whenever you can.
15. Find a sport or physical activity you enjoy and engage in it often.
16. Meditate.
17. Follow your intuition. Listen to your inner voice. Check in with yourself often.
18. Lie down on the grass.
19. Slow down.
20. Stop struggling.
21. Let go of dreams others have for you that are not aligned with your own dreams.
22. Release the past.
23. Forgive; grudges are poison and take up precious space in your mind, let them go.
24. Follow a four-year old around and do everything he does.
25. Walk everywhere you can, or ride your bike.
26. Reconsider all subscriptions to newspapers, magazines, blogs, and newsletters. (Don’t even think of unsubscribing from this blog 
).
27. Cancel all but one or two credit cards.
28. Follow Parkinson’s law: set time limits for each task and stick to the time limit.
29. Open the windows and let in fresh air.
30. Take up yoga.
31. Concentrate on your breath.
32. Live within your means.
33. Strike a work-life balance that creates harmony in your life.
34. Get enough sleep.
35. Do one thing at a time, and do everything with presence of mind.
“While washing the dishes one should only be washing the dishes, which means that while washing the dishes one should be completely aware of the fact that one is washing the dishes. At first glance, that might seem a little silly: why put so much stress on a simple thing? But that’s precisely the point. The fact that I am standing there and washing the dishes is a wondrous reality. I’m being completely myself, following my breath, conscious of my presence, and conscious of my thoughts and actions. There’s no way I can be tossed around mindlessly like a bottle slapped here and there on the waves.”
- Thich Nat Hahn
36. Laugh often.
37. Don’t worry about pleasing everyone.
38. Avoid unnecessary conflict.
39. Clear out psychic clutter such as fear, worry, anger, resentment, and anxiety.
40. Learn to do something beautiful with your hands, whether it’s pottery, drawing, knitting, cooking, and so on.
41. Give your hand-made creations as gifts.
42. Make a list of small things that annoy you such as the leaky faucet in the bathroom, the closet door coming off its hinge, and the burned light bulb in the closet. Get these things fixed.
43. Learn to say no.
44. Figure out what simplicity means to you: is it doing your grocery shopping online or taking time out to go to the farmers’ market and hand-picking fresh produce? Is it drying your clothes in the drier so that it’s quick and easy or air-drying your clothes to save on electricity? There’s no wrong answer here, it depends on your preference.
45. Delegate.
46. Pay someone to do the things you don’t enjoy, such as cutting the grass or raking the leaves.
47. Create a menu of a few healthy meals that you enjoy and eat those on a regular basis.
48. Run errands in batch.
49. Make it a top priority to find fulfilling work.
50. Create a list of simple pleasures and ways to celebrate life and make sure you engage in these often.
51. Take a notebook with you everywhere in order to keep your mind decluttered. Record everything, your thoughts, ideas, to-do list, and so on, so that it’s safely stored in one place—out of your head—where you can decide what to do with it later.
52. Keep a master list of to-do items, cut them down into small chunks, and schedule the small chunks into your day planner.
53. Be assertive. If there’s something you need to say to someone find them and voice your concerns in a calm and direct manner. Improving your communication skills will go a long way toward simplifying your life.
54. Have a hobby that gives you the experience of peace and quiet.
55. Go on a spending fast.
56. Become an early riser.
57. Hold hands with your significant other and go for a walk.
58. Decide what you want. Nothing complicates life as much as having vague longings and desires.
59. Go with the flow. However, in matters of principle, stand like a rock.
60. Instead of carbonated drinks, drink water.
61. Come up with your own definition of success; make sure it encourages you to strive to reach your authentic desires and at the same time allows you to enjoy the journey. Here’s Christopher Morley’s definition of success: “There is only one success. To be able to spend your life in your own way.”
62. Stop comparing yourself to others.
63. Be fair. Be honest. Be trustworthy. Be generous. Respect others.
64. Keep perspective.
65. Bring reusable bags–canvas bags–to all markets and stores.
66. Unplug the toaster, the coffee maker, the stereo, the television, and so on from the wall when not in use. It is estimated that 8 – 10% of the total electricity used in your home is due to appliances left on standby.
67. Switch off lights when a room is not in use
68. Take shorter showers, and turn off the water when you’re brushing your teeth or shaving.
69. Opt for quality over quantity in everything you buy.
70. Don’t bite off more than you can chew.
71. Develop positive habits, such as getting regular exercise and saving 10% of what you earn.
72. Drop two negative habits, such as smoking and watching too much television.
73. Identify the one thing you want to be known for, your magnum opus.
74. Identify the four or five most important things in your life. For example, Leo Babauta from zenhabits.net has identified his family, running, writing, and reading as the four most important things in his life.
75. Make a list of all of your commitments, social obligations, and the organizations you belong to. Now take a red pen and cross out anything that does not truly bring you joy or help move you along the path to achieving your main life goals.
76. Clear out your email inbox.
77. Have a simple filing system.
78. Pay your bills online.
79. Stop trying to change people.
80. Get the book “Speed Cleaning” by Jeff Campbell and the Clean Team.
81. Carry a smaller wallet or purse.
82. Plan time for a vacation every year.
83. Tackle one goal at a time, instead of trying to pursue many things at once.
84. Take a moment each day to count your blessings and be grateful for everything that you have.
85. Let go of the myth of perfection.
86. Start small. For example, if you’re out of shape and want to start exercising, don’t do 100 sit ups. You’ll just be incredibly sore the next day, which will decrease the chances that you’ll want to do sit ups again. Start with 5 sit ups and work your way up, slowly.
87. Share, trade and swap with your neighbors. If there are tools you won’t be using often, make a deal with your neighbor that you’ll buy one kind of tool, they buy another, and then you’ll share them.
88. Switch back to pen and paper. In David Allen’s own words: ‘The simpler and the faster you can make simple lists and access them, the better. Whatever any applications do that support that, I go “that’s great,” but quite frankly it’s hard to beat just paper and pencil.’
89. Remember the idiom: “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.” Get regular medical checkups, go to the dentist to get your teeth cleaned every six months, take your car in for regularly scheduled tune ups, and so on.
90. Keep items that you use frequently within easy reach.
91. Record your favorite television shows. Instead of having your schedule revolve around them, record them so that you can watch them at your convenience.
92. Instead of having tons of items in one incredibly long to-do list, separate projects from tasks. Projects represent high level outcomes, while tasks are the individual action steps that need to be taken to complete each project.
93. Let yourself be yourself.
94. Live by the mantra: a place for everything and everything in its place.
95. Thorstein Veblen introduced the idea of “conspicuous consumption” in his 1899 book “The Theory of the Leisure Class”. To illustrate conspicuous consumption, Veblen uses the example of a man who parades down Main Street in stainless linen with a superfluous walking stick. These objects are evidence of leisure, meant to impress an audience of strangers; it’s status-oriented one-man-ship, or keeping up with the Joneses. Instead of using goods to show status, acquire goods for the genuine enjoyment of the thing itself.
96. Find a look that suits you and stick to it.
97. Simplicity doesn’t mean going without, it means taking the time and making the effort to decide who you are and what you really want, what’s most important to you, and what you want your life to look like, so that everything in your home and in your life is a reflection of your authentic self.
98. Clean out the old. Get rid of anything that reminds you of a person or time in your life that brings up unhappy memories.
99. Eat with awareness.
100. Take no more than you need.
photo credit: joiseyshowaa
Related Posts
- Slow Down: 32 Ways to Start Now
- The Buddhist Approach to Happiness
- 27 Simple Ways to Simplify Your Life
- From Mindless Spending, to Mindful Consumption
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