5 Easy Steps – Clear Space and Declutter your Life

 

People are always asking me to give them some practical tips to get happy.  Often its not about doing something extra but about doing less.  Sometimes we are simply doing too much and the juggling plays havoc with our emotional, physical and spiritual wellbeing. We try to work smarter, make things more streamlined. We try to do more and more and try and do it better and better. We say yes to extra commitments when we really want to say no.  What you really want is to declutter your life.

Yet we all have the same amount of time available to us AND
We have choices as to what we do with our time
(even if it doesn’t always feel that way)

What you really want is to declutter your life.

Yet we all have the same amount of time available to us AND
We have choices as to what we do with our time
(even if it doesn’t always feel that way)

The 5 Steps to Declutter Your Life
Here are 5steps to help you declutter your life. You will learn to assess your time gremlins, work smarter and move towards a more time-relaxed way of living:

Step 1: Your Relationship With Time
What is your relationship with time right now?
Do you feel that the pace of your life is just right for you or do you feel too ‘pressed’ for time?

Step 2: What Do You Want More Time For?

• What three things would you like to do that you feel you don’t have the time to do at the moment?
• What is creating frustration for you because you never seem to get round to it?
• What is important about these things?

Step 3: What Takes Up Your Time?
Make a list of all the regular things that take up your time. Here is a list to jog your mind – you will have many others:
Working (subdivide this), TV, Childcare, Shopping. paperwork, Socializing, Exercising, Traveling, Committees, Hobbies, Gardening,
• Highlight the top three things that take up most of your time?
• Circle the three things you like to do the least and
• Put a tick the three things you most enjoy doing

Step 4: What Could You Cut Out?
What are three things that are not important to you right now that you could cut out of your life?
Sometimes we need to make large sweeping cuts; sometimes we only need a little tweak.

This list is just intended to spark your imagination:

• Social clubs you no longer enjoy
• That extra job you agreed to do
• all that clutter that’s taking up space in your home and head
• That course you’ve started but don’t feel is helping you
• People you no longer feel in congruence with
• That hour in front of the TV you’re not really enjoying

And could you delegate?

• You partner could share more of the load
• Your children could do some chores
• Could you employ someone to do your ironing/housework/gardening/office work?

Step 5: Let the Good Stuff In!!!
You have assessed where you are, what you want, what you don’t want and got rid of some things that no longer serve you. You are on the way to declutter your life.

Now let the ‘good-stuff’ in:

• The things that make you happy and relaxed
• The things that are important to you
• the things that make you smile with excitement
• the things that make you a nicer person to be around
• the things that let you live the life you’ve always wanted
• the things that make you, you!

Are you struggling with physical clutter? Fed up with it holding you back? I have created a workbook that will help you get clear on how you really want to live and help you clear your physical clutter in easy, simple and fun steps. Take a look at my Be Clutter Free workbook here.

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Learning: 5 Tips to Get Happy Today

When I feel bored or stuck in some way learning something new is the thing that best helps me to shift that negative feeling.  Learning excites me.  It always has.  That’s one of the reasons that I loved school so much and why research appealed to me as a career and why I’m passionate about working with people – because there is always something to learn.  What’s great is that it’s a resource that is never ending.  It is truly endless.

Its normal for us humans to stick to what we know. It feels safer sometimes.  But safe does not equate to growth, to finding more fulfilling ways to do things, to expanding our horizons, to creating greater happiness. And it does not have to be hard to learn new things – quite the opposite it true.

5 easy and simple things you could learn about today that would  increase your happiness quotient

1. Learn about you
   Getting to know yourself is one of the biggest happiness tools that there are.  We are on a continuous journey and we are evolving.  What makes you happy right now? Here is a happiness questionnaire for you.  It should help focus your mind on the things you love and why you love them.   The purpose of this? So that you can concentrate on doing more of them and appreciating them in the now!
2. Learn about a famous person
   Is there someone you have always admired from afar but don’t really know why?  Just spend a few minutes today doing a little research about them.  Wikipedia them.  Its good to have role models and heroins.  People who inspire us. Who are yours?
3. Learn about your local area
   How much do you know and appreciate  the area in which you live?  Are there places you would like to visit but have never got round to?  Do a little bit of research and plan a trip to someone in your local area. Sometimes we forget the resources we have around us. Learning about places can inspire us to branch out.
4. Learn about a hobby
   Is there a hobby that you have always wanted to have a go at but never really looked into it that deeply?  Sometimes learning a little can spur you into a really motivated frame of mind, where instead of thinking and wondering, you take action and try things out. Spend a few minutes today looking into that hobby.  What would be involved? Are there classes in your local area? Could you join a local group? Can you find inspiring blog posts on that hobby?  I love dancing and I’ve been known to learn hip-hop moves off Youtube whilst preparing the evening meal!
5. Learn a practical skill
   Is there something that you have always meant to learn that would be really easy but you have never got round to?  A cooking technique perhaps, how to tie a particular knot, how to grow tomatoes.  The list could be endless.  Learning practical skills can make life so much easier.  I remember when I first learnt to wire a plug – it was an amazing revelation to me.  So easy and yet so useful.  Now I use Youtube all the time when I need to learn a practical skill.  You can guarantee that whatever you need to learn you will find someone there that has had the desire to show the world how to do it. Easy.

I’m going to learn how to make Sticky Toffee Pudding as the only puddings I ever seem to make are Apple Crumble and Apple Tart!

What could you learn today that would make your life happier and easier?