10 Tips For Living The Simple Life This Year

This year I’ve been thinking about the things I’ve held onto for a long time and asking myself whether they are serving me well or not. What I’ve found is, that living the simple life is what makes me happy and helps me to feel focused in a world full of chaos.

The simple life is one where you own less, care less and refocus your time on the things that are important.

Because here’s the thing; most people fill their time and space with stuff. They think that stuff is important. They think it’s helping them.

The latest phone, the latest car, the latest social media. The new thing we should worry about.

In reality, the stuff they accumulate and the concerns that hold completely distract them from becoming the calm, happy person they want to be.

We’re taught that more stuff = more happiness.

The truth is more stuff = more distractions, less happiness and less calm.

People are rushing around, living the opposite of a mindful life that stops them from being aware of each moment before it pauses.

It is my belief that this way of living is one of the causes of the global mental health crisis. Therefore, I think that slowing down, decluttering and refocusing on what matters can act as an antidote.

It frees you from the BS that keeps you in a bad mood and allows you to recalibrate and offload the stuff that just doesn’t really matter.

In this post, I’ll go over some of the ways I’m learning to live the simple life and what has helped me to become more focused and more mindful of the important things in life like family.

It’s not like I’m some kind of monk that doesn’t own anything. Not at all. Instead, I’m learning to not let ‘the stuff’ in my life own me.

The benefits of living the simple life

• A higher sense of mental clarity
• More time for what’s important
• Less stress
• A greater sense of gratitude for the little things
• Improved sense of well-being

So how can you go about living the simple life so you can find more calm? Here’s what I’ve found.

1. Free yourself from toxic people

I once read somewhere that “If you’re not a problem solver, you’re a problem creator.” I’m not sure it’s as simple as that but what I do know is, a lot of people in life are problem creators. They don’t always realise they are doing it but they actually create problems just to have something to complain about. Or maybe it’s because life will seem more interesting if they cause a little chaos from time to time.

I just think some people are their own worst enemies.

If you look closely enough, you’ll see that most people create problems. Their default setting is to complain or gossip when something they don’t like happens.

These people will always exist and I don’t blame them for being this way. Life is difficult but the bottom line is, if you want to live the simple life, you have to spend your time with problem solvers, the kind of people who are always looking for solutions and positivity.

Who you spend your time with reflects on you.

Make a list of the people you spend most of your time with and be honest with yourself. Ask yourself how each of them makes you feel.

2. Learn to say “No” more

Most people feel bad when they turn people down.

“Do you want to come round to my house on Saturday and have a few drinks?”

A lot of us will say “Yes”, even when we know we will feel like rubbish the next day, even when we know we didn’t enjoy ourselves the last time we did this.

Learning to say “No” can be difficult. That’s why I think it’s a skill, one you have to work at if you give in to pressure too easily. And I should know – that was me for many years. However, saying “No” is setting boundaries and boundaries are a good thing.

Your boundaries are where you draw the line because you know what’s best for you.

Setting these boundaries protects you from a lot of the BS that clutters your mind and your time.

3. Declutter your home

I recently performed a deep clean of my home, much deeper than the whip round I usually do every spring. And I was amazed at just how much junk I had lying around, taking up valuable space.

I felt amazing afterwards and I began to wonder why I felt so darn good until it hit me.

Do you know why you feel so light and clear-minded when visiting a showroom or an open house? It’s because there’s no crap lying around all over the place. And the stuff that is in the environment is put exactly where it should be.

There is a direct correlation between having a clutter-free home and feeling amazing.

Like I said at the beginning of this post, most people accumulate useless stuff that clogs up their living areas and their thinking space. If you want to live a simple life, you have to cut back on the stuff you barely use.

That foot massager? How often do you use it?

My rule of thumb: if you haven’t used it in 3 months or you likely won’t in the next 3, chuck it out or give it to charity.

Once you have done this in every room of your home, you’ll be surprised at just how little stuff you need to live your life.

4. Buy less junk

The only way to keep your home and your mind clutter-free is to then stop buying new junk, even if that junk looks really pretty and awesome.

The world tells you to buy stuff all the time. You can be watching a perfectly nice YouTube video before you’re rudely interrupted by someone screaming at you about how good a new teeth whitener is for 5 seconds. It’s all around you, often subliminal like in this example.

You’re taught to be a consumer.

Most people continue to mindlessly consume, easily convinced they really do need that new teeth whitener. The minimalists are the ones who are good at saying, “Nah, I’m good with my toothpaste and toothbrush thanks.”

There are 1 billion different shiny things you can buy. You already have to be picky about what you purchase. After all, you can’t buy everything, even if you have all the money in the world. The idea is to become even more strict about what you buy.

That’s where I find my rule of thumb comes in so handy. Every time you go to buy something, ask yourself if you’ll use it regularly or if it might be one of those gadgets you use once or twice before you shove in the cupboard.

This is the best way I have found to build buying discipline.

5. Digital Purge

A digital purge might just be the most important thing you can do if you want more mental freedom. Living the simple life in today’s world means cutting back on the things you allow to scream at you through your cell phone since this is the place we spend most of our time.

Every Tom, Dick and Harry wants to send you an email. Those folks are also on Twitter looking for an argument. Their buddies are on Facebook, trying to sell you their old blender. Domino’s Pizza wants to send you a bunch of push notifications.

PING PING PING PING PING

The pinging never ends.

And whilst I love tech as much as the next guy, it’s become obvious to me this year that unplugging is a vital habit to have. You could solve this pinging headache completely by cancelling your internet subscription but no one in the real world wants to do that, including me.

Instead, living a simple life in the 21st century means purging the apps and email sign-ups you have and barely use or pay any attention to. It means limiting distractions on your phone and computer.

It might also mean finally ‘unfriending’ that guy you met at a party that one time 15 years ago so you stop seeing his photos of him holding up massive fish on your feed.

The point is to declutter your screen, whatever that means to you.

6. Talk less

Do you remember when you were a child and you’d hear an adult say, “If you don’t have anything nice to say, don’t say anything at all!”

I do. My teacher said it to someone at school every day.

But I think you should learn to say less in general.

If you’ve ever worked in an office, you’ll know how weird it can be. You’re shoved next to a bunch of people you’d never normally come into contact with in the outside world. There’s all kinds of folks in their cubicles nattering about all kinds of things.

It’s a truest kind of social experiment.

What you often notice is just how much people talk on and on and on and…on. And they talk about the most random things. Sometimes it’s fun and interesting and sometimes you realise how a lot of the rambling is nervous energy and over-sharing.

People talk a lot. We live in the age of opinions, largely thanks to social media where you can voice every thought you have about everything you do throughout the day. And this seeps into real life.

But when you slow down and talk less, you use less of your energy, the energy you can reserve for what is important. When you learn to talk less you listen more and when you listen more, you notice how much noise is just that – noise, unimportant noise.

You don’t need to have an opinion on everything or take part in gossip. Instead, you can make your life more simplified by staying out of the latest gossip and just shrug it off as not important.

7. Awareness not reflex

Most of us react in reflex rather than awareness. One of the key ways I’ve been trying to live a more simple life recently is by reacting with more awareness, rather than with my emotions. If you look around you, you’ll notice a lot of people ready to explode at the closest chance they get.

Why is this important for simple living?

Because so many of us are easily triggered these days. That emotional baggage knocks us off the course of happiness and focus.

We get so preoccupied with emotion and stress that everything starts to feel blah. The clouds come over us, and we start to think people aren’t nice and the world is just not a nice place, full of people who only want to test our patience.

That reflex is not helpful. That emotion is not helpful.

What is helpful is awareness. Before reacting to something that usually triggers you, ask yourself, “Do I need to let this bother me?”

You’ll soon find that most of the time the answer is “No.”

And when you begin to ask this question more and more in your daily life, you realise that most of the noise outside of your door and on your screens is just that – noise, designed to distract you and get a reaction out of you.

But deciding not to react to it, you take back your time and your emotional real estate.

This simple habit can be a game-changer. Use it every day. If you want to “live the simple life” it is vital to ignore the stupid stuff that doesn’t matter.

8. Expect nothing from others

The minute you expect nothing from others it becomes a lot easier to live a more simplified life. Why? Because you no longer have any thoughts on how other people should behave towards you. People are busy and most of the time they aren’t thinking about how they come across to you or even how they’re treating you. In general, people aren’t trying to be mean, they’ve just got a lot going on in their own lives.

When I think back to all the times I was the most disappointed, I can see it was always the occasions where I expected too much from a situation or a person. This was negatively affecting my mental health.

Once you let go of most of your expectations, you’re free to see the world as it is, not how you want it to be.

And if you ask me, this is a super important tipping point where you can find a real sense of peace. This choice simplifies everything and gives you more time to focus on the simple things in life that make it so great.

9. Get happy with the small stuff

And that leads me nicely to the next tip I have for living the simple life. Probably one of the biggest things that has simplified my life is finding a new sense of gratitude for the little things. It sounds cliche but it’s cliche for a reason.

But how do you find this simple yet powerful sense of gratitude for the small things?

Simple…you imagine your life without them.

For example, one of my favourite things to do is wake up slowly on a Sunday morning, take my laptop into the lounge and start writing or designing.

It is a special, quiet time in my week when it’s just me, totally focused and doing something I absolutely love. To most people, this is nothing too special. To me, it’s everything. It is a time when I truly feel like myself.

Whatever that thing is for you, make it special. Make it a ritual. You don’t have to design your life around that thing. However, by doing this you then start to find a great deal of gratitude in other small things like sitting down and drinking a coffee with a friend or spending an evening just talking with a loved one.

It really is the simple things that make life special. Noticing these things as they happen makes them even more special.

10. Focus most of your energy on these two things

Once you’re doing all of the above, you can simplify your life even more by focusing 95% of your energy on these two things; helping the people you love and looking after your health.

Everything else is just noise. Do this, and you can simplify your life almost overnight.

At the end of it all, you won’t say you wished you spent more time in the office. You won’t wish you spent more time in online forums. You won’t wish you went shopping for clothes more than you did and you won’t wish you went out drinking more with your friends.

You’ll wish you looked after yourself more. You’ll wish you spent more time with your loved ones, told them more about you and asked them how their day was more often.

You’ll wish you went and sat on a bench in a nice park with your child and just talked to them.

Because it’s usually only at the end of it all you realise what was important all along. You realise that most of the things you hear and see are just BS that doesn’t matter at all.

Wrapping it all up

Of course, this is just what living the simple life means to me. These are the main things I focus on to declutter my life so I can focus on what actually matters. I’m sure there are lots of other things that can benefit you on your quest to a more simplified life and if you have any ideas, I’d love to hear them in the comments.