Slow Down to Speed Up

Simplifying Tips to Be More Effective

by Terry Stidham

1. Mix things up - Try the opposite. Have the vegetarian dish if you always go for the meat. Walk away from a stupid conflict instead of making it worse. Let one thing go if you often cling to things. Make a habit of mixing things up to grow your life in small or bigger ways. And to make it easier and simpler to step out of your comfort zone in general when you really need to.
2. Get up 20 minutes earlier - This will help you to reduce stress in the morning and during the rest of the day.
3. Be 10 minutes early for meetings and appointments - This will help you to make your time of travel a time of rest and relaxation instead of stressful. And you will not be late.
4. Single-task - You be more focused, less stressed and get to done more quickly. So do one thing at a time and do it with your full attention.
5. Ask yourself: am I keeping things extremely simple? If not, figure out how you can do that in the situation you are in.
6. Ask yourself: will this matter 5 years from now? Or even 5 weeks from now? Do this to avoid making mountains out of molehills.
7. Buy things with the money you have earned and saved - Avoid getting into debt.
8. Learn a few recipes and cook - You’ll save money and probably eat healthier.
9. When you cook, cook more than you’ll eat - This will help you to spend less time on cooking and washing dishes. And you’ll have an extra dinner or two to just reheat when you don’t have time or energy to cook.
10. Write things down - Pretty much everyone’s memory is leaky. So help yourself. Write down what you need to do or shop for today. Write down what your top 4 priorities in life are and post that note where you can see it every day.
11. Remember that life is larger than you may think it is - You do not know everything and you are not always right. Remembering this makes it easier for me to learn things, to accept other viewpoints, to create changes and to stay more open.
12. Risk making mistakes. Learn from them - Then do again with that helpful new experience and knowledge in mind.
13. Do what YOU really, really, really want to do - Do not get stuck in trying to live someone else’s dream.
14. Go grocery shopping once a week - You’ll save money and time if you make the effort to plan for a week and to shop for it all at once.
15. Go grocery shopping when you not hungry - You’ll buy more healthy food instead of impulse buying yourself through the store.
16. Enjoy the simple pleasures - An apple, the latest episode of your favorite show, fresh and clean bed sheets, a hug and kiss, holding hands, the sun and blossoming nature after a long and cold winter.
17. Have a glass of water - Instead of eating when you are bored or when are having a craving have 1-2 glasses of water. This will help you to keep to those cravings away until the next meal and to maintain your health and weight.
18. Eat slower - Make your lunch time a time of relaxation rather than a time to just add to the stress of your morning. Try putting down the fork between bites to slow down the eating.
19. Be kind - Be kind to other people and especially to yourself.
20. Write shorter emails - 1-5 sentences is often enough.
21. Write emails only once a day - Batch and process them all at once all the way to an empty inbox.
22. Learn about ways to keep stress down and try them out - Examples would be mindfulness, setting human standards for you and saying no. A few such habits can help you to drastically cut down on the stress in your life.
23. Give everything its home - Then you know where to put the item when you have used it. You’ll know where to find it when you need it again. And you’ll reduce the clutter in your home or work space.
24. Slow down and enjoy and pay attention what is actually happening today - Instead of just rushing through the day and always on to the next thing.
25. Spend more time with people who make life simpler - And less time with people who make life unnecessarily complicated.
26. Exercise several times each week - This will reduce stress, up your energy levels and in my experience reduces negative thoughts.
27. Unclutter - Unclutter your life of the things that aren’t really that useful or meaningful for you anymore. Give that stuff away to someone who needs it. Or throw it out. A question that can help you to know if it is time to unclutter something out of your life is: have I used this item in the last year?
28. Look for advice from people who have been where you are - Learn from people who have been in the situation you are in and had the challenge you are having.
29. Stop trying to please everyone - There will always be people who you don’t get along with or that do not like you for some reason.
30. Break a task down into smaller and actionable pieces - Single-task that first piece until it is done. Then do the same with the next piece. And so on.
31. Stop trying to do things perfectly - Go for good enough instead and when you are there you are done. Get things all the way to done this way and then move on to the next thing.
32. Take a minute and just breathe a couple of times a day - This will help you to reduce the stress and overwhelm of your day. It will help you to reconnect with the present moment, to create a habit of living more mindfully and to focus all your attention on what is happening right now.
33. Spend just 20% of your time on dwelling on a problem and 80% of your time focusing on a solution - Instead of the other way around.
34. Focus on a few priorities in your life - Keep things simple to be able to put enough effort, attention and energy into those most important things. Rather than becoming spread too thin, rarely finishing things and being distracted by all those many other things you want to do or that feel you need to do too.
35. Keep a journal - By writing the facts and your thoughts and feelings down in a journal it becomes easier to work through a challenge and to find a good solution. You can also use a journal to track your actual results instead of guesstimating how your life is going. And to better remember all the things that you did well or that went well if you worry often or have quite a bit of negative thoughts.
36. Stop doing what you don’t like doing anymore -Life changes and so do you. If you you don’t like doing something anymore then perhaps it is time to stop doing that (even if it may take some time before you can do so by for example switching jobs).
37. Use a simple workspace - Minimize distractions,
38. Spend 30 minutes each Sunday to plan the next week - Write down your plans for the week, organize your prioritized to-do list and get ready for the week before you are in the middle of it all. This will help you to find more clarity, get more of the most important things done next week and minimize stress.
39. Cancel subscriptions for TV- channels, newsletters and magazines you rarely get around to watching or reading anyway.
40. Ask instead of guessing - Reading minds is hard. So, instead ask questions and communicate. This will help you to minimize unnecessary conflicts, misunderstandings, negativity and waste or time and energy.
41. Make one change at a time and start small -Focus on one habit or area at a time. If you want to start running or decluttering, start with doing just a few minutes of that activity a day or week. Then gradually increase the amount of time you spend on that activity to make it easier to adopt the new habit.
42. Relax - By using the tips in this article you’ll be able to get things done more quickly and in a simpler way. This will give more time in a regular week to simply be relax. To just take it easy alone or with family or a friend, to not do much at all. I highly recommend spending time to relax, to mindfully enjoy the small pleasures of life and to recharge yourself so that you can be effective and focused again later on.