I am reading the book Zero Waste Home [aff link]  by Bea Johnson that I got from the library. The book is all about simplifying life by reducing what you throw out. Some ideas from Bea:

• Watch what you bring in the house like disposable stuff, freebies and junk mail.
• Reduce what you need: shop less, declutter, reduce packaging, drive less, print less, watch less media that makes us want to consume
• Re-use: bags, use a re-chargeable, re-usuable or refillable alternative for disposables, borrow, barter, buy used, repair, re-think an object
• Recycle – and think about what will happen at the end of a product life before you buy it. Earth911.com can tell you where to recycle hard to recycle items
• Compost
• Rags instead of paper towels, stainless steel water bottle instead of disposable water bottles, reusable jars and containers instead of plastic bags, cloth napkins
• Empty leftover drinking water to plants
• Use smart power trips for your electronics so they reduce energy consumption
• Create notebooks out of old school papers
• Read magazines online or on an e-reader instead of bringing them home
• Use online billing
• Clean your fridge filters twice a year for better efficiency
• Drip irrigation uses 50% less water than sprinklers
• Turn the shower on to get wet, turn it off when washing and shampooing, then back on the rinse

Lake Michigan. Beth Dargis

I went to the beach this morning by myself. All week I have been longing to go to the beach. But there didn’t seem to be time and it’s a pain to gather everything needed and the drive is about 25 minutes. This morning I wasn’t going to make any more excuses. I got ready in about 5 minutes and drove to the beach. I walked the beach, did some swimming and read by the channel the boats go down. I really enjoyed myself. I felt renewed.

See, the beach was something my son and I did together. Usually weekly during the summer. My husband and daughter sneeze at the sun and don’t like being hot. This is the first year I decided it’s OK to go to the beach just for myself.

We work hard at our jobs and taking care of friends and family. We will sleep less, over-volunteer and stop what we are doing for a friend. But, we aren’t willing to do a little work for something that will bring us joy.

We all get these little longings and desires for something that we know would make us feel happy. Then we start making the excuses for why it’s too hard to make it happen. Especially if it’s just for us.

I had to get over that guilty resistance and pack my bag. I had to get over my, "I don’t want to make the drive." Once I got there I had the best time. I had energy for the rest of the day and I was in a  good mood.

This week, listen for those little longings and make one happen.

Can you do one thing at a time?

We’ve all seen the studies that claim multi-tasking isn’t efficient. Some studies say multi-tasking is up to 40% less productive. The main reason is that we aren’t doing two things at once. Instead you are switching attention back and forth. Each time you switch attention you lose time re-settling into the other task.

But, from my time class I have found most of you don’t believe it. The majority of the people in my classes believe you have to do multiple things at once to get everything done. I can see society is doing as much if not more multi-tasking than it used to.

People don’t just eat – they have to be driving or interacting with media. Too often you can tell the caller on the other end is doing something else and you don’t have their undivided attention as you talk on the phone. Interaction with work, with other people, even leisure time is done in short spurts.

One thing that saddens me which is lost is flow. I love the feeling of writing as the words come and I am connected with my work. Or listening to a song so intently it goes to my soul. Or being enthralled with a bird on a walk.

You lose that deep connection, that immersion, that flow when you check your email every time it beeps. Or watch a movie while you are playing an internet game or stop every few minutes during a work project to check Facebook.

Even if you don’t believe multi-tasking is inefficient, why don’t you experiment today with immersing yourself in one thing? Even if you multi-task everything else, see how doing this one thing feels.

I’d love to hear your experience in the comments.

***

Pix by Barb

Welcome to this week’s issue of Weekly Simplicity Tips.

We had a summer cool down this week, so we got outside for lots of hikes. 

Cedar Waxwing

Pictures by Brea Dargis

1. Spend at least 5 minutes planning your next project, instead of jumping straight into it.
2. Keep your mind focused on the current task rather than 2-3 tasks ahead for less stress.
3. Make an appointment to get your eyes checked or any other appointments you have been procrastinating on making.
4. What is your mind obsessing about lately that you need to write or talk about to get it out of your head?
5. Use a can opener to open those hard, plastic packs of new stuff.
6. An old cassette case makes a great iPhone or iPod holder.
7. Rub a walnut on wooden furniture to take care of dings.

New Time Class- Limited Room – September 9, 2013

Attention: Hurried, overwhelmed individuals with too much too do and not enough time to do it

Ask yourself: do you want to live your life in a constant state of hurry and worry?

When it comes to time, have you tried system after system but nothing works?

Or do you keep all your to dos in your head hoping you don’t forget anything?

Or worse, have a time system that takes so much time to manage you wonder if it’s even worth it?

We all want to feel in control of our time, but how do you do it?

My goal is to change your relationship with time:

http://www.encouragingcoach.com/programs-timecourse.html

As with anything else, having good tools makes simpler living easier as well.

• Calendar – I prefer Google calendar, but one you can take with you is ideal. But, that doesn’t mean you schedule something immediately. You still want to think before saying yes.
• The Declutter Calendar so you can take care of one small area at a time
• Quiet time space daily for silence and centering
• A labeler so everything is neatly labeled. Feels better than my messy scrawl.
• A money program that tracks your spending and updates at a click of a button. Mint.com is good.
• Automatic savings from your bank that moves money every paycheck
• A journal to uncover your needs and discover what is important to you
• Routines – so you don’t have to re-decide when to clean, pay bills, etc.

My husband and I were on a motorcycle ride when we stopped by fast food for some lunch. I asked for a small onion ring. "What size onion rings?" "Small." "We have small, medium, large onion rings." "Small is fine." "Or we have the value size onion ring." And we had a big conversation on the difference between small and value size. "Small is fine." I get my order and she gave me fries.

Our days are full of stressors like these. The internet goes down. The person driving in front of you is going 10 miles under the speed limit. Or the truck in back of you is on your bumper. The call you don’t want to make or take. The doctor is running late. You have to pick one of the kids up at school. The coupons aren’t accepted at the grocery store.

We learn two things in situations like these:

1) How patient you are.

Some people are naturally more patient than others. Some learn through having to be patient.

2) How stressed/rushed you feel.

If things are irritating you more than they are worth, you might be over-scheduled. Some people are so tightly scheduled that when one thing goes out of whack, the rest of the day falls apart. They may be constantly irritated because these stressors usually happen at least daily. You don’t want to be on the verge of crying when you get a bank overdraft notice or forget to get everything you needed at the store.

How have recent stressors affected you? Do you need to take some relaxation time? Do you need to take one thing off the schedule? Do you need to ask for help?

This week pay attention when you feel irritated and stressed.

If you are feeling dry and stale or thinking that your life is nothing but drudgery, a great question to ask is,

"Where is my heart?"

When you disconnect what you do with purpose, your senses or joy, you dry out.

Does your work feel like nothing but to dos that you don’t want to do? If you are working, you must be serving someone or no one would pay you. Who are you serving? Whose life are you making better?

If you don’t like working where you are right now, how can you bring more fun or beauty into your work? Can you organize your space? Can you put something beautiful in the space? Can you wear ear plugs to drown out annoying noise? Maybe you need an aromatherapy pillow. Can you notice how your character is improving in this situation or notice where you are growing?

If you are parenting, do you remember you are trying to bring up kids of character and responsibility? Or just remembering that they are being a real pain right now? Seeing how you want them to turn out pulls you from the daily taking care of kids. You can also try taking part of the parenting time to relax and play with them. So it’s not all work for you or them.

When you do housework are you focused only on, "I have to do dishes AGAIN?" or do you see the outcome of the clean kitchen. Do you think of how you are nurturing you and your family? Or enjoying creating beauty? You can allow yourself to gaze for a second or two in appreciate of the newly polished kitchen table. Using natural cleansers with pleasant scents makes cleaning more enjoyable. As does music.

As you go throughout your day, keep asking, "Where is my heart?" Bring joy, beauty or purpose to whatever you do.

Then see if your life is juicier.

***

Photo by Mauro Cateb

I’ve been using Workflowy for a few months now. It’s a to do list, project list and note list in one.

And it’s very simple.

You type. And if you want another level you tab over.

Here is what part of my workflowy looks like:

You can use this sign # to create tags. Most of my tags are days of the week. But, you can tag subject lines and other things for easy searching. So if I want to know what to do Monday I search #Mon and all those tags show up.

You don’t have to see everything at once. Clicking the plus sign next to the bullet let’s you see more of the tree. Clicking the minus next to a bullet, collapses the tree. As you can see with many of the bullets above, a grey circle surrounds the bullet. That means there is more to see if you click the plus sign. Hovering over the bullet lets you complete the task, add a note, share, export, duplicate or delete.

You can drag and drop bullets for easy re-organizing.

I love being able to break down a project into smaller steps. And then collapsing the project so I don’t have to see all the steps all the time. And it’s flexible. I can use it how my mind works.

Under Vision I have my goals and my planning checklists like weekly planning, monthly planning and seasonal planning.

I include someday lists under each category for projects I may want to do in the future. I only have a few projects going at once or none will get completed.

It runs in a browser, so anywhere you get the web you can get your Workflowy. There is also an iPhone app.

Here’s a little video on it:

It’s free for up to 500 items a month and $49 a year for the pro version.

You can check it out here: Workflowy

Welcome to this week’s issue of Weekly Simplicity Tips.

This week we went blueberry picking. I froze most. My husband made blueberry pancakes (breakfast-in-bed) and I made a blueberry buckle.

I’ve also been planning the Habits and Rhythms Course. Starts August 5th!

1. Say hi to a neighbor. They can be an important part of a support system.
2. Do one thing you have been procrastinating on.
3. Catch up on phone calls and emails.
4. Do something that brings you joy.
5. What is your body asking of you?
6. Criticism is unavoidable, so don’t make your life about avoiding criticism.
7. Check up on your savings plan. Is it automatic? Can you save a little more each month?

Habits and Rhythms 4-week class

Starts Monday August 5

I asked my readers what class they would like and they said one that combines what they’ve learned in the time, finance, declutter and self-care classes to help create habits and rhythms.

It’s time to put it all together.

Even if you haven’t taken the other classes, this will be a great class to create those habits you have wanted to create.

Format: Weekly chat sessions at 8pm ET Mondays (transcript is sent if you can’t attend)

Then we can check in as much as you would like for accountability in the private facebook group. This will be where you really make the changes. If you have been wanting to make habits stick, but they don’t seem to stick on your own, the support may be what you need.

As this is a pilot program the class will only be $17. So if you have been wanting to try one of my classes this is a great one to start with.

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