The biggest challenge with the minimalist model is that it always seems so overwhelming. What really do I need? What can I do without?

We tend to jump on the “decluttering” and “simplifying” bandwagon during times that our energy levels are high and we have no need for the things we deem “unnecessary”. But in order to really do yourself justice, you need to view everything before you with a differently critical eye.

Simplify for times when you’re at your worst…

The best advice I ever heard was from a content creator who specialized in home organization. She said that she works to create a simplified space based on how her clients function on their worst days.

The concept is brilliant! And it can be applied to managing life as a whole, not just to physical spaces.

Simplifying your life means getting rid of the noise that is causing you to feel more pressure, more dysfunctional during your worst days. Times when even drinking a glass of water seems like a chore.

So how do you actionably tackle this?

Think on the last day you were at your worst. What were the things that made life seem that much more difficult? What would have made it better?

When I’m at my lowest energy level and everything seems to go wrong, there is literally nothing I hate more than to have to do even the seemingly simplest of tasks. If a dish is dirty, I have a fight between hating the extra work, and the clutter that makes my world that much more chaotic. Yes, just one plate.

My choice is to leave it soaking in the sink taking up space unwashed, or bite the bullet, clean it, and put it away. The decision is based on which choice will lessen any added stressor to my currently low energy levels.

Choosing between anything – tasks, organizing spaces, decluttering, managing time – all rely on the least amount of effort it takes during your worst moments.

In this case, I simply washed the dish. Clutter is far worse than the energy it takes to clean the dish and put it away out of sight.

So let’s take some of the most common areas of life to simplify that affect most of our lives..

There are six areas of everyday life that, when simplified, begin to create a less stressful life – even on the worst days.

1-Time Management:

If there’s one thing that is the most difficult to manage, it’s time. If you’re time blind, like me, even remembering how long something takes is difficult on the best of days. And completely gets away from me on the worst. Result? That task list just sits there as time is flitted away.

Solution: Depending on how you operate, the solution will vary. Some use Time Timers – the big faced timers that display just how much time you have left to do a task. It can be used with or without the alarm – which, for, all intents and purposes, scare the living bejeebers out of me! It definitely terminates the tasks on time – but is the scare tactic really worth it? Yikes!

So, whether or not you wear a timer around your neck, use a Time Timer, or electronic timer on your phone or smart watch, managing time is critical to simplifying your life.

Discovering how long it takes to do just the basic tasks – the priorities – need to be discovered first.

2- Finances:

Do the one most despised thing possible: make a budget. And then stick to it.

3-Space:

Living and working in a cluttered environment only serves to increase your anxiety. Having a messy desk doesn’t motivate anyone to do much needed work. The mess becomes a distraction, and the lack of organization only serves to outwardly display what is going on inside. Not a positive motivation.

4-Tasks and Goals:

Determining what is most important is not as difficult as it may sound. Ask yourself three basic questions:

• What things must be done?
• What of those things can I not do without?
• Can I break down those things into meaningful chunks?

I have lists. A lot of them. My To Do lists were really getting out of hand. And still become overwhelming when I think about all the important things that need to be done.

But determining what was in the category of high priorities, it basically came down to, “If I don’t do this, how much harder will it be if I keep putting it off?” Like car maintenance. I put that off for far too long. Playing catch-up to get it back on track cost me well over my budget because of the amount of work that was necessary to get it back on a manageable course.

I researched what basic things were important and necessary basics to keep a car maintained. Then I scheduled the maintenance on all those things I’d missed. What was not done within the proper mileage or timeframe that would affect the operation of that vehicle. If I didn’t, I’d be stranded…

Then I got the work done, reset the clock on maintaining it, and wrote down a schedule to keep up the work so that I wouldn’t miss those things again. That spread our the expenses over time instead of having to pour a chunk of money into another catch-up session.

That mindset works for anything – house, health, pets, energy usage – whatever affects your expenses of energy, finances, emotions can be broken down into more manageable chunks in this way.

5-Meals:

Meals shouldn’t be complicated. They don’t need fancy sauces and expensive ingredients. And when you are at your worst, the last thing you want to do is face a complex meal plan.

But what if you had a simple, basic meal planned that can be your base? If you have the energy to add to it, then you have the opportunity to include the more complex ingredients to that meal.

So a basic lunch or evening meal might me a bowl of lettuce, a protein of choice (sliced meat, cheese chunks, or beans, or other vegan protein options), and optional dressing.

Breakfast could be a cooked egg or two and a slice of bread. Air fried bacon if you are a meat eater. Or a bowl of quick cook oatmeal with a handful of nuts, dried fruits, butter or margarine, and optional honey.

Pretty basic. Determine what is your base during your most tired moments, then build from there.

6-Relationships:

Toxic relationships have to be the hardest to deal with – especially when you are exhausted. How you choose to deal with them is up to you. But to simplify and create less taxing space from your life, eliminating or reducing exposure to them will greatly lessen the stress that enters your emotional world.

From personal experience, I can assure you that it isn’t easy to do.

Over the years, I let toxic relationships build up. I’d know at night that I needed to stop engaging with them. But by morning, I felt like everything was my fault.

One day, I stopped caring what the other person felt. Every one of the people I removed from my life were manipulators and never cared about anyone but themselves. They’d brag on how much money they had saved while my children and I had no food in our pantry. Another manipulator would tell guilt me into believing that I was manipulating them. A third would always talk about their untoward affairs and cheating companies rationalizing that the firms had more money than they needed. Yet another kept forcing her molested daughter back to the molester father because “he was her father”. The scars I saw in that child were unbearable.

All of them touched my sense of justice, veracity, and spiritual walk in negative ways. The very core of what makes me who I am was being eroded.

Until I told them – either by verbal confrontation or through letter (for those who would not listen) that I couldn’t deal with them anymore.

It was hard. But the release of emotions and impact to my mental and spiritual health would never have gained traction toward healing and personal growth were I to allow me to remain chained to their guilt-wielding traps.

So for this year…

Be simple in your choices…

So for this year, work on determining what is most important to you. Pick three of the top things and work on those. Be simple in your choices, determine the wins for accomplishing them, and then post them visibly so you do not forget them. Break them down into small chunks. What steps can you make each month that will move the needle toward reaching your goals? Too many things, too large a goal without simplifying them will only end of in frustration and no accomplishment at all.

Then share with us what you came up with. Your story can inspire others to figure out how to do this for themselves!