How to Simplify Your Life if You Don’t Know Where to Start

Many people today have become fascinated with simple living. Cottage core, Hygge, minimalism, eco-culture, and others have swept the world. Why? Because these ways of living are desirable. They promote happiness in everyday life and allow us to feel as if we have a sense of choice.

A year ago, I spent fourteen hours out of my house each day, running between college classes and my job at Target. I hardly had any free time between my assignments and responsibilities and often found that TV was my sole entertainment. 

While life was nowhere near “simple,” I knew I needed to make a change. A life with no creativity and a lack of spirituality was not for me.

This post is meant to be a lengthy guide to help you find ways to become more intentional about your daily routine and to find a way to simplify areas of your life that may be fuzzy, confusing, or detrimental to your everyday life.

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Disclaimer: All of the views and opinions in this post are solely my own and are not sponsored. This post may include affiliate links, meaning I earn a commission through links at no cost to you.

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How do you define a simple life?

The first thing you need to do is define what a simple life will mean for you. Some people extract themselves entirely from technology,, while others find that living in a log cabin is perfect. 

Some people enjoy simple city life in a studio apartment with their cat,, while others love the mountains in the background of their small town.

The thing is, simplicity and living simply look different for everyone. Before you can begin simplifying your life, you need to define what the ideal life looks like for you. 

For example, my idea of a simple life is to work from home, making a decent income creating while still having enough time to write for my books. I want a small, cottage-esque home with a large garden and a few pets to help keep me on my toes. 

My idea of simplicity does not have to match yours. The goal is to ask yourself what you want and then use the guide below to help you achieve it.

What is slow living?

I believe I have discussed this before in my intentional living video on youtube, but there is a difference between slow, simple, and intentional living.

Together, they are an unstoppable force. Apart, they reflect aspects of the many faces of simplicity. To make things easier, I will define the characteristics of each below:

Simple Living

• Defined by living with only what you need to be happy.
• A sense of organization and foresight for life.
• Lack of busy work and overwhelming responsibilities.

Intentional Living

• Being decisive about what you choose to spend your energy on.
• Making detailed plans to get where you want to go.
• Saying no to things that do not serve you or your goals.

Slow Living

• Having extra time to spend on activities to allow you to really enjoy them.
• Drawing happiness from life’s simple pleasures.
• Spending your time working in a way that does not feel like work.

I do my best to incorporate each of these lifestyles into my everyday routine. Slow living is the most appealing to me because it is the hardest thing for me to achieve. I am a busy-body with constant projects and ideas flowing through my head. The goal of living a slow life is to help calm the storm—in a sense.

I like to implement slow living in my morning routine. I wake up with enough time to spare so that I can take my time and truly feel present in the moment. I like to take my time making breakfast and sipping my coffee while reading, journaling, or listening to a podcast.

My morning ritual is very important to me. I’ll explain more about this later, but if you’re interested in crafting a solid morning or night routine, check out my posts on each by clicking the links!

How can you be more intentional?

Being more intentional is one of the first steps to crafting a slow, simple, or intentional life. Intentionality is at the root of these lifestyles because without decisive action and steady self-discipline, you won’t be able to maintain the lifestyle you are aiming for.

Building a routine that you love takes time. Any change takes time. Having a strong sense of discipline to keep yourself on track is a must. The easiest way to build your perseverance is by creating an intentional life.

Make plans

The first step to intentionality/living intentionally is to make a plan. This is my favorite thing to do if I’m being honest. Making plans is a way for you to outline your thoughts and ideas and forge a clear path towards your goals. 

Think of a plan as a simple list of “to-do’s” that will inevitably bring you to where you want to be. Let’s say you have a goal to write and publish a book (great goal, by the way!). First, you’ll need to outline your novel and build upon your story idea. Then, you’ll need to make a writing schedule so that you can publish it on time. Lastly, you’ll need a publishing and marketing strategy.

While this is a summed up version of how to publish a novel, it does showcase how much “planning” is necessary to achieve the goal. You’ll need separate, more in-depth plans for ideation, creation, publication, and marketing. 

If this is making your brain hurt, I get it.

Some plans can get very lengthy and unyielding. They can be detailed and span over the course of years. But don’t be intimidated! Plans and lists are a great way to keep you on track to help you achieve your goals. It also leads to an abundance of intentionality and begins to hone your sense of living with intention.

If you want more resources on how to craft lists, you can check out my blog post on curating lists that get sh*t done, or you can watch my youtube video on list creation.

Write down your goals

This goes right along with the above planning section. Goals are the driving force of intentionality. Without them, it’s hard to say that you’re making any sort of choice based on intention.

Writing down your goals is healthy for several reasons, including:

• Self-reflection
• Monitoring self-growth
• Making ideas a tangible thing
• Understanding your inner desires
• Meditating on your thoughts

Funnily enough, only about 3% of people actually write down their goals on a simple sheet of paper. That’s crazy!

Writing down your goals is a beneficial way to identify what it is you want and how you plan to get there. I suggest making one, three, and five-year goals if you can. The process is easy enough. Ask yourself these questions:

• What do I want to accomplish in one year?
• What do I want to achieve in three years?
• Where do I want to be in five years?

These are your goals. To be intentional, make sure that you make decisions that work towards the answers to the above questions every day.

While long-term goal setting is a great exercise, I also advocate for short term goal setting. Make a plan to sit down one day and write down your weekly and monthly goals. 

For instance, my weekly goals usually involve work/earning money/ and writing my books. My monthly goals involve moving forward in my career and embarking on experiences that I will always remember. 

Take some time to access your goals so that you can begin formulating plans on how to achieve them.

Be decisive

One of the most significant aspects of living with intention is being decisive. Standing your ground and making decisions that enable you to work towards the future that you strive for is at the heart of intentional living.

You need to learn when to say yes and when to say no to prospective activities and thoughts that do nothing to serve you. Now, this is not to say that you should become a recluse who cares only about their duty and work. You should say yes to seeing friends and family and exploring a little. But there needs to be a balance.

Of course, the central theme of this segment is to incentivize you to be decisive. Make decisions. Do not rest on the fence. Be intentional about what it is you want and where you want to be. Be intentional every single day. Eventually, it becomes less of an ideology and more so a way of life.

Have strong self-discipline

In order to achieve the ability to be decisive, make goals that you can grasp, and make plans to get where you want to be, you need to have a strong sense of self-discipline. If being decisive is the most significant aspect of intentionality, then discipline is the foundation.

It may seem silly, but strong self-discipline or conscientiousness is hard to achieve. I lack this in many ways. I love to be lazy and to fall back on my work if it means more leisure. But I’ve learned that in order to grow and achieve what we want, we must be willing to push ourselves towards success and do the work.

Work has a negative connotation to it, but I don’t think achieving your goals should always feel like work. My blog fits perfectly for this example. My goal is to grow and expand and (potentially) make enough money blogging that I could leave freelancing for good. While I’m nowhere near that goal yet, I still put in the work to get me there.

I don’t see writing posts as work but rather as something I enjoy that also needs to be done. 

Dishes, cleaning the house, and cleaning my rabbit’s cage are things that I don’t necessarily enjoy but are necessary. We call these chores. They are also representative of the negative connotation for work.

On the other hand, writing my blog and my books is something I need to do, and love to do. They are a balance of responsibility and fun. Finding this balance will help you feel as if self-discipline is not a requirement but a piece in achieving your successes.

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What is minimalism?

Moving on, I think it’s important to touch a little on minimalism. 

Minimalism is defined as a way of life that involves living with and consuming less. The reason that I value minimalism so much and think that it is a factor/lifestyle choice worth considering when moving towards simplicity is that simplicity is an aspect of minimalism.

Minimalism focuses on living a simple and stress-free life by utilizing what you already have instead of falling into the well of consumerism. One of my simple life goals, for example, is to consume less. Consume less media, less stuff, less sugar, etc. I’ve put limits on things that I love that may be toxic for me in large doses.

I spoke about this concept in my intentional living video so you can click the link if you want to learn more!

Essentially, minimalism is a way to invite simplicity into your life while remaining intentional about how you choose to do so.

How to be a minimalist

Being a minimalist, as with every lifestyle, looks different for everyone. I really enjoy Ashlynne Eaton and Sarah Therese on youtube when it comes to minimalism, but both lead very different lives from one another.

What I’ve learned about minimalism in the past year is that it’s not about owning nothing. It’s not about stale white walls and living without furniture. It’s simply about being mindful of what you consume and learning how to live with only what you need.

Eco-minimalism is a branch of minimalism that focuses on consuming less and reusing what you have in creative ways for the sake of the environment rather than just for the sake of a simple lifestyle. While I’m no expert on either topic, I highly encourage you to look into minimalism and eco-minimalism.

I have several posts covering these topics and you can view them all in my ethical living category. I highly suggest that you look into these topics so that you can define what minimalism means for you! 

Declutter

One of the first steps towards minimalism is decluttering. Decluttering can appear (at first) as a daunting task. I like to break my decluttering up by room, tackling jobs one by one. When it comes to decluttering, you should throw out things that you no longer use. If you aren’t sure what to throw out, here are a few questions you can ask yourself:

Have I used in within the last year?

Is it a holiday or celebratory item?

Is it a piece of memorabilia that I hold dear?

Will I use it within the next six months?

If you answered “no” to all of the above questions, consider tossing it. Other things to consider are: 

Is the item broken?

Does it have a purpose?

Do I still like it?

If it’s clothing, does it fit?

Has it expired?

Is it out of date/can’t be used?

These questions can help guide you in your decision making when it comes to decluttering.

Ideas for decluttering

Spend less

A great way to get into minimalism and begin practicing the ideologies of the lifestyle is to spend less. While this draws directly from consuming less, spending less will only benefit you in the future. The best thing to do in order to start saving and consuming less is to use a budget tracker.

While budget tracking can look different for everyone, having a tracker will help you to manage your money smarter and will let you know where you’re investing the majority of your energy. 

When I transitioned to simple living, there were plenty of times where I wanted nothing more than to spend my money eating out every night. While it’s good every once in a while, eating at restaurants and fast food places is the opposite of simple living. Fast food sprung up in response to the busy-body culture that society has built today. It was a way to get a meal fast for a low cost.

Since the shift from my hectic lifestyle to a more calm and steady one, I’ve begun to cook more meals at home. This does a few things for me:

• It helps me to save money
• It gives me life lessons and valuable skills in the kitchen
• It’s a slow and simple, meditative process

Of course, spending less is not just about food. It’s about cutting back on mindless purchases because something was on “sale.” It’s about saving your money instead of buying a new movie or subscription service. 

This simple tidbit also leads us into our last point on minimalism.

Be intentional

Intentionality is at the forefront of the conversion to simplicity. You’re probably sick of me saying this to you, so I’ll keep this point short.

To go along with the above topic of spending less, intentionality is required to make purchases on things you’ll know you will use for the longterm. Having a plan and being intentional about what you buy separates you from mainstream consumerism culture which only tries to sell you things you don’t need.

Being intentional is of course the first step to minimalism because the focus of minimalism is using only what you need and consuming less. If you are intentional about the items you use, you will be able to make smarter purchases and will fall into step with the minimalist lifestyle.

Ways to take things slow

Now, my blog post on slow, simple, and intentional living dives into this a bit, but I wanted to go more in-depth here. 

Taking things slow has really allowed me to feel more connected with my life and has allowed me to feel more secure in my day to day routines. I have fallen in love with my morning routine which makes me look forward to waking up each and every day.

I think that really honing in on the slow living lifestyle is the best way to feel connected and in tune with yourself and the world around you. 

I’ve rounded up some ways in which you can begin shifting your lifestyle to fit a slow and simple routine.

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Don’t busy yourself

As a person who loves to always be doing something, it’s important to take pauses. Really sit back and feel the pauses in life. One key to living a slow lifestyle is to not overbook yourself with work. 

I’ll admit, I love to work. I’m constantly looking for new opportunities and more tasks to fill my time. I don’t know why, but working feels so refreshing and productive to me. Unfortunately, in order to really appreciate a slow lifestyle, I need to know when to say no and to cut back on all of the ventures I try to take on.

If you love to be busy like me, there’s nothing wrong with that. But a slow lifestyle requires you to have extra time to reflect, relax, and live in peace. I am so grateful that my morning routine is slow and steady. Although my days can still get hectic, it’s nice to have a slow morning filled of peace and little worry.

Give yourself extra time

As I’ve said before, giving yourself extra time is the best way to achieve slow living. Extra time gives you the opportunity to be…well…slow! 

I like to wake up with two hours to spare before I need to begin my work. Two hours is enough time to stretch, exercise, meditate, make breakfast, eat, cleanup, and journal before my day needs to begin.

Giving yourself extra time on projects or at night is also a great way to maintain a slow living lifestyle. Really, this lifestyle is about taking things carefully and truly appreciating the present moment.

How to be happy with less

As I wrap up this blog post, I wanted to talk a little about what it is to be happy with less. So many of us are told by the media that we have no choice but to consume and buy and keep expanding our material life.

We’re told that if we make more money, we need to buy a large house. If you have the cash, we need that new phone. Targeted marketing shoves product after product down our throats, convincing us that we’ll find happiness if we just keep consuming and bringing these products into our home.

While I’m not saying that a great set of headphones can’t give you happiness (I just bought some wireless ones and I am in love!), I’m saying that it’s sometimes better to be happy with what you have.

You don’t have to buy anything new just to fill your space. I live in a small apartment. While my version of minimalism is quite cluttered compared to online stereotypes, I’ve learned that I don’t need to keep buying things to make me happy.

I can enjoy my small space with my single mixing bowl and set of four cups of dishware. I can enjoy my two chaired kitchen table and the tiny shared office I have.

Minimalism, eco-minimalism, simple living, intentional living, and slow living are about a balance. They’re about knowing what you need to be happy and accepting just that and no more.

Love the little things

As this post comes to an end, my final thought is to express how important it is to love the little things. Love painting, reading, embroidering, listening to music, watching your favorite show, gardening, ect. 

If you love the little things in life, you’ll be happier. But not only that, you’ll also find that simplicity is often derived from these little things alone.

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If you like this post, check out some similar posts of mine below!

Feel free to leave a comment below and let me know your thoughts on a simple lifestyle!

You can also email me with questions or concerns you may have at info.amelia.wilson@gmail.com

My new book, Witch in the Water, is available on Amazon!

Also, check out my poetry book, The Lights are on but Nobody’s Home, available now on amazon for $6.99!

Disclaimer: All of the views and opinions in this post are solely my own and are not sponsored. This post includes affiliate links, meaning I earn a commission through links at no cost to you.

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