Unlock the Secret to a Stress-Free Life: This Simple Strategy Will Change Everything!
Streamlining Your Life: A Guide to Automation and Efficiency
The Struggle of Balancing Adulthood
How many times have you felt like you were on top of the world with adulthood; checking off all the boxes like Wonder Woman in true form only to feel like a failure as the weight and pressure crumbles you the very next day?
How many times have you thought, “there has to be more to life than laundry, bills, and this never ending to-do list?”
How many times have you come to the realization that you’ve lost yourself in the roles and responsibilities you carry, and that you’ve forgotten just how incredible it is to be fully and wholeheartedly present in the moment?
How many times have you looked at the life of someone else wondering how they “do it all” and “have it all” while unknowingly building resentment because an unhealed wound of lack has risen to the surface?
Personal Journey: From Overwhelm to Clarity
To be honest, this has been me more times than I could count. And to be even more honest, the hangover that comes with the regression of building the life you want to live is sobering and happens more than it’s mentioned.
Reflection and Redirection: My Path to Simplification
As a people pleasing perfectionist who decided this whole workaholic thing wasn’t really working out, I decided that redirecting was my only hope to escape the hamster wheel of life. And because I know that redirection can’t happen without reflection, I began to assess where I currently was, where I wanted to be, and the gap that filled the space in-between. I dove deeper into the influence I had around me and started to look for the consistent similarities within those living the life that aligned with my bigger picture vision. And boy, was that humbling.
Understanding Success: It's Not One-Size-Fits-All
The thing about the pathway to success, which is subjective to each individual, is there’s not a one-size-fits all mold or method. There’s not this secret key that those who escaped the vicious cycle of burnout and exhaustion keep and choose to dangle over our heads as they laugh and whisper about the once-upon-a-peasantry life that they were “lucky” enough to get out of. However, there are similarities in the things they did and still do in order to maintain the level of life they want.
The Pill of Truth: Recognizing the Obvious
The pill of truth that, for so many of us, is hard to swallow is the fact that these similarities are considered boring and so completely obvious that it can’t be the answer to a more peaceful yet productive lifestyle.
Yet if I can be completely transparent in this space, we often times make life so much harder on ourselves. We think the obvious, right in front of our faces routines and simplicities of life aren’t complicated enough to justify why we are still “here” and they are over “there” living a life that seems easier, more put together, less stressful, and more enjoyable.
The Power of Automating Decisions
There’s been times in my life where I would look at the clock as if it would suddenly look different, have an extra number, or even freeze for a period of time only to be reminded that we all have the exact same number of hours in a day. However, one big “ah-ha” moment that was staring me right in the face was that what varies isn’t the amount of time we’re given, but instead how we give ourselves to that time.
35,000 Decisions a Day: Simplifying the Process
Did you know that we, according to research, make around 35,000 decisions per day?
Now you may be thinking to yourself, “how is that humanly possible? I live a very copy and paste daily life.”
But when you begin to break down each decision you make on a daily basis:
What time will I wake up?
What am I going to wear?
What will I eat for breakfast?
Do I want my cream or black Stanley water bottle today?
I need to go by the store today for ___________.
I’m going to eat out for lunch today.
Hmm, where do I want to eat?
What do I want to eat?
Should I get the large or medium drink?
I’m going to do the laundry when I get home.
…
Are you starting to see the puzzle coming together here?
And while it may be easy to write these off as “quick decisions,” research shows that a large chunk of our day, 37% in fact, is just spent making decisions. And I don’t know about you, but 37% of my time going down the drain when it comes to real things that won’t matter a year from now is an eye opener I wasn’t expecting. I say this because we do this to ourselves. We live in a time where we are inundated with options, choices, colors, sizes, varieties, brand names, and the status quo of keeping up with the Joneses.
But what if I told you, a similarity that I’ve seen in those living the life I want to live is that they each have a process or system of automation, delegation, and outsourcing? What if I told you that starting today you could decrease your time spent making decisions by streamlining and simplifying five areas in your life while increasing your efficiency, productivity, and overall happiness?
Automation in Practice: Real-World Applications
When it comes to organizing your life, the purpose and placement of automation, delegation, and outsourcing live within the same family. In short, they are supportive pathways that allow you to increase your energy, mental capacity, and mood while decreasing decision fatigue, burnout, and the side effects of overstimulation.
So what does automating your life look like? The beauty in streamlining and simplifying your life is having the freedom to implement whatever and however based on the season and circumstances you’re currently in.
However, around here we like actionable and tangible steps, analogies, and examples. So, let’s walk through five different categories to simplify and streamline the workload that goes into your every day life.
1. Automate Your Bills: Financial Freedom
This may seem like a no-brainer, but stay with me here.
While majority of homes maximize the use of autopay for their mortgage or car payment, the use of the function altogether tends to stop there.
Now the truth of the matter is that financial success isn’t magic. It’s designing a purpose, system, and pathway for your money to work for you and not you for it.
Automating your finances, especially if you lack the discipline or accountability to put money where it should go in order to move the needle in your life, can be extremely beneficial. In fact, automation can help with things like increasing your credit score, going on that vacation you didn’t think you had the finances to cover, maintain a healthier relationship with money, and show you ways to diversify your income to build generational wealth.
You can choose to:
Receive paperless bills. Instead of physical copies being mailed to your home, receive them digitally in your inbox or receive text alerts to maintain awareness around how much your bills cost.
*Bonus Tip: Filter your paperless bills into a separate folder in your email and designate a specific day to go through and read them. This will save time in trying to locate them later while also maintaining awareness for where your money is going.
Set up direct deposit to streamline the process of how you will get paid. This will also save you time and energy in not having to schedule a special trip to the bank to deposit the money into your account.
Create different checking accounts based on their purpose to help compartmentalize where and how much money should be dispersed into it.
*Bonus Tip: Nickname the checking accounts in your online portal to keep track of your accounts and their purpose. For example some of my account nicknames are: Bills, Emergency Savings Fund, Sinking Fund, Spending, Holiday, etc. I only have physical debit cards for my Bills and Spending account to maintain awareness and decrease confusion or overwhelm.
Consolidate your bills to one account or two at the most. No more paying some bills on PayPal, some on the credit card, and others on the checking account with no rhyme or reason.
Connect your bank accounts to a bill tracker app that will collect data and analytics to show you where all your money goes. This is very humbling and eye opening.
Have a backup bank account already set up and connected to another account incase of an overdraft withdraw. This will save you so much money in any accidental overdraft fees.
Automate your investment/savings contributions. If your employer offers a retirement plan, like a 401K, you can ask whoever handles the company’s benefits to help you set up automatic contributions so you don’t have to think about it. This is extremely beneficial if you struggle with saving for the longterm, bigger picture and naturally want to spend all your money now.
Set up fraud-text alerts to maintain awareness and check your credit score once a month.
Use an app that maintains a list of all your subscriptions. You may be paying money for something you forgot about that could be going towards investments, debt, etc. Robots and AI tools are great third party reminders.
Have a designated set time to sit down and reevaluate where your money is going and how you can pivot to match the long-game desired outcome.
Bonus: Connect your credit score account with your bank account to establish extra credit in established bills that cannot be paid on a credit card.
2. Automate Your Shopping Habits: Streamlining Daily Tasks
Regardless if you are on the side of the spectrum that hates to shop, loves to shop, or lands somewhere in-between, automating or delegating your shopping habits can save you time, money, effort, and energy on a regular basis. Here are several ways you can incorporate automation habits and implementation into your weekly, biweekly, or monthly lifestyle.
Groceries: Save time and money on gas driving to and from the store. Save money on random finds that you impulsively throw into your cart as you roam the aisles. (PSST. Grocery stores are intentionally set up for you to fall into this trap, so you spend more money.) Save time and energy by not going inside the store and instead allocate it towards activities that actually fill your cup up. You can do this by two ways:
Ordering online and choosing to pick it up at the store.
Order online and choose to have it delivered to your home.
Clothes: Save time, money, and effort, especially if you have a hard time figuring out your style or want the convenience of someone simply telling you what to wear, on clothing subscriptions like StitchFix, Wantable, Dia & Co, Menlo, and Trendy Butler.
Household Maintenance Supplies: Buy in bulk! Save effort, energy, and time in not having to remember every month, every quarter, or every year that you need the supplies to maintain items in your home like your appliances, air filters, coffee filters, etc. When it comes to things that I know will need to be maintained regularly in our home or life, I purchase a year’s supply of that item once a year. Then, I organize them in my home for ease, grab, and use. This decreases my time and energy and simplifies my life by planning ahead.
Life Subscriptions: For the things that are easily forgettable, like replacing your toothbrush head regularly, sign up for subscriptions that enforce those good habits for you. Personally, after we purchased our Quip electronic toothbrushes from Target we signed up for their automation program to save money and effort to upkeep our dental hygiene as a family of four. Now, I save a little amount of money in our Sinking Funds account each month that goes towards paying this quarterly service automatically. Then, I receive an automatic email notifying me of our order shipping out where we will each receive a new toothbrush head, battery, and toothpaste per brush without thinking about any of it.
3. Automate Your Meals: Stress-Free Dining
If you experience decision fatigue throughout your day-to-day life, then you know the struggle bus of emotions and feeling of defeat when dinner time approaches and reminds you that you have nothing prepped, prepared, or planned. If you want to save time, effort, and energy without sacrificing the quality of good food then see if any of these options could serve you in this season of life!
Meal Plan Companies - Planned, Prepared, and Placed on Your Doorstep
There are so many box service companies now-a-days that provide snacks, lunch, and dinner options at the availability to your food needs, wants, or restrictions and the accessibility of being delivered to your doorstep. This not only can save you time meal planning and grocery shopping, but it also cuts down the options and therefore time and decision fatigue in actually choosing a meal to cook for the evening. Several companies that you can check out, if you haven’t already, is:
*If there is a company not mentioned, let us know in the comments and we can make sure to update and add them to the list.
Grocery Store Pre-Prepped Meals - A Local Option That’s Better Than Fast Food
Grocery stores caught up quickly in the offer of prepped and prepared meals that allow ease and convenience for busy families everywhere.
And no, I’m not talking about meals in the freezer section.
Each section, size, and quality of the freshly pre-portioned meals will vary amongst the grocery stores, so check out your go-to local grocery store the next time you are purchasing your weekly or bi-weekly groceries.
P.S. My personal favorite store to purchase pre-prepped meals is Costco or if you have a Sams Club that would be a great place to check out too!
4. Automate Your Responsibilities: Outsourcing for Efficiency
Adulthood can be daunting and naturally no-one can or wants to do it all. This is where the motto “do what you love and outsource what you don’t” can be heavily applied.
At the end of the day, we have to remember that everything we do comes at a cost. Want to save time? It might cost you money. Want to save money? It might cost you time. Figure out where you can give and take and make adjustments accordingly. And remember this, the ebbs and flows of life changes with each season.
Know you aren’t tied down to the decision that you choose today forever. You can always pivot, go in a different direction, and sacrifice time for money or money for time as you see fit. Don’t be afraid to ask for help, hire out, or purchase items to streamline the process to be easier and a more efficient use of your time, energy, and strengths.
Here are a few examples of how to automate your responsibilities:
Cleaning: Purchase items like iRobot to take over your vacuuming and mopping or hire out to a reputable cleaning service that is aligned with your standard of cleaning.
Yard Work: If you don’t enjoy yard work or if you do, but don’t feel like you have enough time in your schedule to allocate the entire time it takes to upkeep your yard then hire out. Hiring out can be as simple as hiring a service to mow your yard every other Wednesday while you take care of the rest on the weekends. Or you can do a full service hire where your yard is taken care of every third week of the month, for example. Communicate with a trusted yard service company to find a system that works for you and your season of life.
Maintaining Your Home: Have a set day each month where you maintain the items in your home. For example, having an alarm in your phone’s calendar that reminds you to change the air filter on the first Saturday of every new quarter. This will ensure proper and routine maintenance is regularly done. Because when you take care of it, it will take care of you.
5. Automate Your Daily Decisions: Simplifying Life
Don’t get wrapped up in the small, mundane decisions that slowly steal away your day and the mental capacity to take on anything new. The more you automate, streamline, and simplify your day-to-day life the better and easier the bigger picture will be to achieve.
Here are some examples of what you can do to copy and paste your day in a sustainable way that enhances your life.
Set your clothes out the night before or even the week before.
When setting time aside for this one topic it can set us up for success the next day or week ahead.
Bonus Tip: One thing a lot of successful people do is they simplified their wardrobe altogether. People like Barack Obama and Mark Zuckerberg wear the exact same outfit to work every day. This decreases the decision making process altogether and allows them to save and exert energy in more important details and decisions that actually matter in the grand scheme of things.
Autopilot your morning and evening routines.
Save the spontaneity for your vacations, weekend plans, and free time and build nurturing and automatic habits that increase your productivity, efficiency, well being, and happiness. The body naturally thrives in structure and routine, so use that to your advantage in creating and maintaining a daily schedule that is as vague or detailed as you like.
Choose tasks and activities that fill your cup up and apply them to your life regularly. Workout at the same time. Eat at the same time. Go to bed at the same time. This will build encouraging foundational blocks toward a more sustainable and fulfilling lifestyle.
Plan your week a week before and plan your day the night before.
It could be as simple as looking over your calendar before bed to increase awareness for what tomorrow brings. It could be as intricate as taking out your planner and blocking out time, tasks, and activities for the next day and week that align with your schedule. Setting time aside to reflect and prepare often will create situational and life awareness so you decrease the chances of dropping the ball or spiraling over a missed appointment, forgotten deadline, or special event.
Embracing Automation for a Better Life
The reality of life is crazy for everyone as we all run toward our goals, dreams, and deadlines while dodging the pitfalls, obstacles, and chaos of life. No one is perfect or has it all together all the time, and we need to remember that we all have pet peeves, strengths, and weaknesses. The key is to choose the tasks we actually want to do and then work toward automating and outsourcing other responsibilities or weaknesses that don’t require our personality and pizazz.
In the long run, delegation and automation will save you time, money, energy, and effort, and trust me when I say your future self will thank you for it.
My biggest piece of advice? Don’t try to change everything at once. Make a list of your responsibilities and narrow down the tasks that you want to do verses the activities you’d rather pass off to someone else. Then, take those activities and see how you can hire or outsource to allow you to have more time, money, energy, and focus. Come back and revisit any time that you feel out of alignment and want to update according to the season of life that you’re in.
And don’t forget, the various forms of organization we talk about are tools to help support you not control you. Use them to build the life you want to live.
Your journey to a more organized and stress-free life starts now, and we want to hear about it! Have you tried any of these automation strategies?
Share your experiences and tips in the comments below. Let's inspire and learn from each other to make life simpler and more enjoyable. Join the conversation and become part of our community striving for a balanced, fulfilling lifestyle!
-Your organized and streamlined bestie, Em
