How I’m Streamlining My Life

getting shit done while also enjoying some extra time

Apr 02, 2024

One way to help me along my journey with my theme of the year, Evolve, is to Let’s Streamline. I wanted this way of being to help me make the things in my life more efficient and effective, allowing routines and systems to be of little resistance and have a sense of ease. Intending to have a ‘less is more’ and ‘quality over quantity’ mentality to allow me to pursue what is important.

I had a little more time in the first quarter of the year. The priority at that time was to improve my mental health. After the improvement and reading Tiny Habits by BJ Fogg, I changed the routines and systems within my home. These changes have had the butterfly effect of impacting other areas of my life for the better.

Previously, I have attempted to implement systems to organise my life, but these haven’t stuck. I’m still at the start of this streamlining journey and adapting as I go along. The biggest test will be seeing what works best around my work days.

I have been consistent up to now. I get things done while still having time for myself or to share with others. What has helped me with this consistency is seeing the link with a few of my values: intentional, love and growth.

By doing this process and seeing what works and what doesn’t. By setting the systems in place that I have, there is intentionality and a reduction of overwhelm. I am using things I have been using or finding new things I love. If there is something that I have come across that I don’t love, I’ve asked myself why I have/am using it and if it is staying. By doing these, I have seen growth in my time and energy use.

Calendar / Zone Sheets

After reading Tiny Habits by BJ Fogg, my mind was on overdrive as I tried to change habits around the home. I thought of giving tasks and self-care designated days/months. I started this in 2023 with my towel changes, which I do every Tuesday and Friday. I knew it worked well for me, and having some structure in my systems is something I seem to strive with.

One evening, I got some paper, a pencil, a pen and a ruler and started making weekly, monthly and zone sheets. Putting my ideas down on paper was the prompt. Breaking tasks down to days and months was my ability. I knew I wanted to improve upon it, so this was my motivation. Combining to assist with my behaviour change, I started the next day, and I’ve been using them ever since. I have adapted and added/removed tasks along the way.

The monthly sheets are tasks I want to do either every month or once a quarter.

Monthly sheet: July - December similar with few annual tasks

The zone sheet breaks down my Wednesday cleaning task. I have broken my home into five zones. In a rotation of five weeks, I focus on one zone a week to complete deep cleans.

This helps me manage things slowly, reduces my feeling of being overwhelmed, and gives me some time and energy back in my days. By putting everything onto these sheets, I have reduced the need to plan certain tasks, removed the app I was trying to use to break down my cleaning tasks, and recycled the multiple scrap papers I had.

Todoist

A couple of weeks into my sheet system, I learned of the Todoist app. I’ve tried to-do list apps, but again, none have stuck. I had lists of to-dos all over my house, in my Google Calendar, and in my daily journal. Trying to keep on top of them was a task in itself.

I downloaded it and stated I would give this app a try. I am still using it! I can organise my to-dos into projects, and I colour code them with the priority option. It is simple to add tasks and set up recurring tasks. It has been a dream.

I have put the majority of my weekly tasks into the app. I have taken tasks from my Google Calendar and set them up in the app, removing them all from my calendar. It looks like I have more time on my calendar now. I don’t have paper littered around my home anymore. Because I have been planning when to do things, I only put the odd one in my daily journal, leaving me space to write more for my daily journaling practice. While also getting on top of my to-dos efficiently.

Calendar / Diaries

As mentioned above, I use Google Calendar and a daily diary for my journal pages. I also have been using a fridge monthly calendar, another diary for my reading/writing content and completing weekly WIPs in a notebook.

I have since removed my fridge monthly calendar. I wrote on it at the start of the month but never updated it as the month went along or took much notice of it. Yet, I continued to take ten minutes each month to do this task, and I have been doing this for several years.

I’ve attempted to use paper diaries in the past, but I've stopped each time I get to Easter. A part of me hoped that having a diary for my reading and writing content would make a difference. I didn’t quite get to Easter this year. I have been using my Google Calendar alongside the diary. The hope was all good in theory; however, I need to let go of having a physical diary.

I’ve been doing weekly WIPs for several months. I like the concept, but again, this wasn’t something that stuck. It was another way of taking tasks and to-dos from other places and putting them into another format.

Condensing these to my Google Calendar has been a weight off my shoulders. I’m unsure why I didn’t see it before; maybe I wasn’t ready. I have been trying time blocking in my calendar for a few things, and so far, so good. I’m still keeping my daily page journal as a physical diary. Writing my page at the end of the day is my mental process, and relax before bed.

Notes

You may guess from what I’ve already written that I had notes all over the place. These were in notebooks and paper around the house, and they were in Google Keep and Google Docs. Now, I use Google Keep as my main note-taking system. I have one notebook in my bedside drawer in case I wake up with something on my mind. I don’t have my phone in my bedroom overnight. Having my notes in one place saves me time looking for what I need.

I have started utilising the draft section more within Substack for my writing content. Before, I used notebooks and Google Docs when writing, but I’m finding that using drafts saves me time, including setting up and editing posts.

In this process, I have removed Google Docs, Google Tasks, a weekly WIP notebook, a writing and reading content diary, a fridge calendar, a cleaning app, and multiple papers and notebooks from how I was trying to organise my life.

Now, the three main apps I’m using to help me streamline my life are the Todoist app, Google Calendar, and Google Keep with the Sheets, which are my guide. Reflecting on this streamlining process, boggled my mind. No wonder I’ve felt overwhelmed. I used nearly ten platforms/systems in a big area of my life.

When I step through my door, I want to feel calm and know I can use my time wisely to unwind and destress from the outside world. Having done this detox, I feel this way again.

I could continue writing about the butterfly effects of this streamline, but I’ll save that for another time. Do you have a system that benefits your life?