There’s No Instruction Manual (AKA Simplify)

No matter how many self-improvement, business, productivity, parenting, success, etc. books line our bookshelves, the truth of the matter is that when it comes to life, there is no instruction manual. How convenient it would be if there were, right?

The fact that we can’t just open a book and say “hey, here’s how we do this,” can be frustrating, for sure. I know that I’m constantly reading to see what I can learn and to see if there’s a better way of doing things. There are two big lessons I’ve learned, particularly over the past year – and both of them have a common theme.

Productivity Procrastinating

Let’s take productivity, for example. There are always new apps, new ways of doing things, and more things to add to our lists. I am the first to admit that I switch productivity apps like others switch out their coats for the new season. The funny thing is that I often circle back around to my original way of doing things. I use Todoist for the next actions I’m working on. I just transitioned to Notion from OneNote and Airtable for project and reference management. I use Mailbird for my email and contacts management, and Google’s products can plug into it.

Even though I know that these tools work really well for me, I can get caught up – for the sake of procrastination – in new project/task management apps. The big lesson I’ve learned over the years is that a program that allows you to make consistent forward progress is much better than the program that has lots of bells and whistles, but where you wind up getting caught up in something that’s a lot more complex than it needs to be.

Trying to Do It All.

I think women have an interesting bit of pressure – just because we can do it all doesn’t mean we should do it all. I feel like a lot of other women like myself in GenX are running ourselves ragged trying to do all the things. I know I was. And when things run smoothly, it works out great.

As soon as something gets rough though, the balls start to fall. There is only so much you can do when your health is struggling – physical or mental. It’s so important to prioritize and simplify when this happens. This is why I’ve pulled back from some of the many projects I had taken on.

Simplify, Then Simplify Some More

If your account is overdrawn or you’re going deep into debt, you need to cut back your expenses. If you’re feeling chronically stressed, it’s time to start cutting back obligations.

How can you simplify things?