30 days: Change your habits, Change your life

A huge step
toward simplifying your life is to concentrate on the important,
on the activities that make sense for you and find a way to
eliminate or downsize the other activities.
This can be done by
automating, delegating, eliminating or hiring help. 
If you want to do
everything, in the end you’ll get nothing done.
Is your schedule
too busy? Do you have too many commitments? Simplifying is about
downsizing your life and learning to live with less. 
What can you
downsize?
Do you own too many clothes and items? Are you
spending too much time cooking? Why not get help or just prepare
simpler meals? Which family member can support you? Can you
simplify your financial life by online banking? Why not pay everything

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in cash and buy only things you really need? What about your online
life? Do you spend too much time on social media or instant
messaging? Then, it might be time to get a little bit more disciplined.
Set fixed time for when you will be online and stick to them. Put a
timer if necessary. Unclutter the desktop on your PC and your e-mail
inbox. My client Marc did this and virtual uncluttering had the same
effect on him as physical uncluttering. He let go of a big weight that
he was carrying around and hence, got a lot more energy. Check
your e-mails only at certain times during the day and turn off the tone
of e-mail and text delivery so that you are not distracted all the time.
Now is also a good time to unsubscribe from journals that are just
piling up and that you never read, and to ask yourself if you really
need to read three different newspapers every day. Are you
commuting to work? Maybe you can ask your boss if you can work
from home once or twice a week. Are you working too many hours?
See if the chapters in this book on time management and getting
organized can help you to reduce your working time and find more
time to do the things you love. And do yourself a favor: Don’t bring
your work home—not physically and not even mentally. If you didn’t
get it done at work, examine your working habits and change them if
possible. This is extremely important.