Janet Schiesl

Basic Organization

Simplifying will give you breathing room to do the things that truly matter. Try these two tricks to simplify your life!

“The ability to simplify means to eliminate the unnecessary so that the necessary may speak.” — Hans Hofmann

Forget about perfection.

Don’t worry about it. You can’t achieve it, so don’t try. Give yourself permission to do your best and that’s it. Instead of impersonating Betty Crocker, send store-bought cupcakes in for the school snack. Set a deadline date for a project, finish it, and then move on. Don’t go back and redo something that is just fine the way it is. This is hard to do. You have to feel as though your best effort is good enough.

Let me tell you a short story. I learned my perfection lesson early. When I had my first child, I always made a huge effort to get him dressed every day. You’d think he was going for a photo shoot. But on the days that I went to work early, my husband would dress our son and take him to daycare. Sometimes, when I’d pick the baby up from daycare I’d wonder if the DH had dressed him in the dark. What was he thinking – those pants with that shirt? But, did it really matter? My daycare provider and I would have a laugh over it and move on. Does anybody remember this now, years later? No (just me). Is my son scared by his fashion faux pas? No. He dresses better than his father.

Don’t worry about variety.

Does your family care if you work your fingers to the bone making a fancy meal every night? No, they just want to be fed. People tend to have their favorites and keep going back to those, so why go against that? I’m not saying to never try something new, but just not every night. Make up a meal schedule and stick to it to simplify food shopping, food prep, and clean-up. The same with clothes. Buy classic, well-fitting items that you can mix and match for a bit of variety. Shopping for new clothes for variety’s sake can be a time-consuming budget killer. Again, we all have pieces of clothing that we love, and that make us feel good when we wear them. Stick to those items instead of looking for that feeling at a shopping mall.

Leaving these two things behind will not only simplify your life but also your time and your budget. Simplifying will give you breathing room to do the things that truly matter.

For more information, contact Janet Schiesl.