Zena's Things Of Interest: 8 Small Habits That Make My Daily Life Simpler, Easier and More Effective

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8 Small Habits That Make My Daily Life Simpler, Easier and More Effective

via The Positivity Blog | Increase Your Happiness and Awesomeness by Henrik Edberg on 4/28/10

Image: http://www.flickr.com/photos/notsogoodphotography/ / CC BY 2.0

"First we make our habits, then our habits make us."
John C. Noble

I often write about making big changes in your life. So today I'd like to mix that up and just look at eight small habits that make my life simpler, easier and more effective.

Feel free to use the comments section below to share your own small daily or weekly habits that you have found improves your life, even if it's just a little bit.

Keep everything in its place. If everything has its own place then it is whole lot easier to keep your home reasonably ordered and decluttered from day to day. This also helps you with your inner stillness as the outer environment affects how you feel on the inside. I also find it useful to always keep things in their place on me when I'm out and about. The wallet is always in the same pocket and my cell phone is always in the same place. If you have forgotten something and have this habit you'll quickly notice if something is not as usual and you can go back to fetch what you lost.
Go food shopping once a week. You'll save time, perhaps some money and I find that I do less impulse buying of unhealthy things too compared to if I go shopping when I am getting hungry.
Cook more food than you'll eat. I usually make two or three servings of what am about to eat. This cuts down on time that you spend on cooking and you'll have to do less washing up in general. Plus, it's good to have portions of food to bring to work to save some money. Or to have a meal that you can quickly reheat when you come home from school or work and you are starving.
Declutter for a few minutes in the morning. Keeping everything in its place works for the most part. But there is still usually a bit of clutter. You can spend a few minutes in the morning (or after your work day is done) to clean up your workspace, remove old coffee cups and clean up papers and books and put them in their proper place.
Write everything down. Otherwise you'll forget about your goals, great ideas or perhaps something funny or fascinating you heard. By writing things down you don't have to occupy your mind with having to remember everything. This lowers stress levels and gives you a clearer mind to use.
Pack your bag the night before. This very simple habit can alleviate quite a bit of stress in the morning. If you pack your bag before you go to bed then you don't have to run around in your house half panicked tomorrow while looking for your books or some important papers.
Reconnect each day with what you should be doing. On my wall there is a small white board. On the white board there are things written like "keep things extremely simple" and "stick to the schedule". These two reminders and a few more are always there. Whenever I lose my way during my day I can always just look at the wall to center myself and reconnect with what I should be doing and how I should go about it. I highly recommend doing this to stay on course.
Be 10 or 5 minutes early. This is a very simple tip that transforms those traveling times during your day into relaxing breaks instead of passages of time and space that only up your levels of stress and other negative feelings.