Living Simply - Spend Less & Un-Multi-Task Your Way to Happiness

Have you noticed that more and more people are choosing to live simply? This trend labelled 'voluntary simplicity', is one of the hottest trends in the US at the moment, with 24% of adults "downshifting" or "compacting". In Britain 12% of 35-54 year olds plan to simplify their life and just over a million have done so already.

Spend Less

What does living simply mean? For some it is about spending less. Instead of aiming for a trip or trinket, many are choosing to simplify their spending to give themselves the gift of time off to explore how they want to live their lives. For others the main motivator for pairing back their lives is to have a controlled relationship with money.

Our current lifestyle says if we have a problem then we react by buying a product. This only masks the underlying issues and keeps us busy from facing the deeper question: what do we want out of life? Do we want to continue working long hours to finance buying things we don't really need? Isn't it time to start creating a life of choice rather than a life based on obligation, habits and addictions?

Like giving up smoking or bad eating habits, a spending addiction needs a plan.

5 Steps to Living Simply by Spending Less

1. Keep a spending diary for 14 days. Write down everything you spend and identify areas where you can save money.

2. Don't give up buying altogether. Just ask yourself this one question every time you reach for your wallet - does this $300 designer dress (insert any product you like here) reflect what I want out of life? If the answer that comes back is a loud YES then go right ahead and buy it. If it's a no then...................

3. Stop and think of the alternatives that give you more happiness for your buck!

4. Cut down on habitual spending. Do you really need to buy a coffee every day? Can you make your own equally delicious cup of coffee from the office?

5. Remove your judgment - its simplicity not stinginess.

Time to Un-Multi-Task Your Life

Are you one of those people who sends a text while talking on the phone, cooking dinner and helping the kids with their homework? Is the stress of keeping it all together making you alot less happy than what you could be?

Apparently, women are excellent mutli-taskers. Men on the other hand are usually happy to admit that they are ordinary everyday single-taskers. Is this difference part of the female genetic code along with superior vacuuming and bed-making abilities?

Science says the human brain, both male and female, can't support more than one job at a time. It has to constantly switch the way it thinks to handle a new task. This cognitive switching is time consuming and means that doing 4 things at once takes alot longer than doing those same 4 things one after the other.

Then there is the common 'I never finish anything' complaint of all multi-taskers. This is usually followed by a feeling of major overwhelm and a sense of failure. Compare this state to the energising thrill of completion?

Women have the power to do an enormous amount of work the mistake is in thinking we can do it all at once and not compromise the quality of our relationships, happiness and sense of balance.

3 Cures to Un-Multi-Task Your Life

1. If you are trying to do something serious either at work or personally, devote ALL of your attention to the task. Put your mobile on silent and turn off your email alert sounds. And try to make some technology-control boundaries at other times. For example, access email once an hour and only at the end of a task.

2. Create me time that is absolutely work free. Be fully present, at work and at home: this task, this person, this activity. Be ruthless and do not allow the monkey mind to talk you into making a call while the ad is on.

3. Busy is not better and sooner or later if you want to live a simpler, happier life you have to let go and delegate. Yes, that's right life can't always be perfect. In fact, in many cases perfection is just another limitation. Write a To Don't List....no schedule just FREE time to do whatever you like and stick to it!