We'll be right back. A lot of parents are at peace of mind this morning. Oh, truly, because my kids went to school today. Ooh, I hope everybody got out the door okay.
You know, a lot of counties started back last week. Right, it's that time of year where people are going back over the next couple weeks, and it's a lot. We wish everybody a wonderful school year. The teachers, the students, the administrators, everybody that comes in contact with these kids.
That's exactly right. Yes. Well, maybe, that's why August the 5th or 11th is Simplify Your Life Week, because everybody's going up to school. Simplify Your Life Week.
I need this. When is it? It starts today. Oh, I was supposed to simplify my life today.
That's how we're going to start today, by listening to this podcast. We can help with Sarence Neal to help you simplify your life. I think we should do it. No, so, yeah, I just learned about this.
I guess it's not really a holiday, but, you know, a week celebration. Okay. To simplify your life, it is always observed during the first week of August each year. And, really, the holiday is encouraging those who need to refocus our lives and maybe declutter and not just thinking about objects.
Oh, I was going to say we're cleaning up this week? No, not just your mind as well. Oh, cleaning up your mind. Okay, I'm with that.
So, you know, the idea is to eliminate things, like things you can touch or maybe not, things you think about that can cause you stress and anxiety. Because we have a tendency to clutter up both, our physical space and our mental space. Oh, that's deep. I mean, well, it's easy to understand our physical space.
We have to look around, some of us, and we can see the clutter. But when we talk about our mental space, we don't see it. No, but we can feel it. But other people can sometimes see it.
And, honestly, your physical clutter may be a product of your mental clutter. They're connected. Yes. And I see this, I think, on some of those horror shows that people watch where, I mean, there's distraction everywhere.
It's beyond clutter. And, you know, obviously, these are people that have something serious going on in their minds. Well, and I just think about myself, personally. If I have a, like, if I'm stressed or anxious about stuff, I'm really not focused on keeping my desk at work clean.
Or, you know, then I turn around and I'm like, oh, my gosh, how did this happen? Right, right. So, I wanted to share a couple quotes about this whole concept of simplifying your life. This is by Peter Walsh.
Clutter is not just the stuff on your floor. It's anything that stands between you and the life you want to be living. My goodness, we're starting, all this out, like, just revealing it all. Well, let me share this one on that note.
This is by Nathan Morris. Edit your life frequently and ruthlessly. It's your masterpiece, after all. We're painting it every day.
We are. And, you know, we have the final say pretty much on what we do, how we react to things, what we hold on to, that kind of stuff. So, I really want to encourage our listeners and maybe us individually to maybe look at simplifying our life. You know, I was sharing with you before we started recording how my calendar went from pretty chill to, you know, and I was grilling you on it.
I was like, look, what do you have? And, I mean, you were just naming these things left and right, and we pretty much finished the year. Yeah, they say, like, happy 2025. Yeah, she's booked for the year.
I mean, I won't see her again after this. And it's all good stuff. It's just a lot. And I know I'm not alone in that.
And that's just what I am in life right now, you know. So, we're going to talk about ways that we can simplify our life. Let's start for those of our listeners that are still working, okay? Whether that be at home or, you know, you go to an office space or you go to a factory or a hospital, whatever that is, okay?
But simplification at work involves saving your energy and balancing projects so that you can be more efficient and prevent fatigue and burnout. Oh, and I think in our jobs in particular, that's tied to saying the word no sometimes. And that's one thing. Yeah, as your calendar is full for the rest of you.
Sometimes we have to say no because, you know, we get a lot of requests and we have to, you know, I think you said something about balancing projects. And some things we have to say not now. Not necessarily no, just not now. Right.
So that we don't get burned out because when we get burned out, we're not our best sales. We're not doing the best job. We're not. And we're not efficient.
And we want to be efficient at our jobs no matter what we do. So, sometimes you do have to kind of save your energy for something. So, and another way to do that, this is physical. Like, if you've got some heavy duty stuff you do, maybe alternate between light and heavy tasks so your body is not overworked.
I think even with us, some of the programs we do requires packing our car, unpacking our car, hauling this, hauling that. Like, so, when I know I have weeks where those are going on, I probably really need to learn better spreading that out and not doing them all at one time. Talk about fatigue, you know. Yes.
That can definitely set in when you're doing that. And, you know, Sarah, my mind goes to mentally as well. I think when we have some heavy things that we have to work on mentally, even at work, we need to balance that with some things that don't take quite as much mental energy. Oh, I agree.
You know, we don't need to do this budget, then do this other thing that takes just as much focus and just as much, you know, we need to balance that also. You need to work on some easy tasks so you can feel like you've got to win. Alternate. Yeah.
Or those things, I hate to say mindless tasks, but all jobs require you to do a few things that you don't really have to think about. Right, but you've got to do them. Yeah. So let me do that for a little bit, and then I'll come back to this.
Right. Yeah, I agree. Right. And then don't wait until the last minute.
If you've got approaching deadlines, and I can think of two or three coming our way in the next two or three months. So I know they're coming. I need to go on now and start working on how I can address, you know, start addressing it so I don't wait until the last minute. Yeah, that's easier said than done.
It is. And that's where you come back to that balance, because you're trying to balance what you have to do right now with what's coming up in a couple of months. Right. You know, it's an everyday challenge.
So if we're looking at this from the aspect of simplifying our life, you've got to be diligent about it, right? You can't just say, well, I'm going to simplify my life, and bam, it happens. You know, I'm going to have to really sit down at my calendar and spread some stuff out, and I'm going to have to work at it. Yeah, yeah.
So those are some ideas for work. So let's think about simplifying our home environments. You know, that's every podcast. We're doing a lot today, and all of that is this week, by the way, people.
Right, right, right. But, you know, home should be, like, the place you're going to recharge, right? And it's not always. So let's think about that.
One thing that the author of an article I read stated that the easiest way to kind of simplify your home environment is to scale down your lifestyle. So I automatically think about my calendar, which is shared. Yeah, yeah. I don't see how filling up your calendar, Sarah, is going to simplify your life at home.
But on the flip of that, like, this is just a phase I'm in. In five years, my kids aren't going to be home. And I was going to say, you have this conversation every year. Because it's like pushing replay.
Your calendar's always full. It is. And that's just where we are. But there are some things I could probably say, you know, like you suggest, even at work.
No right now. Not right now. Later, maybe. So can we say that at home?
Oh, I think so. Time to declutter and simplify. No, because we're going to keep saying not now. But it does help me.
A way that I do simplify, I guess, in a way to keep from having anxiety about it or stress, I have a very organized calendar. So it's not surprising. Well, you're an organized person. So you can kind of plan ahead.
And we have to know our personalities. You know, some people work better day by day. Some people work better by looking ahead three months and having things scheduled out. So that would stress some people out to even think about what they're going to do in October and November.
But it tests at you. You know, you feel in control of your calendar if you know what's happening then. But a lot of people don't want to have it that way. Right.
They want to just kind of let's take care of the next couple of weeks. And then let's take care of the next month. Whatever works for you that simplifies it in your mind and reduces your stress is the best way to do it. I agree.
And some of your home stress can also just come with home upkeep. So, you know, delegating, if you have more than just you and your home to help, that can be a stress reliever. That happens more for me in the summer when the kids are home more. So do they do it?
Oh, yeah. It's like I leave a task of things for them to do. No, they help in the school year, too, as well. I mean, that's just part of our family, how we work.
You know, they have some chores and things to do. But knowing that I don't have to do it all alone is helpful. You know, my husband does what he needs. He helps, too.
It's not just me in the house doing it all. I send out a group text that kind of tells what needs to be done. I don't think everybody likes my group text. But they come.
And that's how I explain kind of, okay, here's where we are, kind of what needs to be done today. I think that's great. That's taking charge. And I have some friends that are empty nesters.
And they have scheduled, like, they're working empty nesters. And several of them have days or evenings. Like, this is what I do on Tuesday night. This is what I do.
I do my shop in here. And that's how they keep their home life, I guess, more organized. So, you know, I think, like you said, find what works for you that helps you be less stressed about your home environment. And live right there.
Because that is, yeah, reducing your stress. So one last topic I want to kind of approach about this, like this could be a song podcast, too, is sometimes there's people in our lives that bring us stress. Are we going to go down the list? Or are we just, okay, generally speaking.
And I'm not saying you need to eliminate people from your life. But some people have to do that. You know, being real. But there are some people that maybe I need to limit access.
That I limit my, give them access to me. I limit that. You know, and vice versa, I mean, you don't limit me. You know, but there are some people that I just, you know, we all have the people that bring a little stress to us.
Or, you know, whether they mean to or not. You know, personality differences. I call those my small dose people. I can take them in small doses before they start to, you know, complicate my life.
They don't simplify it. They start to make me feel anxiety. Right. So we handle that by kind of maybe deciding when we're going to deal with that person or not.
Okay. Okay. Like, I can't handle this today, so I'm going to have to call them back tomorrow. You know, that kind of thing.
Okay. Or, you know, I would love to go do something for the weekend, but I just not, I can't this weekend. Got you. You know, no reason to be ugly or whatever.
And there aren't really some people you just need to let go of at some point. That's true. But people can bring on a little stress, too. So simplify your life.
What did that quote say about, let me find it. I don't know. Some people, I think, have outlived their usefulness in your life. Maybe they have treated you in a way that surprised you, that you didn't think that they would mistreat you.
Or you just grew up hard. Sometimes people are just there for a little while. They don't last your whole life. They're not meant to be lifelong friends.
Right. There's a season for a lot of things. That's right. People included.
That's right. That's right. So there's, friends, like, there's a lot of ways that you can simplify your life. And one huge one that I think we kind of want to leave you with is take a break from social media, the news, like, whatever it is, and live in your reality.
You know, be in the room with people and talk to them. Right. You know, go on a walk or take a nap. I can do that.
Take a nap. That simplifies life. That simplifies life. Read a book.
Cook a new meal. Whatever. Engage in your life. Your life should not be made up of holding a screen in front of your face.
No. You only get one life, and it passes quickly. Did you get to this age faster than you thought you would? Yes.
I think everybody listening would say the same thing. Yes. Yes. Definitely.
You know, hey, maybe take some cues from us this week and think of some things that you can do to simplify your own life, you know, and enjoy it. Engage, enjoy, and love what you're doing. I love it. And in the words of Bob Marley.
Here we go. Perfect. Yes. Live the life you love.
And love the life you live. Happy August, everybody.