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Health & Fitness

Senior Care: 5 Easy Steps to Simplify Your Life

Do you need help finding your keys" Here are 5 tips to keeping it simple.

You are running behind and you can't find your other shoe. Again. And, of course, it's in the last place you look. By now you are running very behind and you can't find your keys. Again. Does this sound like your life? Whether you are a senior, a senior caregiver or in your early twenties, stress happens when things get out of hand at home or at work. One of the easiest ways to unclutter and distress your life is to simplify your life. There are several ways this can be accomplished. Let’s take a look at how to deal with an overwhelming amount of belongings in your home first.

ONE: Do your belongs belong to you or do you belong to them?

1. If your home is in a mess, then this has a direct impact on how you feel and the way you react to things. Once you have a messy home it is so easy to let this clutter add up even more. You will start to feel down and you will have no motivation to get up to clean, which means even more mess on top of the previous geologic levels.

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Action Steps: Choose one area of your home to work on at a time. Start with one room, or even one counter top, and go through everything. If there are items that you hardly ever use them pack them into a box. Do the same with papers and books. If they have become dust bunnies, then get rid of them.

If you feel bad about throwing certain things away find a large box and use it as a donation box. Give these items to a local charity, homeless shelter or home. Another option is to hold a garage sale and sell off these belongings. You can also do the old three box technique--one to keep, one to think about and one to trash. More than likely the things in the "think about" box will be the ones you can give away.

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TWO: Don't try to do everything by yourself.

2. Simplifying your life also applies to mental and physical tasks as well. This includes trying to be a person that does everything for everyone all of the time. The pressure and stress will eventually catch up to you and you will come to a breaking point. Either you will simmer until you thow a tantrum and say things you will wish you could take back or you will get resentful and unloving.

Action Steps: Take action before this happens by learning how to delegate tasks. This can apply to things at work and at home. Quite often your boss keeps giving you additional responsibilities and doesn’t realize that you have become totally overworked and overwhelmed unless you tell him. Your family doesn't realize that all you do for them is making you resentful unless you tell them before you blow.

THREE: Where did the time go and what did I do with it?

3. It is important for you to know where your time goes. This one thing can really help you simplify your life. For example, if you spend a huge amount of time on car pooling then look for ways to reduce this. If you make frequent trips to the store, consider creating a list and going less often.

Action Steps: Keep a journal for a week and see how much time you spend on certain things. Ask for help with tasks that take too long.

FOUR: Don't wait for New Year's--start some new habits now.

4. Make a commitment to yourself to start a new habit. Research has shown that it takes about 21 days to form a new habit. That really isn’t that long and you can easily cross off 21 days on your calendar quickly.

Action Steps: Pehaps the habit should be one where you clean every day for 15 minutes and you intend to set your alarm to start and stop. You might find you have a few more minutes you want to spend cleaning. Other ideas for new habits include finding homes for all the items on your desk and in your rooms at home. This includes the kitchen, the bathroom and your bedroom. Vow to create a filing system for your bills so they don’t end up pinned to your fridge or strewn all over you countertops.

Forming new habits can apply to multiple areas of your life including trying to get fit and drop a few pounds or trying to stop smoking. All of these things can cause you more undue stress and taking action and accomplishing something can make you feel like a million bucks.

FIVE: Use that Smartphone the smart way.

5. Are you taking advantage of technology? If not you are missing out when it comes to simplifying your life. Most people today have a computer and at least one type of mobile device. There are plenty of Apps or applications that can be used to make life easier in so many different areas.

Action Steps: Download Apps such as calendars, grocery list, food planners and journals, online notebooks and more. Many Apps can be synched with your entire family’s mobile devices and computers. This way you can have a family calendar that is always up to date. As soon as someone adds something to it the calendar will be updated across all devices. Why keep track of medicines in a book or on your computer when you might need to have that information in an emergency? There is a smartphone app for that.

Your turn

As you can see it is fairly easy to simplify your life by putting a few small action steps into place. Get started by selecting at least one and following through with it. Which one did you pick to start with?

For more great information, please come visit the blog at our Sequoia Senior Solutions website
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