If you take a few minutes to read this article from BrightNest, you might find yourself saving hours of time at home, and eliminating some of the stress from your life in the process.
How would you feel with four hours of extra free time a week? It isn’t a pipe dream. With a few new habits, you’ll save time and feel more relaxed at home. First, take a deep breath. Then, try these simple ways to chillax more at home:
Simplify your breakfast on weekdays. Scrambled eggs and ham are delicious, but saving the big breakfast for the weekends will make your mornings go a lot smoother. Choose something that’s easy (and quick) to assemble like yogurt and granola.
Pick up five things before bed each night. Skeptical about the idea that cleaning makes you feel more relaxed? Hear us out. Rather than spending a few hours each weekend cleaning everything that’s piled up during the week, pick up five things every night and put them away. It will take you at most 15 minutes. By the time the weekend rolls around, your home will take way less time to clean and you can move on to more important things, like brunch.
Prioritize your home tasks. How much time do you spend doing chores? The answer is too much time. To fix that, prioritize your home tasks into these buckets: (1) Most important, must get done ASAP; (2) Needs doing but not urgent; (3) Meh, I don’t really notice the difference after I finish. Now, stop doing the chores in the third bucket! With this system, you’ll stop wasting time doing things like washing unworn sheets in the guest room. The important thing here is to only cut tasks that really don’t matter to you. Otherwise, you’re only going to increase your stress level.
Stick to a schedule. Staying up too late always sounds like a good idea… that is, until your alarm sounds the next morning. Then you rush to get ready, drive to work and start the whole cycle all over again. (Aren’t you stressed just reading about it?) Instead, go to bed early and set your alarm for an hour earlier than your regular routine. You’ll wake up rested and have time to enjoy a cup of coffee and knock out a few emails before work.
Plan one electronics-free night a week. While this habit won’t save you time, it will help you fall asleep faster, which is just as valuable! Designate one night a week as “no-electronics” night, and avoid your phone, computer, iPad, Netflix account, etc. away as soon as you walk in the door.
