Make Life Easier

By Carly Jacobs

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s you’re sitting here reading this article, you’re probably looking for a magical answer to make your life easier aren’t you? I don’t blame you at all. I literally do that for living. I spent hours every week researching motivational studies, profiling successful people and trialling life hacks. Finding the best life hacks is my chocolate. I really, really enjoy it but even I can get self help fatigue. Sometimes I think it’s important to cut out all the buzzy crap and get back to basics with the simplest of life hacks. I thought about a few things that really help make life easier for me and I wanted to share my favourites with you today. These things might help you a bit if you just want to tell every life improvement guru to piss off, because you’re fatigued with all the complicated over-information.

These aren’t the the most ground breaking tips that make your life easier but they’re simple and proven to work. They also stop me from totally losing my mind, both in my every day functionality and also when I get sucked into a self help fad.

Use your phone instead of your brain 

I have an incredible long term/useless information memory. My short term/vital information memory is absolute garbage, so I rely on my phone instead. Every time I park my car, I take a photo of where I parked it. If my friend recommends a yummy flavour of tea, I’ll snap a picture of the box so I don’t forget what it looks like. If I’m doing a crochet project,t I’ll take a photo of the hook size and yarn information so I won’t forget the next time I pick up the project. If your brain is a bit shit sometimes, outsource your short term memory issues to your phone. It’s pretty much what smart phones were invented for. You don’t need to worry about filing or sorting these things, just snap it and leave it in your camera roll. If it’s important you’ll come back to it soon. If it’s not important, you’ll forget about it and delete it in the future.

Make the most of your commutes 

Take any kind of commute – to the shops, to work, to the airport – and do something useful. Call a family member for a chat (hands free of course) or listen to a helpful or entertaining podcast. Most working Australians spent more than thirty minutes a day commuting, which equals 2.5 hours per week. Over the course of a working year with four weeks annual leave that equals 120 hours per year that Aussies are wasting on travelling to and from work. I used to sit on the train every day just dicking around on my phone but now I make sure I listen to an amazing podcast every day instead and I put my phone in my bag where I can’t reach it. I used to loathe the 40 minute train trip to my office but now I look forward to it. It’s just about making the trip enjoyable.

Never do anything at peak hour 

Try to avoid being in public at busy times. This means avoiding the post office at lunch time or not doing your grocery shopping on the way home from work like everyone else. I know this is difficult for people with kids but if there’s someway you can re-arrange your day it will save you so much time. The shops are way less busy at 2pm than at any other time so if you take a later lunch break and do your shopping then, it’s totally worth it. Shopping late at night is also a huge time saver. Most supermarkets are open until midnight and are pretty much dead at 9pm. Same with places like Ikea. Don’t go on Sunday afternoon like every other family in your city – go on Thursday night. It’s dead, the shelves will be fully stocked and you’ll save yourself hours of time.

Bulk buy everything you can 

I used to be very anti-bulk buying but now I don’t know how I’d live without it. I only bulk buy non-perishable and usually non-edible essentials like toilet paper, washing powder, dishwasher tablets and toothpaste. It doesn’t seem like a huge time saving hack, but having a few less items on your shopping list each week is a big help. Plus I never run out of toilet paper which means no emergency trips to the supermarket, another thing that wastes a lot of time.

Avoid single purpose trips

I try to never go anywhere unless I’m getting two things done while I’m out. If I’m going for a run, I’ll stop by at the shops on the way home. If I’m driving to another suburb to get a picture framed, I’ll look up to see if there’s a yarn store nearby that I can visit. If I’m going for a head clearing walk at lunch time, I’ll walk to the fruit and vegetable markets to see if there’s anything tasty I can get for dinner. I’m usually against multi-tasking but it’s totally acceptable when it applies to errands.

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What’s your most simple, no bullshit life hack? What’s the one thing you do that makes your life infinitely easier?

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P.S Oh hey you should totally sign up for my newsletter. It’s full of cool shit.

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About Carly Jacobs

Carly is the founding editor of Smaggle which launched in 2007 back when blogging was weird. She has appeared in The Sydney Morning Herald, The Age, Cosmopolitan and Cleo magazines. Hoop earrings are totally her thing and she almost got run over by Myf Warhurst while out jogging one day.

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