Tanya Hvilivitzky

4 Ways to Simplify Your Life

By Tanya Hvilivitzky

Taking steps to organize your living space and lifestyle will help unclutter your mind and reduce disharmony. Here’s how to get started.

#1 Create a System

When you take the time at the outset to create a system for what may cause you stress in your daily life, things become easier.

Even something as simple as organizing your medication will save you time, reduce everyday anxiety, and minimize mistakes and missed doses. Consider what will work best for you, whether it’s a pill organizer, electronic reminders, and/or smartphone apps to alert you when it’s time take your meds or request refills.

Organization and life “hacks” can help streamline complicated transitions and processes, but try not to tackle too many changes at once. Building a sustainable habit, lifestyle, or system is a journey, not a destination.

#2 Stick to a Schedule & Routine

Implementing a regular routine means having fewer decisions to make. And that means having more mental energy for the decisions that actually matter.

Establishing a steady schedule not only lowers your stress level and but also is a good way to keep mood episodes at bay. This is especially true with regard to a sleep schedule. Following a strict sleep plan makes mood stability more achievable and sustainable. (Even though it means going to bed and waking up at the same time every day.)

Remember, if you want to implement a new habit—like an exercise, mindfulness, or gratitude practice—do it alongside another activity that is already a regular part of your daily routine. In time, your new habit will become second nature.

#3 Organize Your Space

Organizing your space could mean setting up your kitchen cupboards or closet in a more efficient way, or it could involve clearing all the clutter from your home. This may seem like a daunting task, but if you approach it with a plan for doing smaller areas first and in a methodical fashion, you’ll be surprised at how fast it goes.

That said, be sure to take the time to decide whether you really want to keep something; and, if so, decide on a place for it. You can give to charity anything else that is still useful and in good condition. You can even make use of the many freecycle sites and groups online.

To keep clutter at bay, take the time to put everything back in its place at the end of every day or when you’re leaving a room or moving on to a new activity.

#4 Keep a Daily Journal

By maintaining a written or typed log of what you’re going through every day (i.e., sleep patterns, exercise, moods, etc.), you’ll be able to see how your bipolar symptoms manifest and then evaluate ways to prevent or lessen the severity or duration of a mood episode.

This alone can give you a stronger sense of control and organization over your life.

If you find it too stressful or time-consuming to keep a written daily journal, there are many good mood-tracking apps that can make this an easier and faster process. An app can free you to simply plug in your moods, and it will chart and track the data for you.

Originally posted August 8, 2017

About the author

Tanya Hvilivitzky

Tanya Hvilivitzky has spent almost 30 years in the communications field—a career that has included stints as an investigative journalist, magazine managing editor, corporate communications director, and researcher/writer. She has been with bp Magazine and esperanza Magazine since 2016, serving in roles such as interim editor and, currently, the features editor. She also writes for the bpBUZZ section of bphope.com, where she synthesizes complex information into a format that both inspires and informs. As an award-winning writer/editor, she received the Beyond Borders Media Award for her 2012 investigative exposé about human trafficking. Her work on this important topic also earned the Media Freedom Award “Honouring Canada’s Heroes” from the Joy Smith Foundation to Stop Human Trafficking.