​​S1 E1 Simplify Simplify​-ing | Podcast

Hi, welcome to Simplify Simplify-ing. If you are stressed and craving more time, energy, and space, but simplifying feels too complicated, you've found your people. Simplifying can feel simpler if you take small, messy steps, colour code the mental load on one page, and outsmart decision fatigue.

I'm Lisa, a designer simplifying my life using the design process in self care, fitness, food, style, home, admin, work, and love. This isn't about becoming Insta-perfect or organising clutter into matching containers (though I do love a container). It's about swapping chaos for calm and actually enjoying the glow-up!

LISTEN TO THE PODCAST

MY SIMPLIFYING STORY

For most of my life, I craved simplicity. As a designer organising projects for clients, trained yoga teacher, and health coach, I had all the knowledge. Yet, I felt burnt out from the mental load. I was an Olympic overthinker, constantly forgetting to breathe. My nervous system was set to honey badger, and eventually, my illness, Ehlers Danlos Syndrome, affected every part of my body and forced me to stop.

I had to simplify every part of life. Not just things, but my dreams, to-do's, habits, calendar, and thoughts. I've been doing this for years now, refining as I go. Design is about iteration, not perfection (a relief for this type A+ girl). The process can be messy! Slowing down meant looking at my patterns and understanding why I was rushing.

But on the other side of simplifying is less clutter, distraction, decision fatigue, and stress. There's more time, calm, focus, fun, space, and energy for my dreams, rewatching The Summer I Turned Pretty, and the people I love.

DESIGNING YOUR DREAMS

Simplifying is about designing your dreams into habits and simple steps. It’s about streamlining your calendar, self care, fitness, food, style, home, admin, work, and love. This way, you can get glowing and actually enjoy the journey.

Dreams can feel crowded out by busyness. So, step one is to sit down with your favourite drink. Push the clutter and distractions aside and let yourself dream! Pour them out digitally or onto paper, drawing, or creating a vision board.

How do you want to feel in each part of your life? What’s your why that will fuel your simplifying?

MENTAL LOAD TO ONE LIST

Once you have your dreams out, it's time to empty your mental load into one place. It can feel heavy when there are lists everywhere—notes, post-its, emails, diaries, spreadsheets, Notion boards. I get it; I was there.

Choose one place that feels natural to refer to every day. I'm a Google girl, but my mental load is on a piece of paper because writing activates my ability to do the things. Dump everything into this one list: rooms and things to declutter, tasks, items to return, calls to make, appointments to book, and sorry-I-can't-make-it-I'm-busy-simplifying emails to send. Everything.

Now, start categorising. I live for colour coding, so highlight self care, fitness, food, style, home, admin, work, and love. This one-page method works so well because, with a bird's eye view, I can feel out which tasks are sticky, see tasks to batch, and identify easy wins to start simplifying.

If you’d like the One Page PDF emailed to you, subscribe by email to Simplify Simplify-ing below in the footer, or DM me on Instagram @simplifysimplifying.

SIMPLIFY DESIGN PROCESS

I've loved the Design Process since uni, and using it to simplify my life. By defining and visualising the problem and constraints on one page, you see new connections and simple solutions. In design, constraints guide beautiful solutions as much as opportunities because they encourage creativity!

I think the main constraints we all face are time, health, and money. They can be a superpower, like amazing health or abundant time, areas for growth like a skill, or challenges such as illness or a packed schedule. In some seasons, you might have more of some and less of the others to put toward your dreams.

Chronic illness has taught me more than anything. The life I’ve designed around it is beautiful because I had to simplify, dial in my habits, and fall in love with the small things. Cheesy, but so true.

SIMPLER HABITS

Simplifying isn’t about adding dozens of that-girl habits to a busy schedule. It's about choosing a few in each area—your 80:20—that will take you toward your dreams. Plus, consider times of the day and week that are realistic. They should be doable, even on busy days.

I add habits to my One Page, in self care, fitness, food, style, home, admin, work, and love.

Each habit also has elements that can be refined over time. For example, with skin care, I do the habit morning and night. But once in a while, I look at my lineup to see if I need a top-up or want to try a new product. I always start simple and build because complicated habits are a recipe for sleeping in.

TAMING THE CALENDAR & INBOX

Along with my one list, I use one calendar and inbox to simplify life. As a Google girl, I love my Gmail, Calendar, Drive, Sheets, and Gemini AI. You might have guessed, I also colour code my calendar and folders. I have a calendar widget on my phone home screen so I can see today's events and tasks and set up notifications to remind me of events. I also love the snooze email function.

Just like with everything else in my life, I wasn’t always a clear inbox girl. It took many small steps to simplify, but now it feels simple to maintain and saves so much stress.

GLOWING UP SIMPLY

Over the next ten episodes, we’re going to break down how I’m simplifying each area of my life without it feeling complicated or overwhelming.

• Simplifying self-care is about making time for myself, using natural products, scheduling health check-ups, and remembering to breathe, even if it’s only a few breaths with coffee.

• Simplifying fitness means swapping extremes and complicated workouts for a simple routine tailored to my health goals and walking with my favourite podcasts.

• Simplifying food is about creating an easy meal plan and delicious recipes that meet my nutrition goals, streamlining shopping, maintaining a simple pantry, and throwing out diet rules.

• Simplifying style is about finding my style - a wardrobe of clothes that makes me feel comfy and chic, in black, white, denim, and gold with pops of colour.

• Simplifying home means decluttering to spark joy, establishing an easy-to-maintain, natural cleaning routine, and adding repair jobs to the list.

• Simplifying admin & work is about streamlining and automating, so I have time for the projects I can’t stop dreaming about - like this podcast.

• Simplifying love means enjoying the people I love - my reason for simplifying!

  
  

Thank You for Listening

It's been a dream to start this podcast, and I hope it inspires you to start simplifying! Next week, I’m sharing my simplifying process, my dreams, challenges, habits, the mental load list, and how I’m taking messy, small steps to design my life. Subscribe on Spotify so you don’t miss an episode, and let’s make simply sexy!

I'd love you to check out the Simplifying Cards, Simplify in One Page PDF (subscribe in the footer), Blog articles, and to connect on Instagram, Facebook or Pinterest.