Hello and Happy New Year! 2022 is here and—like many of you—I wasn’t heartbroken to say good-bye to 2021. As we step into the new year, I’m introducing a new weekly feature on the blog for 2022. Welcome to the first edition of Simple Living Sunday. Read on to find out what it’s all about. You can also download a free journaling template in case you’d like to follow along with me.  

Appreciating life’s simple pleasures

One of my personal goals for 2022 is to make more effort to appreciate the simple things in life.

A key learning from the pandemic is nothing is guaranteed. Things are still uncertain, so I have no idea if the concerts and other events I’m looking forward to in 2022 will actually happen. Since that’s all out of my control, I have to shift my focus to things I can control. That means pausing, breathing, and focusing on finding pleasure in simple, everyday things.

Simple living is a natural evolution of my focus over the last couple of years. In 2019 and 2020, I set a goal to reduce waste and live a more sustainable life. In 2021, living sustainably evolved naturally into decluttering and getting rid of items I didn’t need. The more I sought to reduce waste and declutter, the more I realized I could live happily with a lot less. That’s where the idea for Simple Living Sunday came from.

What to expect on Simple Living Sunday

Every week, I’ll choose an area of focus for the coming week. In my Sunday post, I’ll reveal the week’s focus area, along with a thought-provoking quote or two and a reflection on the priorities for the coming week. I’ll also share three simple pleasures and highlights from the previous week.

To keep myself on track, I’m going to journal on a regular basis. Journaling is something I’ve tried to get into the habit of doing in the past, but have never been able to make the habit stick. Last year, committing to weekly blog posts about my decluttering progress helped keep me motivated and on track. With that in mind, I’m giving that approach a try again this year.

If you think you’d like to join me in this weekly simple living exercise, click the image below to download your copy of my free journaling template. Or just use a journal or notebook you already have.  

I printed several copies and put them in this pretty binder that I found around the house. I got a head start last week so I’d have some highlights to share in this first post.

I’m ready to get started! Are you?

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Simple Living Sunday

Three simple pleasures and highlights

Let’s start the year off right! Here are three highlights of this past week for me.

• After the disappointment of cancelling our family Christmas celebration, we enjoyed a visit with my mother-in-law this week.
• I did a virtual escape room with some friends. I had never done an escape room—real or virtual—before. It was a lot of fun but I learned I wouldn’t be a very good detective.
• My family made the most of our second pandemic New Year’s Eve with a quiet evening at home eating pizza and wings, and watching all the TV specials.

This week’s simple living focus: Motivation

As 2021 drew to a close, I was really suffering from a lack of motivation about most things, but especially at work. I was having a hard time focusing and found myself easily distracted. Maybe it was pandemic burnout, or possibly just boredom from following the same routine over and over for almost two years with nothing to break up the monotony. Whatever it was, something had to change.

As I head back to work this week, I need to find a way to address this or 2022 will be another long and draining year!

If you can remember why you started, then you will know why you must continue.

Chris Burkmenn

This quote really gets to the heart of motivation. It’s all about the why! Sometimes in the busyness of life, it’s easy to forget about our why. I admit I’m pretty good at that in my personal life, but sometimes work is a different story.

Three things to do this week

So, my plan for this week is to refocus on why I do what I do, and why it matters. Here are three specific actions.

• I’ll put these sticky notes on my desk as a visible reminder of this week’s focus.

• Before I start work on Tuesday, I’m going to take a few minutes to write out why the work I do matters, who benefits from it, and the impact it has.
• You may have heard the “big rocks” analogy. (If you haven’t, check out this post on Becoming Minimalist.) Every day, I’ll choose the biggest task I need to do that day—my biggest rock—and do it first. Otherwise, I’ll just end up focusing on the quick, easy tasks—the busy work—at the expense of the bigger priorities.

As bloggers, we take inspiration from everything we read and see. I’d like to acknowledge a couple of bloggers for their part in inspiring this series. Last year, Michelle from Blessings By Me wrote a Saturdays on the Porch series, and Suzanne from Happily Decluttered shared her monthly Happiness Highlights. I enjoyed reading their friendly, conversational updates on things going on in their life. If you don’t follow either of these wonderful bloggers, please check out their blogs.

I’d love to hear what you think of this idea for a weekly series. Also, what helps you when you’re feeling demotivated? Tell me your thoughts below.