Transcription
So, I used to think that simplifying just meant having less or doing less. So, fewer commitments, fewer goals, fewer plans, fewer things to even manage. And while that's sort of true, what I've come to realize over the years is that I'm really building in simple systems that help to carry that mental load. So, in today's video, what I'm going to walk you through is how I'm simplifying my life for 2026 using systems.
So, I will walk through some of the things that I've done already before 2026. These are systems that I'm going to continue to keep in place because they've been so extremely helpful. And I'll walk you through what those are, but I'm also going to walk you through some of the things I'm adding in for this year to help make life even better.
Hi, if you are new here, my name is Sarah Ryan. I am a working mom. I work from home now most days, but I also do occasionally go into the office. On this channel, I talk a lot about productivity tools or how I organize my life or different strategies and things I do to make life more manageable, more easy as a mom and also make sure I'm still partaking in life.
So, I've had a little bit of a hiatus here and mostly it was so I could realign my life and figure out how I wanted to manage things and still keep up with this channel. But today, I'm going to talk a little bit about systems. It took me a long time to realize that I was doing routines every single day. And I did not understand that they really were formed from goals that I had and then adding in habits that really created routines and really systems for me to help me achieve my goals without even realizing it.
Okay, so let's talk about routines and systems and what's the difference between them in simple terms. I took some notes here because this took me a little while to click. It's still clicking for me. Like I said, I was building in habits and routines really and able to achieve my goals, but I didn't put this all together. So, in simple terms, the difference is a routine is going to be what you do and then the system is how those things keep working for you day-to-day even when the system is changing sort of or you have to make adjustments. So, routines really rely on motivation. Your systems are going to rely on structure. Does that make sense?
I was able to eliminate chaos and clutter or different things, keep my house clean. And I didn't even realize these things were happening because I set goals that were really directional. So, for example, I had a goal for losing weight and becoming more healthy. And I think at first started, oh, I wanted to just lose weight. And for the longest time, I would put like my macros in and I just never really saw the needle move at all. And finally one day I just said I want to be healthier. And so what I'm going to do to make sure that I'm getting healthier, I'm over 40. Let me start to make sure I am walking every single day. I want to do something that I know I can continue to do forever. Like my 90-year-old grandma can still go for a walk. I want to be able to do that. So let me start making sure I'm getting 10,000 steps. I probably started with like 8,000 steps a day. And then I started to build on top of that two other things. I started to make sure that I was weightlifting more consistently, which I think I also saw a shift from, but also introducing a Fab Four smoothie. There's a book um I think it's it's over there. It's called Body Love. I can link it, but that really talked about the Fab Four Smoothie and this concept of how you actually should build a meal to consist of protein, let's see, protein, carbs, and fats, and fiber. Those four things to make sure you don't have the spike. So anyways, I introduced that and I just started making sure that habitually every single day as part of my routine, I was having a smoothie. And those three things together over time, I just lost weight. I gained more muscle. I lost more fat.
When you start to eat some of the same things every single day, it becomes really easy to just stick to those and know that they're generally right. But the smoothie was like a really big part of it because that typically is my first meal after coffee and I wouldn't have this big blood sugar spike that would force me to, you know, want to crave and have snacks and binge all day and really like wreck my day. So I set myself up for success in the beginning of the day. Anyway, I just say all that so you have the example of understanding that those are habits and things I put into place, but I really put those habits into my routines that form a bigger system.
Okay, so I'm going to be totally honest here. Me trying to understand what systems I actually had in place was really difficult. So I went to chat GPT and I just basically told them all the different habits and routines I was doing every single day and I said, "Can you tell me what my systems are?" So that's what I'm going to share with you today.
For me, that first system is a morning regulation and readiness routine. So if you think back probably about 10, 15 years ago, the morning routine just like popped off on like YouTube or different social media platforms. Um, I think Amy Landino had that book, Good Morning, Good Life, and really talked about how you set yourself up for a good day with a good morning routine. So for me, that still exists. I have videos on this channel. If you want to see different morning routines or evening routines, you can look at that. Um, but for my morning routine, it's changed slightly, but it really just changes for the better. And I just swap out different habits in order to kind of achieve those directional goals. So, every single day, I empty the dishwasher first thing in the morning. I'm then having bone broth. I'm having my greens. And then I have my coffee. And then that triggers me to go and have my Bible reading time, my prayer time, my gratitude, my meditation, things that just set me up for a great day. That is my morning regulation and readiness system. And the key thing here is that if something is not working, I'm going to tweak it. I'm going to start to figure out what I can change or swap in and out to make it better to help achieve that directional goal.
Okay. So system number two for me is what they call my workday execution system. So for me, I really like to try to shift from my morning routine right into my workday routine. There has to be like a clear divide. So I really try to make sure I get all that work or all my morning routine stuff done first before I shift into work mode. So it's not to say that I never think about personal things while I'm working, but I want to make a clear divide because I want to be really focused. So during my workday routine, I am allowing for a personal thought or something that needs to be done. I have like a way to manage that during my workday because I'm a human being and I need to be real. And so I have like, oh my gosh, I have to like get this for my kid or sign this form or do something that just pops in my head while I'm working. And I just have a place to write that down either in Notion for my digital backlog or on my actual bullet journal page. But other than that, I want to stay focused and really execute and be productive with my job. Like that's important to me. So I have a workday execution system. So right after I'm done with my morning routine, it triggers me into my workday execution system. And that is me starting to look at my digital to-do list and then maybe even checking off some things that I didn't get a chance to check off the day before either in Notion or on my bullet journal and really aligning those two things together to make sure then that I can prioritize my top five items or any quick tasks I'm going to get done that day so I am set up for a really clear day. This is also when I put in my meetings and try to figure out how much free time I have. So, like the higher up I've gone in my career, so I'm a manager. I have more meetings. I just do. And that allows for less time to get things done. So, like those little pockets of time are really important for me to be really focused and not question what I need to get done. If I have 30 minutes, I know exactly what I need to get done, right? I'm going to start with number one. Or if I have 2 minutes, I'm going to do that quick task. This is my workday execution system. And as part of that system, I have a clear definition of where I'm going to finish work and then start my next system.
So my next system is system number three. And they classified it as an after-work transition system, which is totally true. So like after work is done, I want to be done with work and I want to focus on my personal life or personal things that I need to do. So the trigger is work ending. I need to be really clear about when I'm stopping work. So like most days I'll stop at 4:30, but if I can't stop at 4:30 and I have meetings that go to 5:00, like I know that ahead of time, right? And immediately I'm transitioned into my after-work system. So some things that that helps with is I have a clear end to my day. I also have an evening walk right now that transitions me because the days are shorter. The time that I can get outside to do a walk is really limited. So, I'm like 4:30. I'm running out the door to go do a walk. Right before that, I will grab the laundry and get that started.
What I'm going to add this year is decluttering. Like decluttering has become it's not like that it's not important, but we are just bringing in more stuff to the house than we have room for, and it's starting to pile up. I think I got away with not simplifying a lot because we had been moving. And when you have a lot of moving going on, you're intentionally or maybe not intentionally, you're unintentionally simplifying it without realizing. I would say now that we've been in this house for a few years, the clutter is starting to build and I have not had a good spot in my systems um and habits and routines that have helped me. So this year, I am certainly going to focus more on simplifying consistently. So, something I've already started doing is just trying to simplify something, decluttering something for 5 minutes or less. And where I'm going to insert that is in this transition. The way that this after-work transition system works for me right now is I stop work and normally I throw wash in the laundry, I go for my walk, I come back, I put the wash from the washer into the dryer, and then I go make dinner. The best place for this decluttering task seems to be to do it right after my walk because if I wait till after dinner, I'm just all of a sudden I don't know. I'm on the way down. I'm not like really motivated and I just find myself like circling around being like, what will I declutter for 5 minutes? I'm going to do two things. I'm going to have like an intentional list of things that I want to declutter and it may be something that takes 5 minutes to just declutter or maybe it will take more than 5 minutes. I'm just going to try to spend 5 minutes. If I spend a little bit more, that's fine, but I don't want to be overwhelmed by it and I just want to be really consistent with it. So, I will stop at 4:30. I'm going to throw the wash in the washer. I'm going to go for my walk, come back, declutter for just 5 minutes, throw the wash into the dryer, then make dinner, and then transition to like my other stuff for my bedtime routine or nighttime routine.
Part of this after-work transition system. It kind of ends by my bedtime routine. But before that, I have this in-between time and this is when I'm checking on my kids to make sure that they have what they need from me as a mom to be successful in life. And here's what I mean by that. Your kids as they get older are going to be held responsible for getting their work done. And the teachers are not going to really walk them through that. and they just expect them to have these executive functioning skills and be organized. I think they try to help a little bit, but you will notice usually as your kids get older, they will hold them to be more accountable for their own work. And so this is something I've really focused on and make sure that I am asking them things to trigger them to think of things and essentially in the long term they will have these habits as well. And I've seen the fruits of this from my younger daughter or my older daughter and she does this on her own in high school and I'm working on this with my younger daughter now. So I make sure to always ask both of them every day. Do you need any help with homework? But I can't stop there because typically the answer is just no. So I have started to make sure I ask certain probing questions. So if you are having some hard times with teenagers getting work done, that might be it. Try to add a habit in that's going to help you help them stay on top of it because it is not just something that is intuitive and kids are just going to learn on their own. I think that you can really help them out by building a habit for yourself to follow up with them and see where they need help.
I really hope this video is going to turn out okay. I feel like this has been a while. Okay, so the fourth system is what it categorized as a weekly planning meta system. I don't really know about the meta, but let's just call it a weekly planning admin system. That's what I would call it. Okay, so this is going to be the system that supports everything else. This is the system that includes my weekly planning routine. So, making sure that I plan groceries. I give the kids trigger lists and they think about what they need for groceries so I can just try to go to the grocery store one time on the weekend and have meals planned for the week. And also, it includes my meal planning. It also includes me doing any weekly cleaning routines to make sure that those things are continually being cleaned. It includes me checking up with my kids to make sure they did the chores that they were assigned that week. I give my kids some freedom with their chores. They have a certain amount of chores that they need to do, but based upon what they have going on in the week, they can choose when to do them now because they have a lot going on. We try to be flexible with that, but I still want to be consistent and make sure those things are being done. I'm making sure that I have my tools set up. So, my bullet journal, Notion is all set up for the week to come. I have my medicine and vitamins and things like um separated out for a good week. This is really how I figure out and set myself up to have a great week every single week. Does that make sense? This is the system of systems.
Hopefully, this all makes sense. Those are the four systems that I have in place. By putting all of this into play, I've created really a bunch of habits and routines that really make up systems that have helped me achieve goals. So, if you like this content, please subscribe. If you have any comments or questions, leave them below. I would love to hear from you. And I hope this helps you out.