Simple Solutions to Manage Everyday Life

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Hi, I’m Kalyn—a recovering perfectionist who nerds out about organizing systems, personal productivity, and helping you prioritize what matters over the pressure to do it all. I have a feeling we’re about to become the best of friends! Learn more >>

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kalynbrookeco

👩‍💻 | I help multi-passionate women lead manageable + meaningful lives
💬 | INFJ / E1
🚙 | RV Life @openroading
📚 | @theunclutteredbookshelf
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When you hear someone label themselves a minimalis

When you hear someone label themselves a minimalist, do you know what they actually mean?⁣
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It’s kind of like people who say they eat a plant-based diet.

Some will incorporate meat once a week. Others might cut out meat and dairy, but will still eat eggs and honey. The term can mean different things depending on your personal view of it. 🌿⁣
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The concept of minimalism is the same way—it can’t really be defined or put in a box! 📦⁣
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Generally, I find there are two types of minimalists in the world:⁣
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1️⃣ The ones who declutter practically everything, have very few belongings, and view scarcity as a badge of honor. 🏅⁣
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2️⃣ Those who want to consume less but also live with intention. They’re not hoarders by any means, but they want each item to serve an active purpose. ⁣
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The truth is, a minimalist lifestyle will look different for everyone. I find myself hovering between the two camps. I’m not anti-stuff, but I’m probably more of a hardcore declutterer than most people. 🗑⁣
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Regardless of where you fall, I think we can all agree that we should thoughtfully approach the number of things we own. How much or how little you want to have is up to you. 🏠⁣
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Which type of minimalist do you connect with? And if you’re not a minimalist, no judgement here. You can love your stuff and still follow along! 🤗

You don’t need to punish yourself for unproducti

You don’t need to punish yourself for unproductive days, you just need to approach them a little differently. 👇⁣
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1️⃣ Slooooow down. Your to-do list is not a race. I take a lot of breaks in between tasks to gear myself up for the next one. 🐌⁣
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2️⃣ Focus on small wins. The book “Eat that Frog” will tell you to tackle the hardest and biggest tasks first. Do that on a different day. When you’re feeling unmotivated, completing the smallest tasks will build your energy. 🔋⁣
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3️⃣ Tell yourself you can just do 5 minutes. When you get to those bigger tasks, five minutes is all you need to get started. The momentum gained during those five minutes will build up your stamina for doing more. ⏳⁣
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You will most likely get less done on those slower days, but that’s okay! You are still making progress and THAT’S what matters. 👏⁣
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What kind of day are you having today?

Not long ago, I was eating dinner with a group of

Not long ago, I was eating dinner with a group of people I hadn’t seen in months when I realized almost everyone had pulled their phones out of their pockets. 📱⁣
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Since they didn’t seem interested in chatting anymore, I pulled out my phone too.⁣
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But the moment I opened Instagram, goosebumps rose on my arms. I leaned over to show Joseph the quote that had popped up on my screen: 🤳⁣
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“Your cell phone has already replaced your camera, your calendar, your alarm clock… don’t let it replace your friends and family.”⁣
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Ouch.⁣
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That’s exactly what was happening right in front of me. And to be honest, I’ve been guilty of this too. 🙋‍♀️⁣
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As an introvert, I understand how much time and energy you need sometimes to pour into others. When you’re not naturally wired to connect in person, just a 10-minute conversation can be exhausting! Meanwhile, you can send a happy face emoji in less than three seconds and move on with your day. 😊⁣
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But some of my best conversations happened because I put down my phone and actually TALKED TO SOMEONE. 💬⁣
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Friends, your phone will always be there, begging for your attention. But the people around us? ⁣
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Their time is limited.⏳⁣
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And the best way to communicate to others that they are important, is to make them feel like they are more entertaining to be around than your phone. 💕

Do you ever get the “Sunday Scaries”? 👻⁣

Do you ever get the “Sunday Scaries”? 👻⁣
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This cutesy name describes the impending doom you might feel about the week ahead. It generally starts on Sunday afternoon when you realize the weekend is *almost* over. And consequently, it sucks ALL the fun out of those precious remaining hours! ⌛⁣
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I notice my own attitude depends on how much rest I actually had over the weekend combined with how prepared I am for Monday. 🛋⁣
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Here’s what helps tip the scale toward a positive Sunday afternoon experience so you don’t relive the Sunday Scaries every weekend:⁣
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➕ Give yourself a REAL weekend. Especially if you work a full-time job. If your calendar is jam-packed every weekend, it might be time to prioritize what you say yes and no to. ⁣
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➕ Unplug as much as possible. If I’m not careful, I’ll spend Saturday morning on the couch just scrolling through my phone instead of filling my self-care tank with a good novel. If you don’t want to shut your phone off for an entire day, I challenge you to try it for just an hour. ⁣
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➕ Establish a weekly planning routine. Know exactly what you need to do each weekend to feel adequately prepared for the week ahead, like meal planning or creating a weekly to-do list. Once I finish my routine, I feel sooo much better about Monday! (Which is why I try to do this routine in the afternoon so I have my Sunday evening free.)⁣
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➕ Because… you want to plan something fun for Sunday night! Watch a movie, read a book, take a walk, etc. Do an activity that helps you soak in those final hours. ⁣
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See, the Sunday Scaries don’t have to be quite so frightening! And maybe, just maybe, you can start to look forward to the week ahead. 😎⁣
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It's been one of those weeks. 😫 Or maybe I shou

It's been one of those weeks. 😫 Or maybe I should say the past two weeks have been one of those weeks: ⁣
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1️⃣ Our truck completely died and left us stranded for 14 days in West Virginia. 🚚⁣
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2️⃣ Both my websites went down for 48 hours due to a hardware failure with my hosting service. 🌐⁣
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3️⃣ As we were leaving our last camping spot, we noticed a back RV tire going soft. Sure enough, we found a leak (punctured by a nail) and will need to repair that too. 🔧⁣
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I try my best to stay positive and focus on solutions rather than the problems, but every day something else happens, and I have to wonder, "What in the world is next?!"⁣
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So in case you're feeling just as frustrated or anxious with whatever is outside of your control in your life right now, here's the biggest thing I'm reminding myself (and you):⁣
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This is just a season. 🍁⁣
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We all experience different seasons of life, and not just the four that come around every year.⁣
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There are weeks when the calendar is packed full of activities, times of year when money is tight, and months when the toddler stage seems like it will never end. 👶⁣
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But if you look back at the past weeks, months, even years, you'll notice how the good times and tough times all wax and wane as seasons. 🕰⁣
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Whatever you're going through right now, you can be guaranteed it won't last forever. Thank goodness for that! 🙌⁣
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So my challenge for you is to embrace the good through the bad, grit your teeth through the rest, and know that in the end, there's another season just over the horizon. 🌅⁣
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All you have to do is wait. And when that next season comes, the GOOD is going to feel that much sweeter.

I’ve talked to a lot of people who are still bui

I’ve talked to a lot of people who are still building back their emergency fund from the pandemic. 😷

Over here in the KB household, we’re doing the same. We just paid for an expensive truck repair and summers are the worst months for my online business income. It’s been kind of stressful to see our financial runway diminishing. 💸😞

So we did something we’ve never done before—we put ourselves on a spending freeze.

If you’re unfamiliar with the term “spending freeze”, it simply means you stop spending unnecessarily for a specific period of time.

For us, this looks like:

➕No buying extra beauty products. I have a makeup/skincare purchasing obsession that needs to STOP. Which also means I’m not watching as many YouTube beauty vloggers as I normally do. 😂

➕Making our own snacks (like granola bars, energy bites, etc) instead of buying them. Looking for free things to do on our travels, like hiking! Which we prefer over museums and zoos anyway. 🥾

➕Planning longer stays in free camping spots and shorter stays in paid ones.

Then instead of building one big emergency fund, we’re sending any extra money we have into sinking funds, (i.e. Pet Care, Vehicle Maintenance) so we can better prepare for the next big expense. @youneedabudget has a cool way of doing this with “goals” in their budgeting app. 🏦

We’re already seeing a difference and we’ve been at this spending freeze for a few weeks now! 💰

Have you ever tried a spending freeze?

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