Ley is writing a book, predominately to women, about how to simplify your life. Pair down your commitments, cut back on all the stuff you have in your house, don't fall into consumer culture.
This is a decent book in the genre, and only has a light touch of Christian overtones instead of throwing it in your face every 3rd page as other books do. While I didn't find the book to be some revelation, it's not going to hurt and if it helps you live a calmer life that makes you happy...it's a good book.
## Highlights
- You can’t enjoy the warmth of an afternoon breeze when you’re clamoring to get inside because you have so much left to do. ([Location 145](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B06XFM835N&location=145))
- Tags: [[pink]]
- Before we get started, I need you to make me a promise—and it’s a big one! Do not spend a single dollar on this process. That means from chapter 1 to chapter 10, I’d like you to keep a list of items that might be helpful in organizing, but I don’t want you to buy a single thing. ([Location 168](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B06XFM835N&location=168))
- Tags: [[pink]]
- when the clutter was gone? Everything in me quieted in a noticeable ([Location 231](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B06XFM835N&location=231))
- The goal of simplifying isn’t to embrace bare or sparse or extreme; it’s to eliminate distractions so you can focus on what really matters, ([Location 290](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B06XFM835N&location=290))
- Tags: [[pink]]
- You get to decide whether you will live your life insanely busy or embrace simplicity, make active changes, and slow down. You can say no. You ([Location 1306](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B06XFM835N&location=1306))
- never, ever feel guilty about taking care of yourself. ([Location 1326](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B06XFM835N&location=1326))
- without regular self-care, you are not living your best ([Location 1328](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B06XFM835N&location=1328))
- We aren’t born knowing how to do these things! We have to teach the process of cleaning up a messy room or completing chores. Do yourself a favor and get your kids involved, even when they’re tiny. They can learn how to put things in a box to clean up. (Mom, ([Location 1586](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B06XFM835N&location=1586))
## New highlights added January 6, 2024 at 3:16 PM
- If I know anything about life, it’s this: it doesn’t have to be so complicated. I know what it feels like to be in the absolute thick of it—with little ones clamoring for attention, an inbox forever overflowing, a house brimming with clutter, laundry that never seems to end, doubt and anxiety pumping through my veins. I know what it feels like to be completely and totally overwhelmed. ([Location 74](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B06XFM835N&location=74))
- Note: I like seeing this acknowledgment that life is happening.
- Throughout this book, we will walk through the tactical process of simplifying ten key areas of life. ([Location 101](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B06XFM835N&location=101))
- Note: **purpose**
- Simplified Planner ([Location 129](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B06XFM835N&location=129))
- Note: Look up this planner
#### Chapter 1 SIMPLIFIED SPACE Creating a Decluttered, Meaningful Home
## New highlights added January 7, 2024 at 4:43 PM
- Though I’d tried to create that sense of peace with expensive organizers and fancy systems, nothing worked quite like the free exercise of unapologetically ridding my home of excess. My lack of organizational tools wasn’t the problem; my overabundance of stuff was. ([Location 224](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B06XFM835N&location=224))
- Note: How much stuff is in my office that I just don’t need?
## New highlights added January 9, 2024 at 6:45 AM
- If you find yourself dreaming of a fancy organizational tool, chances are you still have too much stuff. ([Location 326](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B06XFM835N&location=326))
#### Chapter 2 SIMPLIFIED STYLE Establishing a Simple Wardrobe and Beauty Routine
- 1. It must fit. 2. It must be of good quality. 3. It must be your favorite. ([Location 397](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B06XFM835N&location=397))
- Note: So what does that mean for all my plaid shirts? How many should I keep and how many should I get rid of?
#### Chapter 3 SIMPLIFIED MEALS Taking the Stress Out of Meal Planning
- Typically I’ll plan four evening meals, one leftover evening meal, one pizza party (a Friday night family tradition), and one dinner out. An average week looks like this: ([Location 562](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B06XFM835N&location=562))
- Note: I need to do a meal plan for the week again
#### Chapter 4 SIMPLIFIED SCHEDULE Maintaining a Calendar with Margin
- I realized my problem wasn’t my lack of an amazing quick-fix planner: I was overcommitted and couldn’t manage it all. ([Location 673](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B06XFM835N&location=673))
- Note: This is true for most people. Their system can work if they didn’t try to do fat too much all the time.
- Whatever your circumstances are, you get to decide what gets your yes and what gets your no. You are in control of the commitments and distractions that chip away at your limited time and brain space each day. Our time is our most precious resource. And the way we choose to spend it defines our lives, one minute at a time. ([Location 680](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B06XFM835N&location=680))
- Note: Eh maybe. If you have a boss that cuts costs and asks for more all the time and you can’t move or work from home to find more work then this is not true. This is true for privileged people only.
- The first step to simplifying your schedule involves some serious heart work: unapologetically declaring what matters most and honoring those priorities as you plan your days. What truly matters most to you? ([Location 685](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B06XFM835N&location=685))
- Note: Sure but reading mattered most to me for a year and it almost cost us everything so how do you balance your priorities with needing to make money.
## New highlights added January 10, 2024 at 6:51 AM
- shift involved redefining what success looked like. Yes, I wanted a “joyful family” and a “successful career,” but when was enough enough ([Location 706](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B06XFM835N&location=706))
- Note: Most often enough is always more in the capitalist society we live in.
- I started turning down good work opportunities—not because I had personal schedule conflicts, but because my mind and heart needed breathing room. ([Location 719](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B06XFM835N&location=719))
- Note: Sure I’d love to do this and we made it happen for Cynthia but my income is too high and we need it so I can’t.
- My favorite way to organize household chores is with the Sticky Note Method. My mom did this with my family when my brother and I were small. The process is simple: using a pad of sticky notes and a marker, write down every chore that has to be done in your home on a weekly basis. Lay them out in front of the family and, taking turns, have each family member select one. Go around the circle until each person has an appropriate number of chores selected. ([Location 756](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B06XFM835N&location=756))
- Note: I like this method of choosing chores. Then our kids are big enough to plan for when they’ll do the chores? They still need to do dishes and other minor chores but we could get some big ones out of the way.
## New highlights added January 10, 2024 at 5:13 PM
#### Chapter 5 SIMPLIFIED FINANCES Getting a Handle on Money
- Dave Ramsey, ([Location 895](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B06XFM835N&location=895))
- Note: ;;tag
#### Chapter 6 SIMPLIFIED HOSPITALITY Serving and Loving Others Well
## New highlights added January 11, 2024 at 7:07 AM
- Marriage is not something you work toward, achieve, and set on the shelf. It’s a lifelong courtship between two people with common goals. It takes work weekly, daily, and hourly. ([Location 965](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B06XFM835N&location=965))
- Note: And it’s often uneven work with one doing more than the other at times. Hopefully the roles and focus changes back and forth.
## New highlights added January 13, 2024 at 4:43 PM
- By simplifying the other areas of our lives, we make space for acts of hospitality. We give our brains room for patience, our schedules room for showing gratitude, and our hearts room to care not just for ourselves and our tasks but for others—in big and small ways. ([Location 1105](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B06XFM835N&location=1105))
#### Chapter 7 SIMPLIFIED TECHNOLOGY Creating Healthy Tech Boundaries and Corralling Gadgets
- Delete any unnecessary files, photos, and software, and then empty the trash. This will free up valuable memory space, which will make your computer run faster. ([Location 1157](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B06XFM835N&location=1157))
- Note: Uh that’s not how computers work lady.
- Seriously. If something really important is happening, your phone will ring. You don’t need notifications on for anything—not for e-mail, not for social media, perhaps not even for text messages (that’s right!). ([Location 1195](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B06XFM835N&location=1195))
- Note: This I believe in
- When our children see us pick up our phone at a stoplight or when we’re sitting quietly on the couch, they notice that we don’t like to be still. We no longer know how to sit and look around at our surroundings, taking in the scenery, just thinking, and sometimes just being bored. ([Location 1199](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B06XFM835N&location=1199))
- Note: We also teach them this is the way they should be. Why do we limit the kids screen time but give ourselves unlimited screen time.
- SIMPLICITY CHALLENGE ([Location 1236](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B06XFM835N&location=1236))
- Note: Decent advice but books like Digital Minimalism do a better deeper job tackling the subject.
#### Chapter 8 SIMPLIFIED SELF Taking Care of Yourself First and Foremost
- You cannot fit ten pounds of hay into a five-pound bag. It’s physics; you simply cannot. Somehow we have gotten into the mind-set that if there is empty space, we should fill it. ([Location 1285](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B06XFM835N&location=1285))
- Note: That is the US focus on work as the best ideal of life or Protestant Work Ethic.
#### Chapter 9 SIMPLIFIED MOTHERHOOD Discovering Grace in a Deeply Important Role
- First, our family has really benefited from keeping our toys to a minimum. I know, this may sound unpopular, but your children don’t need buckets and buckets of toys. In fact, if you stop and think about it, I bet you can name only about eight to ten toys they actually play with regularly. ([Location 1474](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B06XFM835N&location=1474))
- Note: And once toys are in the house it is a lot of work to get kids to part with anything.
- Another way we decluttered all the extra kiddo things was by sticking to a “one-of-a-kind” rule. Let’s take sippy cups, for example: we had to try a few different types to find what worked for our kids. So we’d buy one, let them try it, and move on. We ended up with a basket full of about four different types of sippy cups before we landed on the ones that worked best for our little ones. ([Location 1503](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B06XFM835N&location=1503))
- Note: Just keep the ones you like. I guess this means I should get rid of some of my mugs because I really only use one most of the time.
- “Remember, you are raising adults, not children.” ([Location 1595](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B06XFM835N&location=1595))
- Note: Also remember that you aren’t there to simply be their friend.
#### Chapter 10 SIMPLIFIED FAITH Connecting Daily with What Matters
#### EPILOGUE
