Simplify Your Life: Hacks for Seasoned Black Men

As Black midlife men, many of us find ourselves overwhelmed with work and struggling to maintain a healthy work-life “balance.” The challenges in our demanding and competitive careers, while juggling our personal lives, are often complex. These demands can leave us feeling drained and stressed.

However, there are practical steps we can take to simplify our lives and reclaim our time and energy. Here are ten hacks and coaching tips to help you achieve better work-life simplification.

1. Recognize Your Why

Do you want to simplify your life? What’s your reason? Want to spend more time with your family? How about having more energy for a hobby?

It is important to recognize your why so that once you start simplifying, you continue to do it as an ongoing process. Keep your why firmly in mind whenever you are asked to participate in something, desire a new gadget, or are tempted to add any complication to your life… and then say “no.”

2. Track Your Time

Once you have a shortlist of 4 or 5 things that you want more of in your life, track how you spend your time for at least 72 hours. Write down everything from checking your email to running to the post office to rehearsing the key points to your presentation. Then go through that list and see how much of your time now is spent doing those important things.

You may be shocked to see how little there is, hence your interest in simplifying your life. Go through your list and start eliminating things that aren’t important to you so that you can free up time to do the things that make life enjoyable.

3. Simplify Your Clothing

Consider how much time and energy goes into deciding what to wear each day. Now, what could you be using that time and energy for? You might even go to the extreme and do what Steve Jobs did—buy identical shirts and pants for each day of the week… No decisions in the wardrobe department freed up his brain for other, more important decisions.

Keeping only a basic core wardrobe with classic styles and colors makes your closets and your mind less cluttered. I have clients in the healthcare field who found that dressing in scrubs was a smart and convenient decision.

4. Allow Whitespace in Your Planner

Time is our most precious commodity, so many of us pack in as much as we can to each day. We make our lives busier and less enjoyable than they could be by constantly underestimating how long it will take to complete tasks and by scheduling too many tasks in a day.

Start scheduling more time for each task or activity each day, allowing more whitespace in your planner. This will make rushing to an appointment, finishing work tasks at the last minute, and dining on fast food a rarity instead of a daily occurrence.

As a Life Coach, I am sometimes psychologically drained after a tough session. I ensure that I block the “self-restoration” time of fifteen minutes between sessions.

5. Schedule “You” Time

Until you get more comfortable saying “no” to obligations and people and events you don’t enjoy, you may need to schedule time for yourself each week. For example, sign up for that Peloton class you’ve been putting off, and then when someone asks you to stay late at work or attend a function you wouldn’t enjoy, tell them you already have a commitment. They don’t need to know that it’s to yourself!

6. Organize Your Digital Life

Do you have several places where you store your computer files? Do you have years’ worth of documents that are now meaningless? Are you spending precious time searching for a document you know you have somewhere but can’t find?

While having the ability to go paperless is awesome, our computer files can become a muddled mess quickly. Go through each folder on your hard drive, clouds, and jump drives and delete anything that you no longer need. Then, organize what’s left, making sure to rename documents so they are easy to find later.

7. Outsource

Many brothers have trouble paying someone else to do stuff they know they could do themselves. But at what cost? Do you want to spend all your weekend downtime cleaning your gutters and landscaping your yard (unless that’s your “escape”)? What about doing housework and shopping? Your time is valuable, so take a brave step and look into finding someone who can take over some of these tasks that suck up your time and you hate or aren’t good at.

It’s easier than ever to find low-cost solutions online through places like Craigslist and Task Rabbit. If, like me, you are online for most of your business, consider hiring from Upwork or Fiverr, a support person for mundane tasks or expertise beyond your "wheelhouse."

8. Check Emails Only Twice a Day

Unless you are waiting for an important email from someone, keep your email closed. Check it only twice a day, at specific times. And don’t check it first thing in the morning. This will take some getting used to because we are so addicted to it, and we wonder what we are missing if we don’t peek. But resist! You’ll be amazed at how much time and energy you save each day. What will you do with yours?

Here’s my bonus coaching tip: check emails when your energy or mind is not at its higher levels, e.g., immediately before your mid-morning coffee break, after lunch, or just before the closing of your business day.

9. Plan Your Day the Night Before

You can do this in many ways. Some ideas include laying out your clothes, making your lunch, and typing or writing down your to-do tasks and meetings in your planner all before bed. Mornings tend to be hectic for everyone, and it seems like unexpected things happen then, too (you hit snooze one too many times, or there is a backup on the highway). Knowing you have everything in place for the next day can help you sleep better and have more peaceful mornings.

10. Downsize Your Stuff

You might not be up for downsizing your house or car yet, but how about these things: a storage unit, wallet, suitcases, glove box, car trunk, and collections in your garage, and desk drawers?

We keep around so much stuff we don’t need! Am I telling on myself here? It’s been scientifically proven that the less room we have, like storage, the less stuff we buy or hang onto. So start small—get a smaller wallet, pouch, or messenger bag or and only carry the bare essentials.

Fellas, simplifying your life is not just about reducing clutter; it's about reclaiming your time and energy for the things that truly matter. Start implementing these changes today to achieve a better work-life integration. Track your time, simplify your physical environment, and schedule "you" time to see immediate improvements.

Remember, your time is valuable, and simplifying your life can lead to greater happiness, fulfillment, and quality living.

Take this quick self-assessment to learn how you fare with your work-life integration:

🔗 Work-Life Balance Self Assessment

For weekly tips and insights on improving your midlife experiences professionally and personally, listen to my weekly podcast, Midlife Revolution Unleashed, on your favorite podcast channel.