Lifestyle and Productivity Methods That Reduce Stress

A disorganized home, your email inbox, or online security may not be the first things that come to mind when pinpointing what stresses you out.

But some stressors aren’t always so obvious.

• There is proof that clutter causes anxiety.

• According to Psychology Today, “Email is one of the most common triggers for social anxiety and productivity-related anxiety.”

• CPO Magazine claims that “anxiety is up regarding online security” due to more account hackings and large scale security breaches.

The following methods help me tackle the above stressors on a daily basis, allowing me to effectively remove unneeded stress in my life. I hope you find them useful, too!

The KonMari Method

How it reduces stress: Getting rid of physical clutter allows you to be at peace with your surroundings. It will also motivate you to pursue what you’ve always wanted in life.

You may be familiar with the KonMari method if you watch “Tidying Up with Marie Kondo” on Netflix.

For those who don’t know: Marie Kondo is the top-rated organizational expert in Japan. Her claim to fame is that every client she’s worked with has kept their homes tidy. No one has fallen off the wagon with her methods.

The main premise of her system is to keep things around you that “spark joy”. If something doesn’t make you happy, get rid of it.

You can watch the entire season of her show to get a good idea of what her method entails. But I highly recommend reading the book she wrote that started it all: “The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up”.

Marie didn’t lie to me – she really changed my life. I can’t remember the name of my friends’ second kid, but I DO remember the majority of the KonMari method. And I read the book a year ago.

I continue to apply many of her concepts to my every day life – not just to my home, but to my email inbox (more on that shortly) and whenever I pack a suitcase.

With the KonMari method, I don’t feel as stressed because having less things makes cleaning a lot easier. By spending less time cleaning, I spend more time on activities I love.

Her organization tactics ensure that I am able to see everything I own. This makes me less likely to lose anything. Also, when everything is organized, my space is visually pleasing, allowing me to feel more relaxed.

Being mindful of what I own is also useful in saving money. I am less likely to waste money by buying duplicate or similar looking items. I also consider whether a new purchase will really make me happy, and the environmental impact it causes if I throw it away.

Living within my means is a more achievable goal when I look at life through this lens. Hooray for less credit card debt! Now, if only I could give up wine…

Inbox Zero

How it reduces stress: Opening every email and responding to those that require action will make you feel accomplished.

You either love or hate email. I’m in the latter group. (And yes, I do see the irony of me saying this as I just wrote a post that promotes email newsletters.)

I find email anxiety-inducing. When I arrive at work in the morning and see my inbox overflowing with new emails, I get the impression that I have a ton of things to deal with. I easily feel overwhelmed and want to shut down.

Once upon a time, I was one of those people who literally had 14,000 unread emails in my inbox. It spiraled out of control because I was so obsessed with my job, that I didn’t feel the need to pay attention to my personal inbox. If you wanted my attention, you had to email me at work.

After leaving that job and seeing that ridiculous number in red on my iPhone screen, I knew it was time to address it. After hearing about Inbox Zero, I gave it a try.

For those who are unfamiliar, the basic premise is to treat your inbox as a to-do list.

If there is an email you want to keep, archive it, instead of leaving it in your inbox. If an item is in your inbox, it requires an action; once you’ve completed that action, you can archive it and move on.

Ideally, you would act on every email that requires a response, and at the end of the day you would have 0 emails in your inbox.

Admittedly, I rarely reach inbox zero on a daily basis. Still, applying this concept keeps my inbox manageable, with only a handful of unopened emails and the dread of opening my email minimized.

To tie in the KonMari Method, in order to keep my inbox tidy, the unsubscribe link is my friend. Unsubscribing to any promotional email lists I don’t care about reduces email clutter. Instead of wasting time deleting emails I’ll never read, I spend more time reading the ones I care about.

1Password

How it reduces stress: Using a password manager allows you to create strong passwords for all your online accounts. Storing all passwords in a secure place keeps you protected online.

According to 1Password, I have 80 accounts that require a login and a password.

Do I want to remember 80 logins and passwords? Absolutely not! And whenever a company experiences a security breach (which seems to be more often than not) I have to create a strong, new password for one of those accounts. This can be stressful if I’ve run out of creative password ideas.

Password managers make this whole process easier by generating strong, random passwords on your behalf. You can even choose the amount of characters and include symbols if a website requires it.

The desktop and mobile app make it really easy to login to anything – you can even skip the copy/paste step!

With all my important login details in one place, it’s easier to get things done because I am never locked out due to an incorrect login.

Don’t sweat the small stuff

At their core, the KonMari method, Inbox Zero, and 1Password are lifestyle and productivity hacks to make you more efficient. But to me, these methods really help me reduce stress in my every day life.

Know of any other methods that indirectly reduces stress? I’d love to know about it!