Simplification: The Best Way to Reduce Overwhelm

What if the thing making you feel overwhelmed isn't that you're bad at managing your time?

What if you just have too much on your plate?

I know. Revolutionary.

In this episode, I'm talking with Kayse Pratt of Anchored Women about something both of us have had to wrestle with: simplification.

Kayse recently made a pretty dramatic change in her business. After 16 years of creating digital products, she found herself with 223 different products. And here's the kicker: the business whose entire mission was to help people simplify had created a product line that was actually making things more complicated.

So Kayse did something that is not easy to do.

She cut it down to four.

And that decision got us talking about what happens when we look at our own lives and realize we've done the exact same thing.

We've added good thing after good thing until our lives are completely packed.

And then we wonder why we're exhausted.

As homeschool moms, this can happen especially easily. We aren't just educating our kids. We're managing the house, feeding everybody, running people to activities, keeping up with relationships, serving at church, working jobs, and trying to maintain some semblance of spiritual life somewhere in the middle of all of it.

So how do we know what needs to stay?

And what are we actually allowed to let go?

Kayse and I talk honestly about the difficulty of simplifying, why we sometimes have to "hit the wall" before we're willing to change, and what it looks like to trust God with the things we can't control.

We also get very practical.

We're talking about making decisions once instead of over and over again, using a Top Three list, simplifying meals, creating family rhythms, and recognizing that homeschool absolutely counts as one of the things taking up your time and energy.

Because simplifying isn't about becoming more efficient so you can cram even MORE into your day.

It's about making room for the things that actually matter.

In this episode, you'll learn:

• Why adding good things can still leave you with an unsustainable life
• How Kayse decided to cut Anchored Women from 223 products down to just four
• Why simplifying can be painful before it becomes life-giving
• How to recognize when you're approaching the point where something needs to change
• Why homeschool belongs on your list of actual time and energy commitments
• How making decisions once can dramatically reduce daily decision fatigue
• How to use a simple Top Three system without pretending you have unlimited capacity
• Why simple family rhythms can actually help your kids feel more secure
• How to simplify meals without creating another complicated system
• Why we sometimes need to let go of good things to make room for better things
• How pride and our desire for control can keep us from simplifying
• What Psalm 23 has taught Kayse about trusting God instead of trying to make everything happen ourselves
• Why simplification isn't necessarily permanent—sometimes we're in a season of cutting back, and sometimes we're in a season of growth

Mentioned in This Episode:

• Elevate--Support for the homeschool mom
• Anchored Women (planning resources + community)
• The Steadfast Over Scattered Planner
• Brain Dump and prioritize FREE Download