Keep It Simple, Single: How to Make Task Completion Easier for Busy Singles
Ever feel like life’s just a little too complicated? Well, I’m here to tell you that keeping it simple might just be the secret sauce we're all searching for. In this episode, we dive into the idea that simplifying our routines can actually lead to a much better quality of life. I’ll share my own struggles with meal prep as a single person and how I turned it from a Sunday marathon into a quick grocery run followed by some smart shortcuts. From grabbing frozen veggies to picking up a rotisserie chicken, it's all about making life easier so we can save time and energy for the things we actually enjoy. So, if you’re ready to lighten your load and find some joy in simplicity, stick around and let’s get into it!
Keeping it simple can lead to a more fulfilling single life, and that's what we dove into during our latest chat. I kicked things off by sharing how my perfectionist tendencies often lead me into the rabbit hole of overthinking, especially when it comes to meal prepping. You know the drill: spend hours on Sunday cooking, shopping, and trying to make everything just right—only to end up exhausted and not really enjoying any of it. So, I had this lightbulb moment: what if I just simplified things? Enter my new motto: 'Keep it simple, single.' Instead of dedicating my entire weekend to grocery shopping and meal prep, I started doing quick grocery runs right after my walking club. This approach not only saves me time but also cuts down on stress. I get my meals ready in under an hour, and trust me, my sanity is grateful for it!
Takeaways:
- Keeping things simple can significantly reduce stress and make life easier for singles.
- Meal prepping doesn't have to consume your entire Sunday; quick grocery trips work wonders.
- Finding efficient ways to manage daily tasks can free up valuable time and energy.
- Simplifying your to-do list can increase productivity and lower morning anxiety for singles.
- Using pre-cooked meals and frozen veggies can save both time and money while eating healthy.
- It's all about finding what works best for you and simplifying routines to enhance overall well-being.
Transcript
How can making things simpler make them better?
Speaker A:Welcome to another episode of All About Being Single.
Speaker A:I'm your host, Violeta.
Speaker A:Happy Tuesday.
Speaker A:Or I guess whenever you're listening.
Speaker A:So lately what's been on my mind, and this is another single shorty, is how I constantly want to make things better.
Speaker A:And a part of me is pretty perfectionistic.
Speaker A:So then I constantly want to make things better to the point of like having analysis paralysis and because the part of me that's perfectionistic is just trying to get the job done the best way that I know how and it prevents me from doing anything at all sometimes.
Speaker A:And so lately I realized that sometimes if we make things simpler, that's actually what makes them better as a result.
Speaker A:So basically my new motto is keep it simple, single.
Speaker A:So my biggest struggle lately as a single person is making, doing meal prep essentially.
Speaker A:So like making food for myself and I'm so busy and obviously I know you as a single person, you know you're the only person doing everything that you're doing in your life.
Speaker A:And I just feel like I'm so busy I have the podcast now.
Speaker A:And so I just realized a few weeks ago what I started doing is a great example of this whole keep it simple, simple, single.
Speaker A:Because I instead of spending so many hours on a Sunday, like half my day, if not more so, doing grocery shopping and then doing all the meal prepping and putting everything away and just spending hours cooking this thing in the oven, this thing in the air fryer, just all the nonsense that comes with meal prepping.
Speaker A:I started just going to the grocery store after my walking club, my single and social walking club.
Speaker A:So by the way, if you're single and you live out in the suburbs, the Chicago land suburbs, I would love to have you join us every Sunday, 9:15am Downtown Naperville.
Speaker A:DM me if you have any questions.
Speaker A:But anyhow, so after the walking club on Sundays I go straight to the grocery store today actually cuz I'm filming this right after the walking club I actually had ordered stuff so I did a pickup order and so that was ready for me when I got there.
Speaker A:So I didn't even have to step food in the store.
Speaker A:But basically what I get is a lot of frozen veggies which actually more nutritional value when they're frozen, right when they're at the ripest basically.
Speaker A:So something you might not have known.
Speaker A:And I get a rotisserie chicken that I just shred up once I get home and like put into little containers.
Speaker A:I usually get like a milk for my Coffees that I make.
Speaker A:I usually get an almond milk for my overnight oats, which I have as a snack in the afternoon.
Speaker A:Sometimes I'll have like a yogurt with chia seeds and some fruit or granola.
Speaker A:So it depends on like what I'm feeling.
Speaker A:Like this time around I'm trying to use up some of the overnight oats that I have.
Speaker A:And what I do is literally just so simple again, so simple.
Speaker A:And just get home, get the chicken again, distribute everything.
Speaker A:I mean, it literally takes me under an hour today.
Speaker A:Honestly, it took me under an hour even including picking up the food.
Speaker A:And even if I had gone in to shop, I still think it wouldn't have taken me that much longer because I have these very few things that I get.
Speaker A:But yeah, it's like I'm obviously running all my errands during the weekend because I'm too tired after work to go do much.
Speaker A:I mean, I do some errand running after work sometimes or before work.
Speaker A:So that's not to say I don't do that.
Speaker A:But usually in my evenings, like I just want to hang out with my cat, I want to just go on my phone, watch a podcast or whatever I want to do.
Speaker A:And again, as a single, I know, you know, it's like we have to do everything.
Speaker A:And especially with this economy, everything costs so much.
Speaker A:So I think with regular meal prepping like you, you almost kind of have to in a sense meal prep as a single person because if you don't, you're wasting a lot of food and you're wasting a lot of money and this.
Speaker A:And in this economy that's almost impossible because as you know, a lot of things common item in like bulk basically, which works out for families that are bigger than just one person.
Speaker A:But for us it's like again, if you're the only person paying for your bills, like you don't have somebody else splitting the mortgage or the rent with you, it's a lot of money and just groceries just keep adding up.
Speaker A:I used to make like rice all the time again when I would do meal prepping.
Speaker A:But now I just get like the one minute rice with like quinoa, pop it in the microwave for a minute and it's done.
Speaker A:And I bring that to work or I make it here when I'm working from home.
Speaker A:Done.
Speaker A:And sometimes depending on what store I go to, like Mariano's by my house for example has like already pre cooked salmon that's super good.
Speaker A:And they also have like some mashed potatoes.
Speaker A:So sometimes I just pick that up and then grab again a frozen veggie to like complement it.
Speaker A:Or quite often they have like this really good salsa that I think goes well with that meal that I just eat as kind of a side.
Speaker A:But yeah, like I said, it takes me about an hour.
Speaker A:And like, literally all of my lunches and dinners are made.
Speaker A:This is also my way of making it simple.
Speaker A:My breakfast is literally just two eggs and half an avocado.
Speaker A:So I make that just in the morning.
Speaker A:So I don't prep that.
Speaker A:You know, in a few months I might decide I want to do something else for breakfast.
Speaker A:But for now, that is perfectly fine.
Speaker A:But overall, like, again, the whole point is it is so difficult for us singles to find the time to do it all.
Speaker A:We are taking care of a house by ourselves a lot of times or wherever it is that we live.
Speaker A:Obviously have to do our grocery shopping, we have to do our laundry, we have to go to work.
Speaker A:We want to have time for, like, hobbies and whatnot, because we don't have that built support system back at home where we live, especially if you live by yourself.
Speaker A:And this just works so well because instead of spending so much of the only two days that I have strictly to myself and to what I want to do, and spending literally half of a Sunday just doing that, this literally just frees up so much of my time.
Speaker A:It frees up so much of my energy that I would have spent doing this.
Speaker A:Instead of having to cook, you know, touch the raw chicken, cook it.
Speaker A:I literally just buy the rotisserie chicken, which was like between seven and $8, sometimes $6, depending on where you get it.
Speaker A:And it tastes so freaking good.
Speaker A:It's so good.
Speaker A:It's so much cheaper than the amount of time I would spend.
Speaker A:The bills that I would be spending by cooking it in the oven.
Speaker A:It's literally cheaper to just pick up the rotisserie chicken.
Speaker A:So, yeah, let me tell you, it's like the levels of stress, my levels of stress have been lowered just by doing this simpler meal prep.
Speaker A:So to say I have more energy to do other things because I'm not spending again a half a fucking Sunday doing the meal prepping.
Speaker A:So the time that I get back and the price tag on these items isn't even that bad.
Speaker A:They're all pre made very cheap, delicious, and nutritious.
Speaker A:So that's what I do for, like most of the meals during the week.
Speaker A:And then what I also do is once during that week, I go out, take myself out to some kind of a restaurant where I can take the leftovers home.
Speaker A:For example, the last couple weekends, it's been Olive Garden.
Speaker A:So I take myself out, which is another additional benefit.
Speaker A:I take myself out of the house, I go to Olive Garden, sit at the bar, order my food, which is also super cheap, bring it back home, and I literally have leftovers for the next three to four days.
Speaker A:And so I'm not only saving money, but I made the whole process as simple and efficient and just so much better by simplifying it versus trying to be, like, this perfect person who makes.
Speaker A:Who does the meal prepping every single Sunday and spend all of that time doing that.
Speaker A:I literally feel so much lighter.
Speaker A:I'm still getting nutritious food.
Speaker A:And because I don't enjoy cooking that much, I have all that energy to spend on things I do actually enjoy doing.
Speaker A:Okay, so the note to sell for this week is what's something that you struggle with keeping up with as a single that you think you could make into a more simpler process?
Speaker A:And so our glow up then is based on whatever you, Whatever you're struggling with, take that task, that activity, that to do list, whatever it is that you're struggling and keeping up with, and actually take an action at least once this week towards simplifying that.
Speaker A:Even if it's just writing down how you're going to simplify it, it doesn't have to actually be you actually going out and simplifying it.
Speaker A:But that would obviously be better.
Speaker A:But if you just figure, okay, I can probably.
Speaker A:For example, another thing I'm trying to simplify is how I work on my, like, my to do list for the day.
Speaker A:What I tended to do so much of is I would.
Speaker A:In the very mornings, once I get my coffee, I would go on my phone because I use, like, the to do list from.
Speaker A:I think it's like a Microsoft app.
Speaker A:And I would write down that whole to do list that I have.
Speaker A:And usually I just kind of write stuff in there throughout the week.
Speaker A:If I'm like, okay, I can't do this today.
Speaker A:I'm going to plop that in for, like, maybe Tuesday, I keep adding stuff to it.
Speaker A:And then in the mornings, I would sit down and I would look at that list and I would organize it and just jot things down that I can do that day.
Speaker A:But I found that because I was spending so much time and energy just doing that in the morning, I would be less productive throughout the day.
Speaker A:So something that I started literally just last week is the night before.
Speaker A:So once my day's ending at, like, 5:30ish, 6:00 clock, I go through that whole list and then I write it down for the following day and I just clean it up.
Speaker A:I figure out what my main tasks are.
Speaker A:So this way I'm better equipped with handling the following day and I can just pick up in the very morning versus spending all spending so much energy on cleaning up the list first thing in the morning.
Speaker A:So I'm sure there's something that you can find and I hope, I hope you find it and I hope you can start working on that.
Speaker A:I would really appreciate if you could please share this episode with a friend right now.
Speaker A:So take about 20 seconds.
Speaker A:Just share it with anybody that you know who is a single who might benefit from this.
Speaker A:And throughout the week, as you're working on your Glow Up Activity voice, note us and let us know how it's going so that we can get some ideas on how we can simplify our single lives even more.
Speaker A:That's it for today.
Speaker A:Again, keep it simple.
Speaker A:Single.
Speaker A:I hope you enjoyed this episode.
Speaker A:Thank you so much for listening as always.
Speaker A:If you have any suggestions for how to improve this podcast, please let me know.
Speaker A:And always remember, even if we're late, we're right on time.
Speaker A:I'll talk to you next time.
Speaker A:Tuesday.
