My life feels a whole lot easier than it did a year ago. (I mean, look at me – smiling, surrounded with white space…I had all the time in the world to pose for this great photo.)

Like most wide-spread change it’s an ensemble of little things that has created Big Ease for me. My life is fuller, more demanding, and the stakes are higher than ever. But I managed to make things easier even as they got more complicated. I simply had to if I was going to thrive. Sanity. It’s a beautiful thing.

Easy living really gets down to this:
1. Prioritizing pleasure and desire. Out of what needs to be done, what do you do best? (”Best” has to include what’s best for you. Sometimes we’re great at things that don’t give us joy.) This question is so important I just have to repeat it: Out of what needs to be done, what do you do best?
2. Creating space - both physical and mental.
3. Relieving pressure. If something (or someone) is creating resentment and constant annoyance – put a stop to it.

A note about money and ease: some the things I do in my life to make things easier cost money – a house cleaner, organic meat and veggies, an extra power cord or two – it ALWAYS proves to be worth it. I save on gas, stress, and as importantly, time to do things that make me happy and prosperous in every way. Investing in my joy always has the greatest, most lasting return.

19 Things I Did This Year That Created Significant Ease. And That You Can Do, Pronto…

PUT YOURSELF AT THE TOP OF THE LIST
1. Pay yourself first. How do you spell happiness for an entrepreneur?: getting on your own payroll. After three years of doing what needed to be done to get the company off the ground (credit cards, taking turns getting paid, having another “simple” Christmas,) Carrie and I finally committed to a paying ourselves properly.
2. Commit to your creativity. I started writing from home two days a week. To be clear, I LOVE the days I’m in the studio with the team. I can’t wait to get in in the morning. And, I need to give myself the best conditions in which to…do what I do best, out of what most needs to be done.
3. Stop lugging stuff around – double up on tools if you have to. I was always forgetting some essential gadget somewhere and being stranded. I have two sets of power cords, mice, earphones, and make up kits: one for home/travel, one for the studio.

HAVE IT DELIVERED
4. Get a food delivery service. Every Thursday night the food dude drops off a Rubbermaid container with an assortment of organic veggies, milk and other yummers. Those high pressure grocery store stops on the way home that drove me nuts – no more.
5. Arrange for direct deposits and automatic payments. I’ve gone into my bank only once this year (no looking for parking or waiting in line.) We auto-pay utility bills with an air mile-earning credit card and write one or two cheques a month to the credit card.
6. Get a Blackberry. No more setting my laptop up at midnight to send that email I forgot about. Most of what I need can come and go from my hand held. Beautiful.
7. Send gifts through Amazon. Every one I know had a baby this year. I sent them all kids books directly through Amazon (you can fill out a gift card that is included with your order.) I give them the personal-more-lovey prezzies when I see them in person (and know better what they really need.)
8. Get DVDs by mail. Now THIS changed my life. No more, “We have to watch this movie tonight,” pressure for the sake of the $5 rental fee. And no more late fees! [Since I live in Canada, I deal with ||!prliignore3||. Their site sucks, but this service is good. In the US, try ||!prliignore4||.]

RELY ON OTHERS
9. Team with experts. Carrie and I brought a CEO on board in March. We had plenty of vision but needed someone with specific expertise and skill to ground it. Making room for another perspective can be revolutionary.
10. Get a housekeeper. I found a great (likes-what-she-does) cleaner on Craigslist. The sanity and ease she creates for me (to be with my family, to get an extra article written) makes the $75/house clean money so well spent.
11. Give people a chance to rise to the occasion. My kid can dress himself now (rubber boots and surf shorts look great together!) Staff can figure most things out on their own (a few mistakes on the way are useful.)

CUT IT OUT
12. Unsubscribe quickly. I started going out of my way to unsubscribe from unwanted email. Rather than just hitting delete, I’d go through the steps (too many steps too often) to keep my inbox squeaky clean.
13. Minimize stuff. I got an iPod and a portable, battery-charged speaker system that I bring from room to room (and to the beach.) I then gave away two large stereo systems, a boom box, and a huge bookcase that held my hundreds of CDs – which I “indefinitely loaned” to friends. We also sold the over-stuffed furniture in our small living room and replaced it with streamlined Danish stuff. Room to breathe!
14. Insist on good service. I left my “socially responsible” credit union because I could never get a human on the phone (not very, uh social.) I now deal with the big old boys bank, that goes out of the way to meet my needs. And as much as I loved her as a person, I broke up with my hairdresser. She kept me waiting every time, was never prepared with the right materials, and didn’t offer me tea.
15. If you can see busy times coming, plan to do less, not accommodate more. There was no way I’d be able to maintain my usual reading consumption while on a book tour for Style Statement, still giving private Style Statement sessions, and launching the new site. So I actually committed to NOT read books for the first half of the year. I also gave myself permission to be late with returning phone calls for six months. Again, big pressure relief.

DO MORE OF THE VERY IMPORTANT THINGS YOUR SELF
16. Stay in touch. This may sound counter intuitive to lightening your load, but I created more ease by taking on more of what matters most in our business: communication inflow. I see every single email and comment that comes into the general box at Carrie & Danielle. I used to have this job assigned to our studio manager. Now that I see everything, I have a broader perspective on what’s happening what needs to be done.
17. Plan ahead for birthdays and important occasions. It’s really important to me celebrate people’s birthdays. This may sound unromantic and regimented, but it worked for me: at the beginning of the year I made monthly birthday folders, with the names of who had a birthday that month. I made my own cards (super simple – meaningful words on delicious Italian, card stock) and even addressed the envelopes. At the beginning of each month, I write my message inside and pop it in the mail. Even if I want to send a gift (which I usually don’t have ready on time,) I don’t wait to have it all together – I just get the card in the mail.

TRUST
18. Trust your feelings. For the most part, I am a take-no-shit kind of girl, but I took it up a notch this year and decided to tie up some loose ends and deal with more things head on. It’s not always easy, but confrontation can be profoundly efficient.
19. Trust in the present and let the future be. For me, focusing less on the future is a result of some hard knocks (guess what? things don’t always turn out the way you want them to!) and my abiding commitment to give my absolute best every single day – it makes for a very deep satisfaction with the present moment.

Say yes to what you love. No to the annoyances. And make space for it all to flow.