woman doing yoga meditation on brown parquet flooring

With the New Year well under way and the new school/work routines back on the agenda, we start to reflect on the impact that busy-ness starts to make on our day to day lives, in contrast to the slower, more relaxed summer break.

Slow mornings and late breakfasts give way to alarm clocks and a rushed attempt at nutrition.

Late balmy nights with a relaxed grazing platter for dinner, preceded with a zesty g+t, or two have been replaced with evening routines of plated meals, a spot of laundry and hopefully some wind down time before bed.

We’re sorry to remind you, it is back to the real life. Work, eat and hopefully play somewhere in between.

So today we thought we would share some of our own life hacks in streamlining the norm, in a hope to provide you with a little more space to relax and in turn, find calm amongst the storm.

  1. Cook up a storm and freeze it! This is one of our favourite timesaving hacks. Think delicious veggie curries, vegan bolognese or even your favourite burger recipe. Invest wisely on your time in the kitchen and double, or even triple the batch, then freeze some for later. If you are a bulk food buyer, this makes even more sense – ensuring you’re putting more of those fresh ingredients to use when they are at their best. Then, when you return home from a long day at work and you’re considering spending big on takeaway, just remember that delicious curry in the freezer 🙂 You will thank your past self for being so organised when you are standing in your pjs warming your curry, in less time than it takes to drive to the store, order and wait for your expensive takeaway dinner.
  2. Put your essentials in the handiest cupboard. Take some time to assess your kitchen and wardrobe, can it be organised for maximum efficiency? …This is what it looks like at our house. All the ingredients we include in our smoothies are organised in jars, right next to the blender. Tea + Coffee, next to the kettle. Bread in the cupboard above the toaster. Sock drawers nearest the shoes…. get my drift? The amount of time we spend walking around our kitchen and re-organising back into cupboards is time we really could spend relaxing with our loved ones. It also provides the time to sit down and eat a healthy breakfast, consciously.
  3. Buy on subscription. Organic Produce, Toilet Paper, Dog Food and yes, your favourite skincare can all be organised by subscription to be delivered to your door on a regular basis, without ever needing to think about it! Whilst the timesaving factor is a bonus, we think biggest pro to buying on subscription is that we haven’t been caught short on life’s essentials since we started, even during the great loo paper drought of COVID! … and your wallet will be happy with the discounts that buying on subscription brings.
    For more info on organising your favourite Paudha Healing Deodorant + Skincare Products via subscription, click here!
  4. Turn off your social media notifications. Lets be real, social media has got to be one of our easiest distractions. If you are a person that drops everything to respond to a notification the moment it shows up on your tiny screen, take a moment to think about how that effects your productivity. Instead we suggest scheduling in your time to respond to social media. These may be set times during the day, say 8.30am, 11am, 2pm and 8pm or perhaps when you are doing certain tasks…such as when you are waiting for your kids at school pick up, on public transport, waiting for your morning coffee or even visiting the, errr lavatory (if you are that way inclined….no judgement here)! Bulking your responses to social media posts and that time vacuum called scrolling will mean you get your essential life tasks done more quickly, leaving you more time for those ‘distractions’.
  5. Don’t forget to meditate. It may seem odd adding a task to your schedule, rather than taking one away… however, did you know regular meditation actually supports you in increasing your focus? That’s right, it changes your brain to think more efficiently! This means that you have a stronger ability to execute tasks in a step by step, orderly and calm way. Here at Paudha we have found that we have a lot more clarity following a meditation, than not. So the time we didn’t think we could invest in ourselves for a meditation, actually super-charges us with the ability to work more efficiently, meaning the time is well invested in our well-being, as well as our productivity.