You’ve read the book, Relax And Unwind by Spencer Coffman, now it’s time to start putting those tips and tricks into action. It’s time to start organizing, decluttering, and generally taking control of your life!

To do that, you’re going to need to remember everything you’ve learned and put it into action. That’s where the Relax And Unwind Checklist will come in handy. Work through this selection, and you should be a lot closer to achieving the kind of lifestyle you want and gaining the kind of calm and peace that is so elusive in the modern age.

Of course, this is only a checklist. You’ll still need to read through the full book if you want to be as productive as you can possibly be. Anyway, here is the Relax And Unwind Checklist.

Assess Your Life
Step one is to assess your life as it currently is. Be honest with yourself and appraise things that could be better.

• Look at what is taking up the most of your time and energy
• Make a note of failures you’ve made in the past that are taking up your time
• Assess the main things that are causing you stress
• Identify your goals and the things you want to achieve
• Look at what makes you happiest and what you want to do more of

Start to Prioritize
Now that you know what you want to do less of, and what you want to do more of. It’s time to prioritize and ensure that it happens!

• Cut out toxic people from your life. You don’t have time for people who don’t make you happy!
• Learn to start saying ‘no’ to invitations that don’t interest you
• Add things you want to do to your calendar. Treat these dates as indelible!

Clear Space
If you want more time for yourself, then you need to create more ‘space’ in your life by removing stresses.

• Manage your energy. It is finite, exactly like your time
  • Reduce decision fatigue by making fewer unimportant decisions
  • Tidy your home and introduce systems that will help you keep it tidy
  • Throw out things you don’t need
  • Learn when your body is most tired and when it is most energetic
• Try to tire yourself out less with TV, phones, and other stimulating media that you don’t need
• Create a budget and get on top of your finances
• Come up with a morning and evening routine
  • Exercise in the morning
  • Read the paper
  • Meditate for 10 minutes (read below)
  • Give yourself time to come around
  • Pack for tomorrow the night before
  • Write a journal

All these things will help you to feel less drained and less pushed at the end of the day, so you will have more time to focus on what matters to you.

Improve Your Health
Start making an effort to take better care of yourself and try out a few of the following:

• Introduce exercise into your regime. It will improve your mood and energy levels
• Eat healthy, nutritious, foods that can boost your levels of serotonin and raise your mood
• Get more sleep
  • Create a dark environment
  • Have quiet time before bed
  • Forget your stresses
  • Use a daylight lamp to wake yourself as naturally as possible

Calm Your Mind
You’re clearing more space, giving yourself more focus, and ensuring you have lots of energy. But that doesn’t mean you can’t still feel stressed if you don’t learn to focus your mind.

• Focus on the things that make you happiest
  • Have a gratitude attitude. Make note of the things you’re grateful for
  • Learn to be in the moment and stop worrying about things that you can’t affect right now
  • Give your loved ones your full attention
• Practice meditation. This will teach you to better control your mind
• Learn CBT to remove negative thoughts
• Use positive affirmations
• If you struggle with meditation, try using meditative activities like reading, drawing, or going for walks
• Do more things that you are passionate about. They will naturally envelop your full attention

There’s much more to it than this, of course! However, this list is more than enough to put you on the right track and help you start living the life you want!

Good Luck!