Have you heard of autopiloting before? I see autopiloting as essentially the non-negotiable, no thinking decisions of your day that don’t require being fully present. The less small decisions we have to make every day, the better. This is because using autopiloting helps to free up our mental space for more pressing things. It also can give space for what matters most for us. Today on the blog, I’m sharing about how autopiloting your home life can be a good thing.

How Autopiloting Your Home Life Can be a Good Thing

What is autopiloting? According to a blog on mindfulnessmuse.com:

In “Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy,” Crane explains that “the term ‘automatic pilot’ describes a state of mind in which one acts without conscious intention or awareness of present-moment sensory perception.”

How many decisions do you make each day? 35 000. “It’s estimated that the average adult makes about 35 000 remotely conscious decisions each day.” Holy guacamole, right? Making decisions takes up a huge amount of mental space, so when this (aka me) recovering over-complicator realized this, I really tried to simplify things in my life and our home. And. One simple time management and planning strategy I use to do this on the regular to slash that 35Kish is, you guessed it: autopiloting.

Examples of autopiloting your home life

TIDYING + CLEANING

  • Laundry routine: where dirty laundry goes, where it stays when I don’t have time to put it away with the kids (we use laundry baskets similar to these).
  • Cleaning routine for when I do daily cleaning tasks. I pick 1-3 tasks a day usually, pulling from my master task cleaning list.
  • We almost always clean up the kitchen after eating unless we have to run. In general, one person sweeps, one wipes the surfaces, one or more deal with dishes.

A picture of a dust pan and broom.

We have tons of things like this during our day to simplify. It’s always those tasks that don’t really need much thought.

FREE AUTOPILOTING IDEAS FOR YOUR HOME LIFE

If you enjoyed this blog and think that autopiloting could be a good thing for your home life too, you may find my autopiloting freebie helpful. I share about all of the things I’ ve autopiloted that have made my life and home simpler. I give 23 examples from my life plus 10 bonus ideas for you to autopilot your home life. You can snag that freebie HERE.

A picture of rolled up towels.

Benefits of autopiloting your home life

Autopiloting can be a useful strategy to use in our home lives. It can save time and brain space. It can help create smoother rhythms to our days. But, as with most things in life, it’s good to check in to make sure things are running as they should be.
It’s important to check in periodically with ourselves to see if the things we have on autopilot are still working for us and are aligned with our values. Check my blog on How to Discover Your Values here.

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A picture of a door mat with the words "home" on it.

Hi, I’m Kelly! I’m a mother of four children - three boys, one toddler girl - and our family lives on the beautiful east coast of Canada. I’m a past elementary teacher, turned stay at home, work at home mom eight years ago after I had my second child. I’ve found that the busier I’ve become and as my children age, that it’s become even more important to figure out what is most important to me and us as a family. Living a simpler lifestyle has helped us in so many ways in our home life - from better routines to faster tidying up times. It has been through my children that I have been inspired to learn how to effectively manage my time and to simplify in all areas of my home and life. I enjoy helping busy moms simplify home life by teaching flexible planning methods and skills. Enjoyed this blog and think it would be helpful to others? I'd love if you shared it. Thank you!