1. Do less. Everything that is on my list because it is a "should" and not a "need" or a "want" goes. Reassess periodically.
2. Lower standards. Guess what? If the house doesn't get picked up before bed every night . . . [drum roll, please] . . . the house is still standing in the morning! If the flower beds don't get weeded, guess my home will never be in House & Garden. Oh well.
Note that I am not saying live in a pigsty and do nothing. The point is to challenge your expectations and put your energy toward the things you actually care about and learn to ignore the stuff that you're putting up with only because you think you should. So if a messy house makes you feel antsy, by all means, pick up everything and emphasize training your people to put everything away. OTOH, if you really don't care, do what I do and maintain a basic level of picked-upped-ness, and then do a whole house sweep every two weeks the night before the cleaning person comes.
3. Read Malkynn's post on that earlier thread. My most powerful energy-saving choice was the decision to do less. I was incredibly inefficient at work, always putzing on the internet, and I finally realized that it was because I'm an introvert, and when I'm home, I'm always "on," and work was the only place I felt like I could close the door and play mental hooky for a while. That's when I let go of a lot of the crap I thought mattered and scheduled in time at night to sit and run the clicker or read a book; my body and brain were going to claim that downtime no matter what I did, so I tried to give it a time and a place to do so that wasn't fucking with my job so much. It wasn't "productive" -- just necessary.
4. One kid activity at a time.
5. Full use of modern technology. I use the Wegmans app to track my grocery list, even when I don't always shop there. I have basics on Amazon Subscribe & Save. DH and I both have Outlook at work, so we send each other calendar appointments for all of the kid stuff that needs to get done (or even just a placeholder to make some decision). We pay with credit cards as much as possible, and have those accounts tied in to Quicken; that way, we don't have to enter every single transaction all the time but can check and reconcile whenever we feel like it. All investments are automatically withdrawn, and we adjust the amounts as necessary around the beginning of the year when we get raises/bonuses. (Seriously, for someone who spent @45 years terrified of being poor, I spend so little time now actually looking at my money it's ridiculous). We all use Bank of America, Southwest, and Marriott, so banking/travel stuff is all in one place, I can deposit checks and transfer money without needing to go anywhere, and we have everyone's account linked together or with shared passwords so we can move money or make reservations for the family as needed (and we also have the SW and Marriott CCs entered into our accounts so we get the bonus points and can use them without having to pull out and re-enter the cards every time).
I think the way I would sum all those things up is that I do not feel compelled to optimize every decision. I could save a little money here and there by comparing every purchase between Amazon/Costco/Wegmans/ALDI and shopping at multiple places every week for my groceries; I could probably get a lot more CC rewards by juggling a whole bunch of different card bonuses; etc. But every one of those options has a hidden cost in the extra time and energy it takes to accomplish it. So I weigh the benefits against the costs and find some happy medium -- the knee of the curve -- that gets me the most of what I want for as little extra effort as possible.
6. Gym and therapy. Unlike others, I have a 4:30 class a few days a week that I adore and that keeps me coming back. I am not a morning person, so the early class feels like drudgery, while the late class feels like a reward for getting through the day -- and also provides a nice structure to the day that I plan my work around to the extent possible (I find I am much more productive when I know I need to leave by 4 than when I could theoretically stay at work forever and just tell DH to make some hot dogs). I also prioritize seeing my therapist and don't feel guilty at all when I need to take time off work to do that.
6. Go part-time. I have been anywhere between 60-100% since I had kids. I was at 100%, but thanks to my fun time with depression and my DD leaving home and all, I dropped down to 70% a year ago and am now at 60%. I do not like logistics and find them very stressful, so I needed more time with less "stuff" so I could tackle what I needed to while maintaining my sanity and a reasonably happy daily life.
I do menu plan as possible, but I largely do that for health and family happiness reasons -- I'm always happy to eat leftovers or scrounge, but that can lead to some poor choices on my part* and leaves my family bored and frustrated (I cook, DH cleans). I also then cook/pre-cook much of the week's meals on Sunday while I'm watching football. It's definitely a time-saver when I'm in the mood. But I'm not always in the mood, so sometimes that becomes another "should" that goes by the wayside temporarily.
*I am sort of in training -- heavy lifting, but trying to drop some weight as well -- which means I need tons of lean protein. So whipping out some pasta and butter, while a personal fave, is not going to help me achieve my bigger goals.
