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I don't soak my aligners at all. When I take them out to eat I always clean them afterwards with a toothbrush and paste, and brush and floss my teeth...but that's it. It seemed like a real hassle at first but now I'm so used to it that I don't even think about it. It's definitely easier if you cut down on snacking, too - I try to ensure I don't take my aligners out more than 4 times a day (3 meals, plus morning coffee - that's one thing I can't live without.)
I try to be really good about keeping them in for the recommended time. I've missed it once or twice, but never by more than a couple of hours. I've paid a lot of money for this treatment, but more than that - I really want it to work. When I first started Invisalign the lifestyle adjustments did seem really overwhelming, but I made a conscious decision that I had committed to this and I would have to find a way to live with them. The funny thing is that by about aligner 3, I'd stopped even thinking about those things that seemed so overwhelming at the beginning. If you make something a routine, it becomes something you don't even have to think about.
I hope this advice helps. Invisalign definitely requires a degree of self-discipline that isn't required for metal braces, because you don't have that option of just popping them out when they get overwhelming. But the payoffs - the fact that no-one notices them, the ability to take them out to eat, the improved oral hygiene - are enormous.
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