10 ways to make every day better.
It seems to be the theme of 2022, to steal other people’s ideas and make them my own. After reading the Guardian’s 100 ways to improve your life without really trying, I decided to have 10 ways to make every day better.
If you’re a coffee fan, buy an espresso maker. Or persuade your company to. It feels like a vacation to go into your own kitchen, or your work kitchen, at 2:30pm (Fika) and have a little espresso with some almond milk foam - preferably with someone else you can chat with - for a bit.
Start learning a language. If you took one in High School, I highly recommend getting Duolingo and starting that one up again. I’ve tried a few languages and I’m having the most fun picking French back up. It’s free, it helps your brain, you’ll be surprised how much you remember, and it’s way better than looking at social media or news stories. You can learn a little every day - that in itself is incredible.
Write a blog, or a note, or something. (See that’s what this is. It’s making my day better.) Honestly, we all have ideas every day, some better than others, but write them down somewhere and, preferably, share them with someone, even if it’s the endless void of the internet. It’ll make you feel better.
Go outside. Doesn’t matter the weather, doesn’t matter how long, doesn’t matter what you do. Just get outside and breathe in fresh air, not on the way to your car or somewhere else. This is going outside only to go outside.
Make a meal. If you don’t normally cook, even better. Find a meal you think you would love, purchase the ingredients, think about it, and then put on some music and cook it for lunch or dinner or breakfast. Then do it again the next day.
Purchase some nice soap. Is this strange? Maybe. But think how often you smell that stuff you put on your hands and what if that smell just brings a nice little smile to your face instead of apathy? I mean a nice soap (preferably without all the crap chemicals and sustainably sourced) that smells so right is just so worth it. If you work in a public spot, you can bring the soap and share it, which is a two-for-one make your day better - nice soap and sharing.
If you can, get the temperature right. If you like it hot, get hot. If you like it cold, get cold. Buy a space heater, open a window, get a warmer pair of socks… I don’t know what you need to do but damn, living and working in the right temperature is not thought about near enough compared to “saving money”. If you’re struggling with bills and can’t do this because money is a problem, write me. I’m serious.
Meditate. Yes, you knew it would be on here because it’s on every single damn list of how to make your day better and yet, it’s so hard to do for us and I don’t know why… try the calm or headspace or whatever… just see if it helps… confession: I need to do better at this one. I do it for a while and always end up breaking my streak.
Text or call 5 people. There’s something about this number that is important. Just tell them hi, or thinking about them, or whatever… and 5 is important. maybe 5 just raises the odds of one of them being interested in talking back or of needing the text/call at that moment, or maybe just the fact that you brightened up (a little) the day of 5 human beings just always has a pretty great affect.
Stop doing what you’re doing. No matter what it is, how absolutely necessary it is, or how fun, just stop it and try something else. At some point. Not because you have to, or because someone else is forcing you to, but because you… can. Change is important. Integrating change into every day is important. Changing something bad, changing something good, changing for a long time or a short time or… it doesn’t matter. Changing a posture, or a way you drive to work, or what you do before bed, or when waking up, or when answering an email, or when reading twitter, or when picking up your phone, or the coffee shop you always go to, or the book you always read, or whatever it is… just change something.