Thought about it, snce it’s near New Year’s.
In my opinion, exercising/training/stretching atleast once a week would be a good thing for most people.
Practicing critical thinking.
Many here have already recommended reading and, particularly, reading philosophy. That’s a great way to practice critical thinking and to practice thinking outside of our comfortable or familiar ways. I’d add not to skip reading about logical fallacies and cognitive biases.
Many good things come from being a little cautious with apparent knowledge. To keep a reasonable doubt is also to keep our curiosity going, to keep asking questions, to imagine different ways, to discover new things, to avoid stagnant beliefs, etc. Critical thinking makes us not only less gullible but also flexible. This is valuable to understand everything, including one another, and perhaps in doing so, giving us better relationships and better societies.
Reading books on daily basis. It’s a qualitatively different experience from reading websites or consuming other form of media. If you have trouble getting into reading, I recommend picking a particular time and place, then reading at least a few pages every day. Eventually, it will turn into a habit and you’ll be reading for longer periods. Another thing I recommend is finding books on topics you’re interested in, be it fiction or non fiction, and don’t feel bad about abandoning books if you find you’re not enjoying it.
Set a timer for when you’re sitting at a desk and working. Every hour, I get up and do something or go get some water. It helps
Just go for a walk. Calling it exercise scares people into thinking about running, cycling or the gym but for the last month or two i just make it my mission to go for a long-ish walk once a day. Nothing strenuous, some days I walk a couple of kilometres to the nearest big supermarket to pick up some stuff, or i’ll get something delivered to a post locker thing or I’ll just go for a nice walk around the nearby park and bring my neglected camera with me to take pics of some birdies.
You would be surprised how many calories it adds up to and how much better your well-being can get from some sunlight and fresh air.
That’s it! Walking solves so many problems automatically, it’s possibly the best general answer.
I spent all of 2024 tracking my spending and saving. I didn’t “budget”, just had a spreadsheet and wrote everything down week over week.
I would recommend it as a habit people may benefit from just to understand where their money goes.
This is what I did this year and last one too.
I started tracking my spending to see where my money was going which was very insightful. Patterns emerged I never could have seen if it wasn’t all laid out in one spreadsheet.
For instance, I learned based on a little experimentation that driving 65 instead of 75 on the highway saved me like $50/month. Yeah, I’m that guy and my commute takes another couple minutes but I still do this today. I’ve reframed it in my head as a $50/mo subscription that doesn’t give me much value for the money and only costs an extra few minutes a day. Worth it in this inflation era.
Also realized I was spending money in all these categories that I could be getting some high cash back credit cards for. When you can see your spending averages over time, it’s easy to be confident about getting a strategic 5% card for gas or online shopping that can claw back a decent chunk of the money you already know you’re gonna spend.
It’s definitely useful to track your spending, in more ways than one
Definitely agree with your comments. The more you see the more you understand. The more you understand, the more you can control. Even if just a little bit.
Yes, track the dollars even if the outflow is greater than the inflow. Then you will at least have an idea of where to start
Also, generally avoid alcohol consumption. It’s weird that this drink, when consumed regularly, has the ability to hijack and reprogram your biology so much that stopping can kill you. Just best to avoid it.
Floss daily. Brush your teeth twice daily.
Use a tongue scraper.
The amount of people I used to meet through tinder back when I was single that seemingly or self-admittedly did none of that, just brushed once a day, was very concerning. Still is.
Did you really talk about dental care on Tinder? Just curious, I’ve never used it.
No, but we’d eventually meet with them and spend nights and you get to experience it first hand…
If I could offer you only one tip for the future…
sunscreen…
would be…
it.
The long-term benefits of sunscreen have been proved by scientists.
~ Baz
I wear a sunhat everywhere in the summer. People seem amused by it but I’m 50 and have lovely skin.
Goals!!
This is my skincare routine; wash with Dove soap, put the original Nivea creme in the blue tin on as day lotion, pat dry. Just before you leave add sunscreen. I don’t use makeup beyond eyeliner and very occasionally lipstick. I barely had pimples as a young woman even.
jokes on you buddy, I don’t go outside
Which was written by Mary Schmich: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wear_Sunscreen
Make a list of all the tasks you want to do for the day, every day. This is so important for me if I don’t do this I just never get anything done.
Also always plan to do something productive every day even if you just feel like relaxing. You will feel so much better relaxing if you know you’ve done something your proud of.
Learning how to say no, how to do it politely and how to do it firmly. I’m better at the latter but being able to do either is a goddamn superpower, it’s incredible how many Americans cannot regardless of their situation, title, age, wealth, etc.
Checking up on your friends and asking how they are. It never hurts to be there for your friends when they’re having a bad day! ❤️
I stopped doing this with some of my friends. They were always happy to hear from me, but the relationship felt one sided. Once I did, I found out I was right.
Learn stuff, don’t eat processed foods and get exercise - gardening and foraging are good places to start for most people. Stay far away from negative, manipulative and lying people.
Learn to eat healthy, in good portions, not too much, not too little and fast once in a while.
It’s a pain when you’re younger but gets easier with age because you start losing or degrading your sense of taste (like all your other senses) anyway.
If you get that habit early in life, you’ll keep it forever. And if you take care of your system early in life, your older self will thank you for it. Otherwise if you abuse yourself, and you do end up living a long life, you’ll be miserable for the last decade or two of your life and probably won’t know your name or where you’re from.
Not waiting for a day like new years to make a change that helps you.
The best time to do it was probably years ago.
The second best time is today.
Because if you make it about “new years” or some event, then it isn’t about YOU.
Do it for YOU, because you know that you’re worth the same amount of effort and affection as the others in your life.
Would you want this change for your friend? Turn don’t you think you skills care enough about you to give it to yourself?
Get in the habit of developing habits.
Habit stacking is huge. Add your new habit onto an existing habit, and it’s so so much easier to stick with it.
Any good tips habbits are so hard to break/make.
I added above about habit stacking. The idea is to lump a new habit onto an existing habit, which makes it so much easier to stick with. For example, when you brush your teeth in the evening, do your Duo lesson. Or, when you go make a cup of coffee add a new habit in during the three minutes it makes to boil the water.
Here’s a random article that explains it: https://health.clevelandclinic.org/habit-stacking
I will try that thanks.
rabbited?
oops typo I meant habbits
Play Dumb, even if you’re the smartest person in the room.
Fortunately for me, this comes naturally to me. No need to pretend.