100 Ways to Improve Your Life

Editor's Note: By this time in January you may have already lost interest in some of the resolutions you made as the new year unfolded just last weekend. But sometimes our goals are just too ambitious. The Saturday Magainze of The Guadian produced a list called "100 ways to improve your life without really trying." Out of the hundred, if even a few work, you will have found success. Here are the first 20, with a link to see the whole list at the bottom. For those who don't speak British English, a bit of translation may be required for a few of the phrases used (Americans stand in lines with their shopping carts, while Brits queue with their trolleys). Enjoy, and may some of these help you thrive in 2022 even as COVID plods on.

1. Exercise on a Monday night (nothing fun happens on a Monday night).
2. On the fence about a purchase? Wait 72 hours before you buy it.
3. Tip: the quickest supermarket queue is always behind the fullest trolley (greeting, paying and packing take longer than you think).
4. Bring fruit to work. Bring fruit to bed!
5. Consider going down to four days a week. It’s likely a disproportionate amount of your fifth day’s work is taxed anyway, so you’ll lose way less than a fifth of your take-home pay.
6. Everyone has an emotional blind spot when they fight. Work out what yours is, and remember it.
7. Plant spring bulbs, even if they’re just in a pot.
8. Send a voice note instead of a text; they sound like personal mini podcasts.
9. Keep a bird feeder by a window, ideally the kitchen. It’ll pass the time when you’re washing up.
10. Always bring ice to house parties (there’s never enough).
11. Get the lighting right: turn off the overhead one, turn on lots of lamps (but turn off when you leave the room).
12. Sharpen your knives.
13. Feeling sluggish at work? Try the Pomodoro technique: 25 minutes on, five-minute break, and repeat.
14. Buy a cheap blender and use it to finely chop onions (it saves on time and tears).
15. Keep your children’s drawings and paintings. Put the best ones in frames.
16. Set aside 10 minutes a day to do something you really enjoy – be it reading a book or playing Halo.
17. Don’t be weird about how to stack the dishwasher.
18. Reuse all plastic bags – even bread bags. Much of the packaging you can’t reuse can be taken to larger branches of supermarkets for recycling.
19. Take a photo of the tag you are given when leaving your coat in a cloakroom.
20. Can’t sleep? Try a relaxing soak with lavender bath oil before bed.

Need more inspiration? See the full list of 100.