11 Small Improvements You Can Start Today

1. Always Have Diet Coke In Your House.

Do you need a mediocre mixer, a chaser, some caffeine, a change of pace from water, a change of pace from beer, or something to give your little cousin?

Diet coke is the soda for you.

It saves time and money and even ease on coffee and can be a good change of pace. Crucially, it will last forever in your fridge.

Until your roommates take it.

2. Remember: You Like Doing Chores.

Much of life is mind over matter, so let’s pay some mind to our mind.

Do you procrastinate chores? Remember that you like to do them, or, at least, that you like the result. Focus on the good and not the uphill battle of the action and doing them will be easier.

Do you ever beat yourself up over not getting to the gym, or cleaning your room, or whatever? Let it go. You don’t have to do anything, and, when chores are lifted from the fog of obligation, they’re easier to get around to.

3. Get In Touch More

Grandparents, parents, siblings, old friends — who’d be happiest to get a quick email or text?

Your day will gain purpose and a contour in seconds when you do it.

4. Ask For Help

We all have different strengths and weaknesses, and whatever your weakness is, a friend might have a comparable strength.

Nobody wants to help you move, but if you have no idea how to decorate or dress yourself (much like myself) you should know that there are people out there who would love to solve your problems for you.

When possible, see if there is enthusiastic help for your problems. Sometimes there is. And it’s awesome.

5. Make Eggs Tomorrow Morning 

No cheaper, easier way to feel productive and thrifty than to make your own breakfast.

Make tea and toast for extra adult points.

6. Remember That Life Is Hard

It’s easy to daydream but harder to live. Cut yourself some slack when real life gets in the way; it does for everyone.

7. Remember That Life Is Long

People are advised to live in the present, but that can have an edge to it, where present problems and struggles feel permanent.

Take your joys in the immediate present, and stretch your problems to be divided and watered down with that great healer, time. Get an advance on time by asking if this problem will be a problem in a year. In eight months? Five months? Five weeks?

Our lives aren’t neatly paved- bumps emerge. But they recede. Don’t obsess, and allow yourself some joys of perspective.

8. Remember You’re Only Getting Better

You’re going to screw up as surely as any of us will.

All of us have those mistakes that we’re actively choosing, or that we suddenly remember from years ago and will cause us to cringe way, way, after the fact.

Mistakes are inevitable. How you deal with them, though, can bring progress and success ever closer.

9. Every Chance You Get, Eat An Apple Or Banana

This isn’t flashy advice, but it- – much like the humble apple or banana — is sturdy, nourishing advice that will improve your life.

Apples and bananas are crazy cheap, even at Whole Foods, compared to what they give you. They’re fruit, which you always need more of, fiber, filling, and a great vessel for peanut butter.

They’re so cheap, so good for you, and so good.

Always get them.

10. Set Down Worries

Sometimes I feel a loyalty to my anxiety, and I hold on to it all day. I feel like if I feel better I might forget or something.

So what? Set down your worry. Let yourself breathe. You won’t forget what’s bothering you if you take a break from it, and if you do?

Problem solved.

11. Take What Works And Leave The Rest

As with this list, take what works above and ignore the rest.

This is also great advice for life.

Sometimes you’ll get a lot of feedback — on work, art, or even, at times, yourself — and some of that is going to sting. Some of it is also going to be wrong. The trick is sorting the wrong fro the right, and finding what both resonates with you and is practical.

Let’s say you want to be a painter, but your Mom wants you to be a ninja, because you’re so stealthy and you have nights free. That’s a terrible idea for you; you hate blood, the ninja union is a whole thing, and nobody is hiring a new ninja with no experience in this economy.

But what in there makes sense?

If you’re stealthy, maybe you’re graceful. Maybe you should be a dancer! It’s also artsy. Do you like dancing? No? Okay, cool. But maybe you should consider a night-job; painting can be lonely during the day anyhow.

From that terrible advice, you found the seeds of a practical idea.

Keep that attitude with you in life or, at least, for my articles.