60 small steps to a better life in 100 days

You can pick up these tips in book form at this link.

How to change your life?
Another guide to action to improve your life and put in order not only your thoughts, but also your things. As we know, everything is connected: if you hang your head and slouch, you will immediately feel insecure. But as soon as you, even in a bad mood, raise your head, straighten your shoulders and smile, everything around you changes and you are already the king of the ball. “100 days of summer” will no longer work, so let’s add a small piece of the velvet season there for good measure

In order to change your life (and in any direction), you need very little - just start taking action. But this “simple” is not always that simple. Sometimes we know what to do, but these actions seem scary to us. And sometimes we have neither a clear plan nor an understanding of how to make this plan. Perhaps these 60 small steps will help you finally start doing at least something. And even if after 20 steps you realize that this is not your plan, you will be ready to make your own plan. Your eyes are afraid, but your hands are doing well?

House

1. Create your own “Calendar for clearing the House of unnecessary things”, distributing the cleaning of various areas of the home over the days.

Day 1: We sort through magazines.

Day 2: We disassemble the DVD.

Day 3. We sort out the books.

2. Live by the mantra: “There is a place for everything and put everything in its place.” Try to follow the following 4 rules for all 10 days:

1. If you take something, put it back later.

2. If you open something, close it.

3. If you drop something, pick it up.

4. If you take something down, hang it back.

3. Walk through your home and find 100 things that need fixing or a little touching up. For example, change a light bulb, seal a hole in the wallpaper, screw in a new socket, etc.

Signs that it's time to change your life

A persistent vague premonition that everything that is happening is going wrong, irritability, poor sleep, a desire to quit everything. Often people themselves do not fully realize what is being done to them. Psychologists call this condition dissatisfaction with life. They are convinced that the above symptoms are the main sign that the time has come to change something in their own existence.

Often indicators of the need for change are anxiety of unknown etiology, irritability, and bad mood. If similar or other signs listed below began to steadily accompany the existence of an individual, then one should begin to analyze one’s own existence.

Below are signs indicating that it is time to change and improve your life if a person:

– stopped feeling emotions, both joyful and negative (here we are not talking about reserved individuals who are not accustomed to expressing their own feelings), becomes indifferent, reacts equally to good news and negative news, this often leads to a prolonged state of stress, the consequence of which is depression;

– life has stopped playing with colorful colors, nothing makes you happy,

existence becomes a continuous “Groundhog Day”; such a state, lasting for months, is a serious reason to think about how to improve yourself and your life;

– does not live in the present, but constantly dwells either in his own dreams or memories: experiences negative moments of the past, remembers joyful moments of bygone times, exists only in dreams of the future;

– stopped worrying about his appearance, his own health, forgot when he visited the hairdresser, had a routine medical examination, and often he justifies such behavior by the need to work a lot or take care of the family;

– began to notice incomprehensible things about himself, for example, he rereads what he wrote three times in order to catch the meaning, forgets why he opened the refrigerator, when this happens only occasionally, this can only be a consequence of banal fatigue, but if this behavior is sustainable, then the moment of necessity has come rethinking one's own existence;

– is constantly in a state of causeless anxiety;

– stopped growing as a person, there are no aspirations, a person exists aimlessly, lives as if out of habit;

– envies everything, envy is a serious symptom that screams that the individual is not satisfied with his own existence;

– is not interested in his own home, does not maintain order: there is a whole mountain of unwashed dishes in the sink, things are scattered everywhere in the rooms;

– constantly puts off important matters for later, which accumulate in proportion to the decrease in the desire to solve them;

– irritates close people, communication with them, can unbalance any trifle.

Happiness

4. Finally, follow the advice that psychologists from all countries and completely different views repeat - write on a piece of paper from 5 to 10 things for which you are grateful in your life every day.

5. Create a list of 20 small things you enjoy doing and make sure you do at least one of those things a day for the next 100 days. For example, eat your lunch on a bench in the park, walk in the park with the dog in the evening, 1 hour of watercolor painting, etc.

6. Keep a diary of your mental chatter—that is, write down your thoughts and feelings that arise throughout the day. For example, how many times a day have you accused yourself of something, how critical are you of others, how many times a day have positive thoughts come to your mind, etc.

7. For the next 100 days, try to have a good laugh at least once a day.

Take it easy.

Even the closest people, friends, teachers cannot take care of a person 100%. What can I say, neighbors of the same entrance may never hear about each other for 10 years. This has never made anyone unhappy! Relationships with colleagues can only be built on professional matters. Behind the walls of the company, these people are already ready to put spokes in each other’s wheels. You shouldn’t take the problems, downs and ups of others’ moods to heart.

Take the self-esteem test

Study or self-development

8. Choose a difficult book that you still haven’t decided to read, but wanted to. Read it in 100 days from cover to cover.

9. Learn something new every day. For example, the name of a flower, the capital of a distant country, the name of your favorite dog breed, etc. And in the evening you can go over in your head all the new things you learned over the past day, take out a dictionary and learn a new word.

10. Stop complaining for the next 100 days. Negative thoughts lead to negative results. Every time you feel like complaining, try to stop yourself.

11. Set your alarm a minute earlier every day for 100 days. Try to get up immediately after the alarm clock rings, open the windows, and do some light exercise. After 100 days, you will wake up 1.5 hours earlier without much effort.

12. For the next 100 days, keep “Morning Pages” - a simple stream of consciousness in the morning, which you will write down in a special notebook. This should be the first thing you do after you wake up.

13. Over the next 100 days, try to focus your attention on the thoughts, words and images of who you want to become and what you want to achieve.

How states can improve quality of life

There are many ways a government can improve the quality of life of its citizens, from funding good public schools, providing affordable access to healthcare, and supporting family-friendly policies such as paid leave to care for sick family members, newborns, or adopted children. that help families thrive.

Many governments in countries with a high quality of life provide services and programs to their citizens to help them improve their lives. These include access to jobs with wages, affordable or free higher education, better gun control laws, and access to high-quality, affordable health care.

The quality of life in Russia and many other CIS countries today is lower than in most developed countries due to declining personal security, healthcare, and uneven access to quality public education.

Finance

14. Create a budget. Write down every penny you spend in 100 days.

15. Look for good financial advice on the Internet and choose 10 of them. Try to follow them for the next 100 days. For example, going to the store with a limited amount of cash and without a credit card, doing several things in one trip to save on gas, etc.

16. Pay in stores only with paper money and put the remaining change after shopping in your piggy bank. After 100 days, calculate how much you can save.

17. For 100 days, do not buy anything that you do not really need (this means fairly large purchases). Use this money to pay off a loan (if you have one) or put it in a deposit account for six months.

18. For 100 days, dedicate at least 1 hour a day to finding or creating a source of additional income.

Don't generalize your surroundings.

Failure happened several times - is this a sign of complete failure? If you were lucky enough to win the lottery, will you always be lucky? No! It is stupid to generalize everything from isolated cases. This theory does not have a lingering tendency, but can turn around at any moment. An interesting example from the world of business: “The founder of the 7UP company (Seven Up) achieved success in promoting soda around the world by 7 times!” He assessed the situation soberly and this allowed him to succeed in what he loved. Not equating everything to a specific case will lead to success sooner or later.

Time management

19. For the next 100 days, carry a notebook with you everywhere. Write down all the ideas and thoughts that come to your mind, make your to-do list, add new appointments literally on the go right after your calls.

20. Monitor how you use your time for 5 days. Use the information you've gathered to create your "time budget": the percentage of your total time spent on the things you do each day. For example, house cleaning, time to travel to work, rest, etc. Make sure you stay within your budget for the next 95 days.

21. Identify a low-priority task that you can’t do for 100 days, and replace it with something that’s really important.

22. Identify 5 ways your time is wasted and limit that time for the next 100 days. For example, do not watch TV for more than 1.5 hours, do not spend more than 1.5 hours a day on social networks, etc.

23. For the next 100 days, stop multitasking and do only one important thing a day.

24. For the next 100 days, plan your day in the evening.

25. For the next 100 days, do the most important things on your to-do list first, and then everything else.

26. Over the next 14 weeks, review each week. During your weekly survey, answer the following questions:

What have you achieved?

What went wrong?

What did you do right?

27. For the next 100 days, at the end of each day, tidy up your desk and sort out your papers and office supplies. So that every morning you will have order on your desktop.

28. Make a list of all the promises and commitments you've made over the next 100 days, then take a red pen and cross off everything that won't bring you joy or move you closer to your goals.

29. Over the next 100 days, before you switch from one task to another during the day, ask yourself whether this is the best use of your time and resources.

Your resource of constant abundance

When I understood the power of visualization and thoughts, the work of my own subconscious and fantasies, it presented me with a great opportunity to live the way I want. It helped me have a large financial flow and eradicate many of my weaknesses.

Only we ourselves can start our own process of establishing financial mechanisms in life, properly treating prosperity and money. You need to be sure that wealth will come soon.

In order to get everything I needed to achieve abundance, to achieve the fact that I was a rich person, I needed to create in myself the feeling that I already had it all.

Remember the following statement and retell it daily: “My thoughts are infinitely rich and I merge with them into a single circle. I have the capabilities to be financially independent, successful and filled with happiness. My finances are constantly increasing, regardless of external reasons and influences. I remember all my virtues very well and appreciate them. I will always help my friends and family in any way I can, and I am a completely wealthy person. I love this life!"

How to change your life for the better

Health

30. Losing about a pound of weight requires burning 3,500 calories. If you reduce your calorie intake by 175 each day, you will lose approximately 2.5 kg after 100 days.

31. For the next 100 days, eat vegetables 5 times a day.

32. For the next 100 days, eat fruit 3 times a day.

33. Pick one food that consistently disrupts your attempts to eat healthy—whether it's cheesecake from the local bakery, pizza, or your favorite potato chips—and stop eating it for the next 100 days.

34. Over the next 100 days, eat from smaller plates to control the amount of food you eat.

35. For the next 100 days, consume 100% juice instead of high-sugar substitutes.

36. For the next 100 days, drink only water instead of soda.

37. Make a list of 10 easy and healthy breakfasts.

38. Make a list of 20 easy and healthy dishes that you can eat for lunch and dinner.

39. Make a list of 10 easy and healthy snacks.

40. Use your healthy meal lists to plan your meals for the week ahead. Eat this way for the next 14 weeks.

41. For the next 100 days, keep a food journal to see if you are deviating from your menu plan.

42. For the next 100 days, spend at least 20 minutes exercising every day.

43. For the next 100 days, always carry a pedometer with you and try to walk 10,000 steps a day.

44. Set up your scale and hang a chart with your bathroom. At the end of each of the 14 weeks, weigh yourself and record data on weight loss (gain), changes in waist size, etc.

45. For the next 100 days, set a reminder on your watch or computer to repeat every hour to drink water.

46. For the next 100 days, meditate, breathe, visualize—make it your daily ritual to calm your mind.

Countries with the best quality of life

According to the annual US News and World Report, in partnership with the BAV Group and the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, the top six countries in 2022 whose residents enjoy the best quality of life worldwide are Canada, Denmark, Sweden, Australia, Switzerland and Norway. The reasons for this title are myriad: economic stability, a strong public education system, income equality, family-friendly policies and laws, political stability, and an accessible and comprehensive public health care system.

The US ranked well below these six countries and ranked 20th in quality of life. Russia is in 31st place among the 78 countries in the world considered in the report.

You can also familiarize yourself with the ranking of the best cities in Russia in terms of quality and standard of living.

Relationship

47. For the next 100 days, find something positive about your partner every day and write it down.

48. Over the next 100 days, keep an album of your joint activities and start scrapbooking. At the end of your experiment, give your partner the resulting album and a list of all the positive things you observed during those 100 days.

49. Determine 3 actions that you will take every day for the next 100 days to strengthen your relationship. It could be saying “I love you” or a hug every morning.

Social life

50. Chat with someone new every day for the next 100 days. This could be your neighbor with whom you have never communicated before, your comment on a blog where you have never written anything before, a new acquaintance on social networks, etc.

51. Over the next 100 days, focus on connecting with people you admire and respect.

52. Over the next 100 days, if someone has hurt or upset you, think for a minute before you respond.

53. For the next 100 days, don't even think about making a final verdict until you've heard both sides.

54. For the next 100 days, try to do at least one good deed a day, no matter how small.

55. For the next 100 days, praise everyone who deserves it.

56. For the next 100 days, practice active listening. When the interlocutor speaks, listen to him, and do not rehearse your answer in your head, ask again to make sure that you heard everything correctly, etc.

57. Practice compassion for the next 100 days. Before you judge someone, try to look at the matter from their point of view. Be curious, find out more about the other person (his interests, beliefs, etc.)

58. For the next 100 days, live your life and don't compare yourself to anyone.

59. Over the next 100 days, look for good intentions in the actions of others.

60. Over the next 100 days, constantly remind yourself that everyone is doing the best they can.

The essence of the quality of life indicator

Quality of life is a non-financial component associated with work and life satisfaction. When applied to work, the term "life qualifications" often refers to the time and ability to do what you enjoy. If a job brings in a lot of money, but requires so much working time that the worker cannot use the money he earns, this is a poor quality of life.

If a job provides time to enjoy life but leaves the worker too tired, injured, stressed, or otherwise unable to enjoy their earnings, this is another detriment to quality of life. Today it is common to weigh both salary and quality of life by considering how good or bad a job is.

Quality of life is also an issue when developing a personal savings plan. In this case, trade-off involves sacrificing current quality of life in order to improve quality of life in the future. This may include limiting immediate spending by purchasing cheaper items rather than more expensive and premium ones.

About investments and savings

62. If you want to increase your monthly income by 50%, then it is better to find a new job or improve your skills rather than play on the stock market. Investing in stocks over the long term returns 6-7% in dollars per year at best. This is a historical fact.

63. Set a date on your calendar and transfer a certain amount to your brokerage account every month. Use this money to buy a standard set of ETFs, creating one of the “lazy” portfolios. Read more.

64. If you want to actively trade stocks and other risky instruments, allocate no more than 10% of your savings for this.

About books

1. Boring books don’t need to be read to the end. They won't judge you.

2. Use this rule: subtract your age from 100 - you get the page number up to which it makes sense to read the book in order to understand whether it is worth continuing or not. If you are 35, then give the book a chance until page 65 at most. Save time.

3. Emphasizing “clever thoughts” in a book doesn’t work. The brain receives its dose of dopamine and is even more willing to forget what you emphasized. If you want to remember, rewrite the thought in a separate document, return to it three times: in a day, in a week, in a month. Better yet, tell it to another person. Read more.

4. Reread books. You will be surprised: a) how much you have forgotten or missed; b) how you yourself have changed over time.

5. If you are looking for cool non-fiction in English, check out the Edge Association website.

6. By the way, it is not necessary to read many non-fiction books - find the author’s speech on YouTube on the same topic: this way you will learn the most important things from the book in 40 minutes or less.

About food

72. Eat food, not too much, mostly plants. Famous author Michael Pollan boiled down the rules of food to one line: “Eat food, not too much, mostly plant-based.” By “food” he means real food, not processed products.

73. Eat as little as possible of what is clearly harmful: processed meats and industrial baked goods, as well as foods whose main value is sugar, including juices.

74. Eat more fiber - it is found in whole grains (cereals), vegetables and fruits. Ideally, several dozen different types of fiber per week. This will help you take care of your gut microbiome. A lot depends on it: from immunity to mental health. Read more.

75. Use the Eat The Rainbow rule: your diet should include food of all colors, this gives the necessary variety in food. Green food - for example, from plant leaves - contains the maximum amount of fiber and vitamins per gram of weight.

76. If you have long wanted to record what and how much you eat, but you can’t systematically write down, try photographing every meal. Photos can be stored in an album or sent to your secret telegram chat. The result is a food diary that only takes five minutes a day to keep.

77. Eat more protein to help you feel full and avoid overeating. The feeling of hunger occurs mainly due to a lack of protein. Read more.

78. Eat slowly: the satiety hormone PYY is not released into the blood immediately, so the subjective feeling of fullness usually occurs late - when we already have time to go overboard with calories.

79. To reduce your dependence on black tea and coffee, try hibiscus, cocoa, fiber-rich chicory, buckwheat tea or fireweed. These drinks will help enrich your diet with antioxidants and anti-inflammatory polyphenols.

80. Drink just water more often - this is the healthiest drink for the body.

81. When looking for a recipe, search for the name of the dish and jamie oliver. Jamie has recipes for almost everything, and very good ones.

82. Before preparing a complex dish, understand the principle of the recipe. Write down the sequence of steps on sticky notes and place them at eye level in the kitchen.

83. It is almost impossible to find healthy ready-made sauce in stores. But it’s not difficult to prepare it yourself. Here's nutritionist Michael Mosley's recipe: French mustard, garlic clove, apple cider vinegar, balsamic vinegar, olive oil - ready.

About smartphone and social networks

39. Treat gadgets like a toothbrush that you put back after brushing your teeth. Don't twirl them in your hands all the time, waiting for a miracle. All miracles happen in life when we look not at the screen, but at the people next to us. Read more.

40. Open apps on your phone through search: moments while you type can help awaken awareness. This will reduce the risk of being stuck for half an hour, aimlessly scrolling through the feed. Read more.

41. Open browser versions of social networks on your phone. The applications themselves can be deleted.

42. On your computer, use a separate Facebook messenger site. This way you will save yourself from the temptation to read your friend’s feed.

43. Unsubscribe from news channels on telegram and social networks: you will still learn about important news. The unimportant ones (and there are 99% of them) will only distract your attention.

44. Follow trends, not news. Bad things happen in the world very quickly and just as quickly end up in news feeds. But in the long term, a lot of good things are happening: science and societies are developing, the world is becoming a better place, says the main optimist of our time, Steven Pinker. He himself gets his information from futurecrunch.com.

45. Make more active use of the Unfollow function on Facebook - if you become friends with a person, you don’t have to read all his posts. Leave in your feed only those people whom you would like to see visiting you.

About productive work

46. Divide things into “blue” and “red,” as Keri Evans, a New Zealand coach and sports psychologist, advises. The first ones are carried out according to an algorithm, for example: submit documents to the visa center. The second is emotionally difficult, for example: informing an employee about a salary reduction. Add only one “red” task to your daily plan and complete it before lunch. Read more.

47. Set a period of time during which you only work and do nothing else - for example, from 10 to 14. This is called deep work. Read more.

48. For motivation, imagine in as much detail as possible what you will get when you implement your plans. A vivid fantasy affects our psyche almost in the same way as a real experience. Research shows that visualization stimulates the brain to work towards achieving a goal.

49. If you need to work with concentration, turn on the Do not disturb while driving mode. It is on the iPhone, but not everyone knows about it.

50. Check your email and respond to emails only at certain times of the day so as not to become hostage to an endless stream of messages. If someone needs to contact you urgently, they will call you.

51. Turn off images in your browser if you want to achieve maximum concentration. Our brain processes images 15,400 times faster than text (13 milliseconds versus 200 milliseconds). Online advertising and social networks exploit this property to attract us to content that only distracts from the main thing. Try installing the Wizmage Image Hider extension for Chrome. Or enable Reading Mode for all sites in Safari.

52. Buy noise-canceling headphones. They will help you concentrate, even if you haven't turned on the music.

53. Use playlists for work: Brain Work: Classical Music for the Flow (Apple Music), mix from the entrepreneurial community Shmit-16 (Soundcloud), Pure Focus (Spotify), Deep Work from Silicon Valley entrepreneur Karl Tashyan (Apple Music) . An alternative to streaming is a channel with 4 different playlists for background music Deepwork.fm. Or - subscribe to the Endel app.

54. Use Flowstate when you need to quickly write text. In this text editor, you set a timer and write until the time runs out. And if you leave the text unfinished, it will fade and disappear.

55. Come up with something that will put you in a working mood. Especially if you work from home. For example, the founder of Ecwid Ruslan Fazlyev helps to quickly get into the mood for work with a ten-minute morning call with his team.

About things

93. Those things that you spend a significant part of your life with (bed = 1/3 of your life, desk chair and desk = 1/4) are worth spending significant money on.

94. Come up with a rule by which you get rid of old things - for example, if you haven’t used them for a year. This will make it easier to throw them away. Read more.

95. Relate a certain object that you often see to something important. The hero of one English-language podcast said that every time he walks through a doorway, he smiles and reminds himself that he is “ready to serve people.” This helps him come to meetings or negotiations with the right attitude.

About alcohol

84. There are no harmless alcoholic drinks. But if you can’t do without alcohol, choose natural dry wine: judging by research, this is the lesser of evils.

85. Wash down alcohol with water rather than snack. Advice from clinical pharmacologist Olga Shatalova: two servings of water for one serving of alcohol. This way you can avoid dehydration, plus - with water it is more difficult to exceed “your dose”, because it fills the stomach.

86. If you want to quickly recover after being very drunk, take a cold shower. Sudden cooling is stressful, and with stress, the level of glucose in the blood quickly rises, which you just don’t have enough of right now.