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small happy habits

a few things i do to make myself feel irie

I won’t claim to have all the answers in life, but I will say I’ve collected a few tricks for making the journey a little bit more enjoyable. In this post, I’ll share them with you.

1 – spinning full albums

Remember the feeling of getting a brand new CD? You’d open up the plastic case, pore over the album booklet, and listen to it front to back in the car or on the boombox on your bedroom floor. You’d pick out your favourite songs, mentally noting their number, texting your friends ‘listen to track 7!!!!’. Nowadays it’s rare that we ever spin a full album more than once, and in the age of customised daily Spotify mixes, it’s becoming even rarer. I’m on a solo mission to bring this activity back. Artists spend a lot of time building the feeling of a record, ordering the songs the way we’re supposed to hear them, and the greatest albums take listeners on a journey, telling a cohesive story. Rather than defaulting to playlists full of only the ‘best’ songs, I’m enjoying listening to full albums and discovering tracks I’ve neglected over the years. Do Ya Thang is such an underrated song by Rihanna from 2011.

2 – lunchtime walks

I know my colleagues have been feeling a bit neglected because I’ve formed this lunchtime walk habit instead of freezing my toes off in the park with them during our lunch hour (sorry guys). But for real, using this time to stretch my legs and have a mosey around parts of London I’d never venture to on the weekends has changed my outlook on office days. Rather than feeling the JAMS (just ate must sleep) slump, I return invigorated, clearheaded and ready to take on the rest of the afternoon. Albeit a little sweatier.

3 – DND during work hours

Studies show it takes 23 minutes for humans to fully refocus after getting distracted while working on a task. TWENTY. THREE. WHOLE. MINUTES. Yeah, that freaks me out when my phone probably vibrates a good 300 times a day thanks to text messages, news notifications, retail apps, etc. begging for a slice of my attention span. I’ve noticed that switching on Do Not Disturb makes a noticeable difference to how efficiently and well I get my daily duties done, and how much better I can articulate my ideas when writing. Engaging DND during work hours is something I’ll be implementing as often as possible in the future for both peace of mind and productivity. Besides, 9 times out of 10, these notifications are never urgent enough to warrant an immediate response.

4 – one good podcast

There are a bajillion podcasts online these days. Finding a voice, accent, subject, and style that suits your tastes can be seriously time consuming. I’m picky, so I would know. My tip? Find one good podcast. Just one. Make sure it has dozens and dozens of topics you’re interested in and add the best ones to your library/playlist and listen to them on those lunchtime walks I told you about. When you run out of episodes, find another podcast and do the same. Right now I’m loving The Grey Area with Sean Illing by Vox. The episode below is particularly excellent.

5 – the three…two…one method

Throughout my childhood, I was the princess of procrastination. Everything I did – waking up, getting ready, doing schoolwork – was done at the last possible minute. Okay, I’ll be honest, this is still the case from time to time, but something that’s helping me dim this bad habit is a trick I call the 3-2-1 method. Laying in bed and avoiding getting up? Give yourself three long seconds of additional comfort. Count down from three out loud and then just do it. Get up. The same works with other tasks that you’re dreading starting, whether it’s laundry, dishes, or washing your face before bed. Say it with me: ‘I’m gonna get up and XYZ in 3…2.. 1…’ Taking those three extra seconds kind of tricks your brain into thinking you’re getting what you want (being lazy) while building up momentum to do what you need to do. Three seconds, and then it’s Nike mode. JUST DO IT!

6 – planning out meals

No one tells you how hard it is as an adult to decide what you should eat for dinner. Seriously, why is it so hard? In efforts to streamline my life a little bit more, I’ve started planning out my meals for the week on Monday so I don’t have to make that decision when I’m already tired from the thousands of other decisions I already made during the day. Sometimes, I’ll even batch cook so that I don’t have to dirty a cooking pan every night. It’s genuinely life changing not to have to choose something, stop at the shop, chef it up, or scrub pans after a long day. Wow, writing this feels so lame. You know you’re almost thirty when this is the kind of shit that gets you off.

7 – zero screen time before bed

Giving up my phone before bed hasn’t really been that challenging. Deleting the Instagram app a few months ago automatically freed up those 1-3 hours I would typically spend watching and sharing Reels with friends before bed. Now, I default to snuggling up with whichever book I’m reading and do that until I fall asleep. Not only is the quality of my sleep better, I’m more likely to get an extra hour or two because books have melatonin in them. Everyone knows that!

8 – investing in my space

I rebuke that shopping made it onto this list, but it’s fine. While I don’t find shopping for clothes fun at all nowadays (the quality and fit of everything has gone massively downhill over the last decade) no purchase makes me happier than buying a little something new for my house. I go crazy for a colourful vase, a ceramic candlestick holder, a new scented candle. Don’t underestimate the power of a little mood lighting, a decorative pillow, or a good smelling fragrance to completely change how you feel about your space.

9 – ditching self-doubt + self-criticism

It’s so easy to become self-critical, especially when we’re in the modern habit of comparing our own lives to everyone else’ highlight reel on social media. This typically intensifies when we’re going through intense periods of change and growth, but it’s neither helpful or productive. Remember to give yourself a little grace! This is life, and it’s everyone’s first rodeo.

“You can be the ripest, juiciest peach in the world, and there’s still going to be somebody who hates peaches.”

Seriously, if you’re doing anything worth talking about, there will always be somebody who has something negative to say about it. That’s exactly why you should live your life for yourself and back yourself 100% while doing it. Wear what you think is cool, cut and dye your hair the way you want, move to the country that makes you feel most alive, pick the job that makes you happiest, richest, or both, if that’s your goal. The world will always have haters… just make sure you aren’t one of them!

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