For example, I 3d printed a box over my outlet to protect my cables from my bed pushing against it. In addition, my cables never fall to the floor so they’re much easier to grab.
Started distancing myself from friends who become political extremists and life is much calmer
Unless all you did was talk about politics, how does it actually affect a relationship?
In my experience with these types of people, they more and more frequently shift conversation to them wanting their beliefs validated, because normal people have stopped engaging with them.
Can understand now. If everything someone’s wants to talk is politics then really is not that fun to be around.
I have a friend who was a classic Catholic libertarian in college–he held some views on trans rights, abortion, and economic justice that I find deeply disagreeable. It made conversations a little tricky because there were a whole set of topics I couldn’t bring up unless I wanted to wade into a debate immediately; sometimes I did, but often I just wanted to hang out and chill and that was hampered.
It took him exactly one year of being out of college and working a real job to realize that his economic views were fucked, and the whole rest of it unraveled from there. He’s now a staunch leftist, and it’s way, way easier to hang out with him.
That’s not, however, to say it’s not worth having friends you disagree with. We remained friends because we were able to disagree productively, and I feel I understand my own political views far better for all those long nights discussing them. Still, it was a friendship that took unusual effort to maintain.
My BIL is a Catholic Libertarian. Almost forty and still lives with Mom and Dad, so he never had the brush with reality that your friend went through. He thinks he’s politically savvy and always wants “civil debate” with me, but he’s utterly insufferable.
I’m not looking forward to Thanksgiving next week.
Labeling things. I write simple instructions to myself so I don’t have to remember things as much. It doesn’t have to be formal stickers. It can be some masking tape and a pen. I just leave little notes for My Future Self
During lockdown I spent so my time considering and planning; trying to find a sophisticated labelling system for my pantry.
Colour coding for the top of spice jars so I could quickly find what I need. High quality stickers with neat, clear labels of what the item is, with the brand in pencil that could be altered if I switched to a different brand.
That system was completely fucking useless. ADHD means my motivation to uphold a system is completely fucked on some days. And the awkward half measures irritated me on my good days.
Now it’s masking tape and a marker and pray it’s legible. Because when it comes to this (and tbh, many things in my life) consistently average is better than inconsistently perfect.
The best system is one that works.
Everything that takes under two minutes to complete gets done immediately. Future me loves past me now
I managed to clean the kitchen and do the dishes every evening for two weeks in a row now and it is a start to be nice to tomorrow me. If it becomes a habit, I will try to do more, but for now it is hard enough, but also so, so satisfying the next morning! Past me, today me and tomorrow me are a team!
Yeah the hardest part is making a habit. I’ve started to do a quick vacuum on the stairs once a day (cordless vacuum FTW) and it makes a big difference.
I automate all of my bill payments. Otherwise, I might forget to pay one or two and end up paying late fees, having service cut off, etc.
My parents were terrible about paying bills on time, and we got evicted at least once before they simply forgot to pay the fucking rent on time.
Before this was possible, I’d sit down on the last day of every month with a stack of envelopes and stamps, and I’d cut the month’s checks so I could drop them in the mail a week ahead of time. Luckily I didn’t actually have to mail the rent check; the landlord lived downstairs.
Whenever there is a small task that will take less than a few minutes, I ask myself “When else are you going to have 80 seconds?” and usually that makes me realize I should just get it done now. Sometimes I still say “tomorrow” and reminds me to pick a specific time to do the task.
I get this advice, but I hate this advice. I have a million things to do that take just a couple minutes. I never know when to stop!
Set calendar alerts for routine tasks that need to be done less frequently than once a week.
Things like washing the vacuum cleaner filters, descaling the kettle, replacing the water filter (I’m in a hard-water area), servicing various appliances, cleaning all the things that need cleaning but don’t need cleaning every week. All small things. It removes a lot of cognitive effort and makes sure those things get done.
This is a big one. I try to tell my ADHD teen he needs to do this because he is constantly forgetting to do things (feed his cat, pickup around his room, go out to the school bus in the morning). He’s very oppositional to change and doesn’t think it’ll help, even though he’s either on his phone or PC all day long.
When I was in college I had zero knowledge of how to cook so I relied on what my mom packed me and takeaways.
I decided to learn how to make basic stuff, like pasta, eggs, baked potatoes, etc and it saved me tons of money.
I’m not a good cook by a long shot but I can feed myself and to this day I enjoy some quality time in the kitchen.
This also makes you good dating material, for anyone out there who could use the advice 😉
Pretty great 2nd date in my experience, not a great idea for an initial date unless you know the person ahead of time. But can pretty quickly reveal if they can cook too!
It’s crazy to me how people dont know this.
Cooking saves so much money, its incredible.
Try and find a cheap deal for a meal service like hellofresh or blue apron or any other service. I didn’t want to, but my spouse did. I’ve learned some good techniques and used ingredients I would not normally use. Don’t sign up long term, just get a box or two or whatever and cancel. Once you’ve learned your lesson you can extrapolate that.
Got me some anc headphones if you know why you may find they work amazingly
I bought carpet tape to keep rugs in place on my polished hardwood floors.
I stopped listening to news radio in the morning. Music is the way to go to start the day.
Buying a bright colorful wallet so I can always find it.
Same for me. Also the one I got is made out of hard plastic so my cards don’t get bent or broken(this was always a problem for me before)
How aggressively were you sitting???
I don’t even keep my wallet in my back pocket. I used to stuff my wallets with receipts, bustickets and whatnot, so I guess the strain of all that would also wear on my cards…
Ah, the Costanza school of wallet organization.
Exactly.
(They call him Martin XYZ because of the weird shape of his butt)
Well, that’s as good of an explanation for that name as any I’ve come up with, so I using that in the future. Not sure how it makes sense, but that’s okay.
I started antidepressants
When I did that in college, though it was over 20 years ago, I distinctly remember my mother saying over the phone “Oh sure, just take the easy way out”.
Yeah Mom, I’m taking the “easy way out” here by going to therapy and taking medication. That’s totally what those words refer to. 🙄
My parents were baby boomers. When I started antidepressants I continued my policy of saying nothing to them about my personal life. It saved me a lot of trouble over the years.
Not to shit on your mom or anything, but that’s ignorance right there.
Good for you for taking responsibility and care for your own mental health
I bought about ten command hooks of various sizes.
I use one of them to hang up my jeans at the end of the day. A few more hooks use other bits of clothing I’ve worn but might wear again.
It’s separate from the hangers so it’s clear which clothes are pristine laundered, and which ones are in transition: clothes that can be worn again.
I always had an in between pile for the same reason. Clothes that weren’t freshly washed but weren’t dirty enough to wash. I like your idea of hooks. I might try it out.
Digitized all my documents
I’m just starting to do that and I’m loving it!
I don’t use a smartphone but taking pictures rather than scanning is becoming really tempting.
There are scanning apps that automatically crop the photo, let you make multi page PDFs, and automatically upload to your cloud of choice or directly to your computer. This has made it super easy for me. I’ve tried a few and settled on the one-time paid version Genius Scan and it works well for me.
If you don’t have a smartphone, I don’t know what the chances are that you self host services, but, if you do, check out paperless-ngx, which is what I’m using. It’s great.
thx always interested in things like this.
It might seem dumb but i started preparing what i need for the next day the evening before it, clothes ,my bag, the train ticket, what i need to eat on the go, etc. instead of doing a mad rush in the morning to get ready.
Also good is to always put something back where it should be. Like my work badge is always in the front pinch of my laptop bag and the first thing I do when I finish work is put it back into that pouch.
