40 Very Simple Habits That Will Improve Your Life Today

some small things to make my day better. Ultimately, I came up with 40 ideas. I wrote about them here.

Just thinking of all these ideas and sharing them made me feel better before I did any of them. And, I asked readers to come up with even more ideas.

Well, we did it. Here are 101 more very simple habits that can improve your life today:

1. Drink more water than you think you need.
2. If it’s winter (as it is when I’m writing this), go outside long enough to get really cold. Then come inside and warm up. Good feeling, right?
3. Donate books to your local library. If you don’t have one, offer them on social media.
4. Eat real oatmeal. Top it with nuts, cinnamon and fruit.
5. Consolidate the contents of nearly empty food containers in your fridge or pantry.
6. If you have leftover gift cards for a restaurant or store with just a few dollars on them, leave them at the restaurant or store where other people can find them.
7. Treat yourself to comfortable underwear and bedsheets. You use them every day; they’re a good place to splurge.
8. Drive at the speed limit or lower in areas where there are pedestrians.
9. Stretch.
10. Move to the right for higher speed vehicles on highways. They’ll be happy to be ahead of you, and you likely never have to see them again.
11. Donate to a food pantry. While it’s nice to give things you won’t use, for bonus karma, add something you love.
12. Park far away from the door.
13. Donate your old eye glasses.
14. Buy Girl Scout cookies. You’ll make someone’s day.
15. Empty the wastebasket. (I know some people do this all the time; I suppose all writing is autobiography, if I’m including this as if it were an aspiration).
16. Take a minute to consciously cut yourself some slack for something you could have done better.
17. Download the sound of ocean waves to your phone. It’s better than music sometimes when you want to relax.
18. When you want to say something angry to someone, just say “have a nice day” instead.
19. Carry a treat for dogs (but ask their owner before sharing).
20. Tell your significant other something you like about them that they might not know.
21. Clear the cache on your computer.
22. Go through your kids’ old toys. Find 5 or 10 you can donate right away.
23. Start a blog. It doesn’t matter if nobody reads it; you’re doing this for yourself.
24. Clean a mess you didn’t make. (Similarly, I’m aware some some people have to do this constantly).
25. Log into LinkedIn and accept some of the connection requests that have likely piled up.
26. Learn to say hello, good-bye and a few other pleasantries in a foreign language. Go out of your way to bump into people who speak it and use your new expressions.
27. Share free “gift” links online from your paid subscriptions.
28. Play a board game with a child (your own son or daughter or niece, nephew, friend’s kid) and/or read to them.
29. Put a $20 “emergency bill” in your wallet. Then forget about it.
30. Clean out your email inbox
31. Recycle some old old electronics you don’t use anymore.
32. Shut off your Wi-Fi for a while or put your phone on airplane mode.
33. If you see someone who looks like they’re having a bad day, drop a $5, $10 or even $20 on the ground near them and then tell them: “I think you dropped something.”
34. Visit someone’s memorial or grave. Leave something so others will know someone has been there.
35. Take a cold shower. If you can’t stomach an entire cold shower, turn the water to cold at the end of your regular shower.
36. Send a message to the writer of an article you really liked, just telling them so.
37. Pay a stranger a compliment.
38. If you have a good experience as a customer of a business, post on social media that you recommend them.
39. If you think there’s a chance someone doesn’t remember your name, either tell them or quote someone else using it. “Funny story: A friend of mine other day told me, ‘Bill, if there’s one thing I know about you…'”
40. Get up early and go somewhere that you can watch the sunrise – better still if you can see clear to the horizon.