100 great tips to improve your life

August 15, 2007 12:39 PM

Find inner serenity by making it easier to find your keys. Become an early riser. Create a "Landing Strip" to become more organized. All these and more at 100 Great Tips to Improve Your Life.
posted by Floydd (45 comments total)

Less is more.
posted by zennie at 1:01 PM on August 15, 2007 [1 favorite]

A landing strip in your home should be at the entrance you most often use.
posted by Ambrosia Voyeur at 1:08 PM on August 15, 2007 [2 favorites]

To keep your house from falling into cluttered chaos:
-- use dimmer switches.
-- keep your keys in the same place each day.

What?
posted by prostyle at 1:08 PM on August 15, 2007

Nice link collection, glad to see people are finally telling the truth about baby carrots. But I wish they'd focused less on productivity/organization.

Yes, a cleaner desk and less email can improve my life -- but those topics are everywhere, all the time, and duplicated to death on the list. I realize it's a shill for the blog network of the host site, the focus of which is clearly "work better"... but the lead-in would have been more accurate if it had read:

"Most of us are interested in improving something about ourselves: our productivity, our sanity (as it is affected by productivity), our organization, our happiness (which you know is of course driven by organization), our effectiveness, our impact on the environment, our minds (gotta keep 'em organized!), our dreams (especially how to dream up ways to be more productive).

And you can spend hundreds of dollars on books and thousands of hours on productivity websites looking for your answers.

Or you can look no further, as we've collected 100 of the best tips on all of these subjects productivity -- a massive organizing resource list that is almost guaranteed to have something of use for everyone who obsesses with their workplace and/or cleanliness."

I'd give this list an A+ if it included tips on how to daydream, how to take more naps, how to always present your best side for photographs, the cultural and emotional benefits of travel, and how to draw better pictures of dragons.
posted by pineapple at 1:09 PM on August 15, 2007 [7 favorites]

The landing strip was not what I was expecting, dammit.
posted by yhbc at 1:09 PM on August 15, 2007

curses, beaten to the punch yet again
posted by yhbc at 1:10 PM on August 15, 2007

A landing strip in your home should be at the entrance you most often use.

The idea is that when you come in, you stop here first and unload.
posted by 23skidoo at 1:17 PM on August 15, 2007 [1 favorite]

Summarized: "get your shit together."

Thanks.
posted by davebush at 1:24 PM on August 15, 2007

A landing strip in your home should be at the entrance you most often use.

See, I disagree with this. I really think it should be at the front entrance in any case.
posted by Ambrosia Voyeur at 1:31 PM on August 15, 2007 [2 favorites]

Find inner serenity by avoiding lengthy, text-heavy lists on finding inner serenity.
posted by itchylick at 1:41 PM on August 15, 2007 [3 favorites]

O

C

D
posted by Muddler at 1:43 PM on August 15, 2007 [1 favorite]

I think the dimmer switches are key.
posted by Floydd at 1:44 PM on August 15, 2007

-- keep your keys in the same place each day.

Kids, do try this at home. Hanging your keys on a hook not too far from the door will save you many hours of key searches (many of which I suffered prior to "the hook".)
posted by telstar at 1:52 PM on August 15, 2007

I was expecting something else for "Landing Strip." I blame the internet.
posted by basicchannel at 1:56 PM on August 15, 2007

See, I disagree with this. I really think it should be at the front entrance in any case.

Well, the thing is, people who use the rear entrance already know where to look for shit.
posted by 23skidoo at 2:03 PM on August 15, 2007 [3 favorites]

32. Stop reading Harper's.
posted by kuujjuarapik at 2:06 PM on August 15, 2007

pah, for every action there is a counter action. For every book or list published there is an counter book, or anti-list in formation. Why? because people are not cogs, what works wonders for some doesn't do much for others. I lead a very productive, busy and interesting life. I am not organized by any conventional means, that is to say my work desk is not neat, my mail ends up in several different piles and my home desk is a thing out of legends (you've heard of the horn of plenty?). Get yer filthy, closet organizing, landing strip mandating, email cleaning preconceptions off to a empty desk = empty mind convention.
posted by edgeways at 2:09 PM on August 15, 2007

Let me ask you who sounds cooler, the person who is very clean and organized, or the person who has all sorts of cool old magazines and crazy junk lying around? It seems like these organized people make all this time to do stuff, and then the only ideas they have to write about is how organized they are.

I think I agree with Wayne Coyne when he said, "You have to sleep late when you can."
posted by buriednexttoyou at 2:09 PM on August 15, 2007

Pineapple - you should make that list. I would read it.
posted by mai at 2:09 PM on August 15, 2007

My wife and I had a heck of a time remembering to brush our twins' teeth regulary; by the end of the day we were exhausted, and in the morning we were harried.

I finally made some advertisements to hang around the house, showing, say, one of our children with a dinosaur bib and stuffing his face with yogurt, with the caption "Don't let his teeth go the way of the dinosaur." I put 'em on the fridge, the bathroom mirror, and a few other key places we were likely to encounter during the morning/evening routines.

It worked like a charm, because we found ourselves noticing and talking about them, and then remembering that we had to DO it, and it heightened our guilt if we put 'em to bed and then noticed the sign and remembered. Now we don't need the signs, as the reminders drove us to develop the habit.

So I can vouch for step 51, advertise action to yourself.
posted by davejay at 2:18 PM on August 15, 2007

yeah, it's called "OCD", but if those people were really organized, they'd find a way to call it "CDO". That way all the letters would be in order like they are supposed to be.
posted by boo_radley at 2:20 PM on August 15, 2007 [3 favorites]

how to daydream, how to take more naps, how to always present your best side for photographs, the cultural and emotional benefits of travel, and how to draw better pictures of dragons.
(For pineapple & mai)
posted by Floydd at 2:23 PM on August 15, 2007 [8 favorites]

Putting the cart before the horse while the horse just poops everywhere and eventually kicks the cart over.
posted by Burhanistan at 2:25 PM on August 15, 2007

keep your keys in the same place each day

I do. In my pocket.* In the pocket on the other side from my wallet, next to my notebook. Which my wife refers to as my "brain extension." And which is the second most important organizing discipline (i.e., carrying a hard-bound notebook in my pocket at all times) I've yet adopted.

First is the making and daily updating of to-do lists. If I use the notebook and the to-do list effectivley, I keep track of my shit and I get things done. It works for me. But I'm pretty thorougly unconvinced it would work for anyone else.

--
*I know, most women don't have pockets. They should have listened more to Coco Chanel.
posted by lodurr at 2:30 PM on August 15, 2007

Wait: I need instructions on how to daydream?
posted by lodurr at 2:32 PM on August 15, 2007

I ♥ Floydd. I'm telling you, I'd rather take tips on life improvement from MeFi than just about any place else.

In the words of commenter / scholar Crystal, "damn thats a really nice dragon i like it allot ima see if i can draw it next"
posted by pineapple at 2:34 PM on August 15, 2007

How to rid the world of all known diseases, play the flute, split the atom, and construct box-girder bridges.
posted by lodurr at 2:36 PM on August 15, 2007 [1 favorite]

Oh, wait, guys, I have this killer link to how to make a pda, but OUT OF NOTE CARDS!1!

damn lost the link
posted by everichon at 2:51 PM on August 15, 2007 [1 favorite]

Meh, overly clean houses feel too sterile and unlived in, and I like a bit of chaos.

They say 'Cleanliness is next to Godliness'. I'll stick with my messy, Devilish house.
posted by quin at 3:09 PM on August 15, 2007

See, I eat out a lot so I couldn’t unpack all my shit on the landing strip. And I never really know where I’m going to come in so I’d rather unload once I’m fully inside and leave everything just where it lays.
Sometimes I come in the garage. But I wouldn’t want to drop off my bag there.

(You know who else had a landing strip?)
posted by Smedleyman at 4:25 PM on August 15, 2007

Routine is indeed the method to happiness (or at least organization). I keep everything I need in my pockets. Even stuff I need for work goes into my weekend pockets. Otherwise I'll forget it and be sad.
posted by DU at 4:53 PM on August 15, 2007

(You know who else had a landing strip?)
Yup.
posted by Floydd at 4:58 PM on August 15, 2007

Everyone in my house is an early riser, except me.

When I need to get up to take the kids to school or for an appointment, I do it. But I don't like it.

The early bird may get the worm, but it's the second mouse that gets the cheese.
posted by misha at 5:16 PM on August 15, 2007 [3 favorites]

But I want to be both the early bird and the second mouse.

Stupid paradox
posted by jaronson at 5:55 PM on August 15, 2007

I don't want to be the early worm.
posted by Dataphage at 6:54 PM on August 15, 2007

I also enjoy talking about ladies' pubic hairstyles.
posted by LordSludge at 8:00 PM on August 15, 2007

(what's the male version of the landing strip?)
posted by UbuRoivas at 8:06 PM on August 15, 2007

I enjoy landing strips and sleeping in.
posted by dirigibleman at 8:52 PM on August 15, 2007

How to 'clear your inbox in 30 seconds':

Put it all in one folder:

1. Create an archive folder
In your favorite email program, create a folder and name it “Archive” followed by today’s date. For example, “Archive_20060822”.

2. Move everything in your Inbox to the archive
Go to your inbox, select all the email messages and move them into the folder you just created.

That’s it! Your inbox is cleared, and your mind can enjoy the resulting calm.

You won’t read 95% of it again...

This guy obviously works in our IT department.
posted by slimepuppy at 4:54 AM on August 16, 2007

(what's the male version of the landing strip?)
Skid marks?
posted by Floydd at 5:26 AM on August 16, 2007

The landing strip in my house.
posted by dobbs at 6:24 AM on August 16, 2007

Let me ask you who sounds cooler, the person who is very clean and organized, or the person who has all sorts of cool old magazines and crazy junk lying around?

Ever watch Monk?
posted by DevilsAdvocate at 9:21 AM on August 16, 2007

Seriously, you could spend an afternoon with Adrian Monk and come out of it not wanting to kill him?
posted by lodurr at 10:08 AM on August 16, 2007

The early bird may get the worm, but it's the second mouse that gets the cheese.

Whenever I've baited the traps, bait was gone in the morning and the traps were still there.

If you really want the mouse to get caught in the trap, don't bait it. Just put them so that the pressure plate / trip switch is right where they might step on it as they go by. You'll catch more mice that way than by baiting the traps.
posted by lodurr at 10:10 AM on August 16, 2007

Seriously, you could spend an afternoon with Adrian Monk and come out of it not wanting to kill him?

Oh, I'd want to kill him, probably. But I'd still think he was immensely cool all the while.
posted by DevilsAdvocate at 11:48 AM on August 16, 2007