I have to admit: I am obsessed with other people’s tips and tricks for making the mere act of human existence marginally easier, hints for how to majick your own life into being less vaguely aggravating. Like, I just saw on Hitha Palepu’s Instagram that she makes a cup of tea before she goes to bed, puts it in a (very effective) insulated mug, and then when she wakes up, it’s THERE for her to drink. I think this is brilliant. For me, my general care practitioner is VERY hard to get in to see — like, appointments for check-ups are MONTHS out (and also she just left that office and I’m not sure where she’s gone, so that’s…a problem for another chat. My Missing Doctor) — and so I’ve started making my appointment for next year’s physical when I leave the current one. I feel so organized when I do that! It’s a favor for Next Year Me. Another favorite tip is that my local library has quite a large central branch that’s not super close to me, and a cute small branch that’s VERY close to me, and I can transfer books I’d like to check out from the Not Super Close Branch to the Walkable Branch and just pop over there and get them! I somehow did not know I could do this before last year! It is so convenient. (I feel like the library does all kinds of useful stuff that people don’t know they do, so a good life hack is also to make friends with a librarian.) My final tip is that I have a Subscribe and Save set up on Amazon for my favorite coffee, because of all the things I don’t want to run out of in the world, first on the list is coffee. (With the caveat that (a) Amazon likes to sucker you in with a reasonable Subscribe and Save price and then like three shipments later, the price magically goes way up, so you have to keep an eye on it, and (b) I’m trying to figure a way to not use Amazon for this because I think They’re Bad.)
What about you? What small things are you doing for yourself to make your own life easer?
