to ask for your good habits so I can copy them!?

[cloverlover]

On the look out for great new habits. What are yours? Here are a few of mine to start us off:

• floss and use interdental in the shower
• take one old item out of the fridge each time I open it
• get dressed as soon as I get out of bed to avoid lounging in dressing gown

what are your great habits that help your life run smoothly? I'm in need of inspiration! thanks :)

Give the bathroom sink a quick spray and wipe every day. Makes such a difference to how clean the whole room looks and feels if the taps are shiny and there aren't toothpaste splatters everywhere!

Focus on the 'big' elements of each room, so the sofa, bed, kitchen worktops, floors.

Be kind to yourself - sleep if you need to.

Drink more water/squash, it really reduces fatigue.

Doors and windows open for fresh air.

Break your cleaning up and do a little every day that way you don't spend hours at the weekend and if there is any mess it's less of an issue as you haven't just spent all day cleaning only for someone to ruin it!

Cut yourself some slack.

Oh and lots of fibre

Meditation when I wake up.
Glass of water when I wake up
Stretching/yoga before bed

Have a set routine - including diet... - for the entire day. And try not to slip up more than once a week.

Have an Action List that I update every evening, before I allow myself to relax and chill.

Keep a supply of teeth flossers in various places around the house: bathroom, cosmetics drawer in my bedroom, kitchen windowsill, my desk, the box where I keep my keys..... This ensures I remember to floss, and floss often. It was even more useful when I still had kids living at home.

I set a send delay (to 7pm) on emails that are contentious or will elicit an immediate response.

Oh no, that's the worst @DillDanding - my boss does that and he's ruined so many evenings for me because I've worried all night about whatever bombshell he's just dropped.

I put hand cream on every night

I always add a donation to the food bank charity on my online shop

I put things in my calendar (with reminders) that are important to the people who are important to me. So if a friend has an interview it goes into my diary with an alert to wish them luck / ask how it went. Likewise if there’s a bereavement anniversary, I have an alert to check in on the person, and so on. It might sound ott, but as life seems to be so manic all the time, it stops me forgetting to check in on the people I care about when the day to day takes over.

I always take the stairs rather than the lift.

What a great thread!

@DillDanding

I set a send delay (to 7pm) on emails that are contentious or will elicit an immediate response.

Don’t do this - it’s awful for the recipient who then has to work or stress all evening.

My work place strongly discourages emails outside of business hours.

Setting up your email delay to deliberately intrude on people’s evening with something nasty just seems unprofessional.

Nope. Works for me. It means the recipient doesn’t see it until the next day. I’m talking about people that don’t work into the evening as I do.

I drink water when I feel the need.

@echt

I drink water when I feel the need.

Too right, this "drink an arbitrary amount of water a day" bollocks is, well, bollocks peddled by the bottled water industry. Your body tells you when it needs fluids and everybody knows the symptom. It's pointless drinking water just for the sake of drinking water.

@peachgreen

I have two rules on my emails - one that delays sending for a minute (so useful for when I've forgotten an attachment or whatever) and one that puts a copy of the email I've just sent into my inbox so that I can file it away with the email I've replied to into the correct folder. So handy.

I do this too

As for the poster who delay sends to 7 pm, what I do instead if I am working late in the evening, I delay send to 8 am the next morning so it is one of the first things in the recipient's inbox when they log in next morning without interrupting their evening.

However, I do send immediate emails late in the evening if I am being chased for a reply ... these will generally be to senior people who are expected to be working all hours anyway.

@echt and @ThurstonArmbrister I was unde the impression that we are already dehydrated by the time we feel thirsty. But they may be rubbish. It drives me mad trying to teach children who are constantly sucking on mahoosive bottles, fiddling with bottles and basically exercising their human right to drink constantly! How did I survive the 70s:80s without constant access?

Love this thread, thank you x

Hoping to adopt some of your great ideas, I never seem to be able to keep house neat and am very often late for things - which I hate! Tried the being ready 15 minutes early thing this morning and it worked, yay! Hoping I can keep it up..

Couple of things I can add, that I try to do and it helps when I manage to..

Brush teeth and do make up as soon as I get up in morning to avoid running out of time for it before school run

Eat lots for dinner, one last big drink around 7:30 (so won’t need to wee in night) then floss and brush just after while kids in bath

Get in bath once LO in bed to make morning quicker

@Benjispruce5 a sensation of thirst that only occurred when dehydrated wouldn't be a very good evolutionary strategy. Animals don't drink because someone tells them they should at every opportunity, they drink when it's necessary (for many of them the act of taking on water makes them vulnerable to predators).

@Benjispruce5 if we are already dehydrated when we feel thirsty it would be logical to assume we are already starving when we feel hungry and are already asleep when we feel tired that we already have hypothermia when we feel cold etc.
in actual fact thirst is an early indication that we need to drink just like hunger is to eat and feeling tired is to go to bed or stop the strenuous activity we are doing it is however true especially in the elderly that thirst sensations are not so accurate in some people and they need to be persuaded to drink more ( often thin the elderly they are on diuretics and are scared of needing bathroom too often)
also any liquid is actually liquid whether it is water tea coffee squash or beer or even soup so while tea and coffee etc have a mild diuretic effect it is much much less than the actual volume being drunk
the average woman requires 2litres of liquid per day, if it is very hot or you are exercising very hard or you are bigger than average you might need a bit more

@TeacupDrama I’m only repeating what is quite a well trotted put theory.

*out

A quick Google throws this up.

Such an interesting chat about drinking water.
I think drinking habits can be societal, I even think that people turn to food when in fact they are thirsty.
Eating without a drink seems alien to me- yet many do just that.
My elderly mother never feels thirst- and will simply not drink without reminders.
In fact she has been admitted to hospital several times with severe dehydration because she lacks the thirst instinct.
It does happen.

To be aware of my thoughts, am l in a negative state of mind, fearful state of mind etc, this has helped me alot.

Sunday reset! Grocery shop in, bedding washed and put back on and clothes washed. House half tidied.

Makes the week seem more bearable

@speakout that is what I meant the elderly can lose thirst sensations

@Benjispruce5 precisely it is a commonly trotted out theory with the idea that 1% dehydrated is a bad thing but that is precisely what thirst is the first sign of needing fluid 1% dehydrated is very very mild

people who live in the Sahara do not drink litres and litres of water per day

just like 1% hungry is very mild you won't starve for ages and you don't even need to eat for a while in fact people are encouraged not to eat until hungry ... not to eat before they are hungry nor to leave it until they are ravenous

@TeacupDrama I shall tell the bottle swiggers at school!

I think many people want to believe they should drink large quantities of water when they're not thirsty. It's much easier to drink water than exercise or eat healthily.
They feel they're doing a Good Thing with little effort.
Hence all the postings on mumsnet about water drinking routines.

I wonder if you asked a large group of men for any good habits they have, how many would be centered around cleaning and tidying
Little to none I would expect