One thing to improve life

[username299]

Happy New Year.

Going into 2025 I'm looking for things to improve my life. I'm just wondering what one thing have you done that has seriously improved your life?

I'm not looking for marriage/children, things like that. Simple things like taking a regular vitamin, starting yoga, drinking more water, learning to say no, creative writing, decluttering, going vegan...

Why don’t you join the 25 things in 2025 thread for lots of inspiration

mine would be going for a walk! Aim for every day but if you don’t walk at all then even a few times a week.

Even a 20 minutes walk round the block will make a huge difference to your mood, and motivation and so on.

I’m looking forward to reading other ideas too!

Mine will be to try and work on/find some help for procrastination. It doesn't matter if it'll make my life easier, if it's something for me....I just can't force myself to do anything until the absolute last minute and it is starting to have an impact on my life, especially at work....
I have this dream that if I can do something about my procrastinating, everything else will fall in to place. Will see if I can find any self help books on amazon and then look in to therapy maybe

Having a more positive approach to life has made a big difference, and pushing myself to tackle the more tedious things in life - admin, etc. I'd like to read more, especially Spanish books.

I wish i would just get on and learn to play the keyboard. In fact, if anyone has succeeded with this by being self-taught, please inspire me. I can read music, if that counts?😁

Good luck.

Lots this year
Only eating whole foods/no upf - lots of weight loss without any hunger/cravings
Weight training (just dumbbells at home) - makes you feel amazing and look amazing
Early morning light - for years I struggled with poor sleep and waking at 3am. One simple fix, 10 min day light before 9am made a huge difference. No longer waking early and much more deep sleep.

For other ideas I recommend Michael Mosely's Just One Thing podcast

For other ideas I recommend Michael Mosely's Just One Thing podcast

I started listening to them last year, I should carry on - there are quite a few things which are easy to incorporate into normal life.

10,000 steps a day makes a huge difference to how I feel, how I sleep and my weight.

Regular exercise habit. Don't know how old you are, but my advice is to reach your peak fitness by your mid 40s. You'll be glad you did. Its so much harder to build fitness after this age, and you start to lose muscle etc, so a high baseline is a really good thing to have.

Would you have a link please

Decide to only see the positive in everything

More (and better) sleep.

I used to stay up until midnight every night and was up between 6:30 and 7:00 every morning for work. I drank loads of caffeine in the evenings too.

I used to think I was missing out by going to bed earlier. Then I realised that most nights I did nothing constructive with the time after 10-10:30 - I just watched crap on TV or scrolled down my phone.

I started aiming to go to bed no later than 10:30 and dropped the caffeine at lunchtime. The extra 90 mins and better sleep mean I wake up refreshed, mentally sharper. I also read for 20 mins before sleep and leave my phone downstairs.

@Itiswhysofew my son taught himself to play the piano during lockdowns using YouTube videos where the keys to play are highlighted on a rolling screen - might be worth trying! He reads music too but I think it was how to combine to hands together that the videos helped with.

I wouldn't class "learning to say no" as a simple thing. It often involves creating a whole new version of yourself, seeing yourself and your priorities really differently, doing things you have never done before (because you find them intimidating) and having everyone around you suddenly start seeing you differently too (and sometimes being quite difficult about it). Brilliant thing to do, yes, but I wouldn't say it was simple.

Thank you. That sounds good. I'll take a look..

Hope this isn't too basic but I find simple preparation before a work day really useful for staying calm and organised.

Have all clothes out ready the night before, even knickers!
Work bag packed.
Lunch and breakfast ready in tupperwares in the fridge.
Bags all ready, even cutlery in the bag.
A look at the weather the night before too as I walk to work.
Keys, hat, gloves etc all in the right place to grab.
Plus a quick look at the work diary so I know what to expect.

I can get stressed quite easily. I need to learn to go with the flow more and de-stress. I need to enjoy my free time more. Reading, drawing, painting, working out etc. That's what I'm hoping for this year 🙂

Same for me. And it's not ADHD because I never had this issue before children- it's to do with mental overwhelm and my body fighting back to find some space for itself. BUT it makes things so much worse as I end up with constant periods of extreme stress and having to pull all nighters to complete work projects, then looking after kids and working on one hours sleep.
Something has to change.

Things that have made a huge difference in my life:

Trying to really notice and savour the good things in life.
Getting a dishwasher.

@LostittoBostik same here with the all nighters... its shocking what I put myself through. Have deadlines today for midnight, could have started anytime but still sat here at 10 o'clock scrolling online...its about 15 hours worth of work...so guess what I'll be doing while the rest of the world celebrates??? And i just cannot force myself to do it....I have no children and have always been like it, even as a young child with homework. I maybe do have adhd or similar but the whole process of getting a diagnosis before some medication really really puts me off. Maybe something to put on the list and start the ball rolling. If there are meds out there to help me it would be a godsend x

In the pandemic I gave up my car and walk everywhere. Not possible for all, but the best thing I have ever done.

Quit alcohol. Absolutely bloody life changing.

Sticking at exercise consistently in a manageable way. For me that has been an hour on Tuesday and an hour on Friday - yes that might not be the "optimum" amount for some people, but its the amount that fits into my life with everything else that I need to do (job / childcare / house stuff etc). It is manageable and doable. Its booked in my life like any other appointment. I have stuck at it come rain or shine for about 18 months now. The longest I've ever consistently done it for! Results have been amazing. You don't have to cane yourself in the gym for 5 days a week to make a difference - you just have to stick consistently with the time you can manage each week.

Vitamin C.

To be more honest. I realised I said white lies all the time to please other people and ended up doing things I didn't want to do.

Cheating a bit, as its three things, but all with the one aim- to treat my body as well as I can. The things were - gradually moving to a vegan whole food diet, walking briskly for at least 30 minutes every day and cutting out alcohol. Its changed my life and everything else has fallen into place or been minimised because of it.