For example, I 3d printed a box over my outlet to protect my cables from my bed pushing against it. In addition, my cables never fall to the floor so they’re much easier to grab.
It might seem dumb but i started preparing what i need for the next day the evening before it, clothes ,my bag, the train ticket, what i need to eat on the go, etc. instead of doing a mad rush in the morning to get ready.
Hired a bi-weekly house cleaner. My mental health is so much better now that my house is always clean.
Ooh that sounds nice. I’ve considered doing something similar, but I’m worried about being able to find stuff if I’m not the one who puts it away. Have you had any trouble with that?
Most cleaners only clean, dont really change stuff. The secret is to kind of tidy up your house before they arrive. And yes, definitely get one. It’s a life changer, and good for your personal relationships.
Yes, I am not comfortable with someone coming in my private residence. So I am left to do everything myself…
Set calendar alerts for routine tasks that need to be done less frequently than once a week.
Things like washing the vacuum cleaner filters, descaling the kettle, replacing the water filter (I’m in a hard-water area), servicing various appliances, cleaning all the things that need cleaning but don’t need cleaning every week. All small things. It removes a lot of cognitive effort and makes sure those things actually get done.
Eliminated Google, Microsoft, Apple, Facebook, Twitter, Reddit, and all of the affiliate companies and services for the mentioned ones, from my life. Now all I have is Linux based and self-hosted. My life’s toxicity levels dropped to pretty much nothing since then.
I just finished doing this too. It’s so freeing not being tied to mega corporations anymore.
What do you use for search?
I have my own self-hosted instances of Ecosia, Searx and Whoogle.
Not OC, but I’m using Kagi and super happy. Before I use Kagi, I didn’t realise how bad Google result is. Its results are poisoned by ads and SEO nowadays.
I still am using Google and I hate how useless it has become since SEO started to become a thing in the last 5 or 10 years. Maybe I should try Kagi. Does it have location specific search results
more on the 10 years end of that, i remember thinking results were declining ~2011 when they decided to start being ask jeeves
Yeah, since about 2016 it has started to get really bad though. I remember when I would be looking for a solution to a computer related issue, all the top results were super useful Tom’s Hardware and AnandTech forum posts. But of course nobody does SEO for forum posts because they’re just trying to help people not make money, so instead now all of the probably AI written crap is in the top results which half the time is only barely related to what I searched
Everything that takes under two minutes to complete gets done immediately. Future me loves past me now
I went on a T-shirt wholesale website and ordered 20 navy blue shirts for a few bucks apiece. I look like this now. Get over it.
tom scott arch nemesis
When going on vacations abroad, we bring a power strip from home. With it, you’ll only need a single international converter to power multiple devices.
I do this as well, but add in a 10 port USB charger and some USB cables so I can charge all my devices.
I started antidepressants
When I did that in college, though it was over 20 years ago, I distinctly remember my mother saying over the phone “Oh sure, just take the easy way out”.
Yeah Mom, I’m taking the “easy way out” here by going to therapy and taking medication. That’s totally what those words refer to. 🙄
Not to shit on your mom or anything, but that’s ignorance right there.
Good for you for taking responsibility and care for your own mental health
Overstock.
Buy two bottles of cleaner. One in the kitchen, one in the bathroom. Tool box lives in the garage, but I have spares in the kitchen drawer. Trash can in every room. Extra shoelaces sitting on the shoe rack. It doesn’t take up a lot of space and it makes life much easier when you don’t have to look for something.
Extra shoelaces? I don’t remember ever needing extra shoelaces ever in my life.
This is such a generational thing. My parents and grandparents would get shoes and have them resoled periodically. With a little care, a pair of shoes were expected to last decades. You used to see shoe repair shops in every neighborhood. I can’t remember the last time I brought a pair of shoes that could be resoled.
IIRC most cobblers will work on Birkenstocks.
Started distancing myself from friends who become political extremists and life is much calmer
Unless all you did was talk about politics, how does it actually affect a relationship (unless they say something actually atrocious)?
In my experience with these types of people, they more and more frequently shift conversation to them wanting their beliefs validated, because normal people have stopped engaging with them.
Honestly? I switched from Windows to Linux. I was working for several years at a Windows-centric computer magazine and realized a couple of years ago that many of the articles I was writing were about how to make Windows behave less like Windows. So I installed some Linux distro in a virtual machine on my work PC to play around with it for a bit. And soon after I installed Manjaro on my PC at home. Today, four years later, I’ve installed various Linux distros on all my PCs, and I’m much less annoyed by computer issues on a regular basis.
Yes Linux sort of feels like a car from the 1980s or earlier, where you can open the hood and understand it, and Windows feels like a car from the 2020s where you simply can’t understand everything the car is doing because of all the computers onboard.
Except instead of the car being old, it is modern and fast.
I recently got a convertible standing desk thing, with a treadmill/walking pad for underneath. It has done wonders for my mental health while at work. Reading boring real estate contracts is a lot easier to get through when I’m standing up and moving instead of falling asleep in my chair while simultaneously destroying my back/posture.
I don’t buy personal electronics, phone cases, or other items in black if I have the option. Not quite as rigorously I’ve stopped buying black or dark clothing where possible. Decades of buying everything in black or darker shades as the default and at some point I realized it’s pretty damn bland and makes everything harder to find if lost.
I buy all my electronics in black, because they can last decades and still look fine. Most white or colored stuff become yellowish with time.
Using a password manager
Bitwarden FTW. I also recommend Aegis 2FA and Raivo 2FA
KeePass for life!
KeePass is also good if you want it local only or have figured out a way to sync on multiple devices.
SyncThing makes it pretty easy. It is less easy than a cloud based solution, though.
Sauerkraut
IT’S GOOD FOR YOU
