I took some time off the past few weeks to recharge and I’m back, ready to face 2020!
In line with that, I’ve listed out a few, easy things that we can do to make 2020 a better year. When you need a break from work, when you’re feeling bored, instead of heading out to get a cup of coffee or zoning out or getting lost scrolling in social media, set a timer on your phone and get to doing one thing on this list!
20 Things To Do for a Better 2020
Feel free to change up this list and make your own to make your list relevant to you. Print out a copy, put it where it’s visible so you are always reminded to do these things when procrastination strikes.
Whenever you feel like you need a break from whatever you’re doing, try doing one of the things on this list. I call it “PRODUCTIVE PROCRASTINATION” – you’re technically procrastinating from doing what you need to be doing, but at least you’re getting something done, even if it’s not the most important thing that you need to do. That’s why it’s important that you set a timer, so that when time’s up, you can get back to doing your important tasks with, hopefully, renewed energy and focus.
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Clean your email inbox.
I have several email addresses that started out as personal emails but ended up being littered with spam through the years. I have one inbox that reached 6,000+ unread emails. Once in a while, I go in and start deleting and unsubscribing and tagging spam so that they won’t clog up my inbox anymore. It’s still a work in progress, but it’s now down to 2,000+ unread emails in my inbox. I have achieved Inbox 0 on another email account. To be honest, I never really read ANY of the newsletters I get. So now, my mindset is just – if I’m looking to buy something, I will go to the website and look for the deals and flash sales and vouchers there instead – NO NEED TO SUBSCRIBE TO ANY NEWSLETTER. Majority of the apps have a notification area on their app where they tell you what’s new, anyway.
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Declutter, clean and organize one drawer.
Maybe today, you can clean and organize your desk drawer. Maybe next week, you can clean & organize your underwear drawer. Next next week, maybe your shirts drawer. Next, maybe clean your shoe cabinet. Hopefully, eventually, you can get through all your drawers in a few months’ time 😀 Throw out things that are broken and you are unlikely to repair, like pens that don’t write anymore. Donate/sell excess items or those that don’t spark joy anymore. As a blogger, I have received so many USBs and ballpens and fans – after formatting the USBs, I donated my extra items to our local library and barangay hall.
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Wipe one area.
Metro Manila is dusty. That’s just the truth. Maybe today you can wipe down your desk, maybe a few days from now, you can wipe down your vanity table and makeup, maybe next week, you can dust the TV and the surrounding area, and so on. Change things up so you can get through all the dusty surfaces in your house.
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Clean your electric fan.
This is one thing I have noticed that most people don’t even think about. Dirty electric fan = dirty air blowing at you. Unplug the electric fan, learn how to disassemble the grills and the fan blades, wash them with soap and water, wipe the electric fan body, assemble everything back properly, plug it back to test if it’s working properly. If you have an aircon, clean your aircon filter and wipe the outside with a microfiber cloth to remove any the dust.
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Tackle one “mess” pile.
Is this a paper pile you need to file? To recycle? Is it a pile of stuff you need to sell on Carousell / FB / Shopee? Do what you can in 20 minutes – it’s better than doing nothing. Hopefully the pile is a bit smaller now. One thing I like to do with scratch paper is to fold them neatly and put them in the bathroom to be used when ladies need to wrap things before throwing in the trash, if you know what I mean 😀
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Clean your refrigerator / go through your pantry and organize them.
Identify what you need to use up right away, toss out expired items. Donate what you don’t need – for example, we get a lot of plastic utensils and condiment sachets from takeout, I just donate them to our barangay to use for the barangay parties they hold a few times a year.
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Disinfect / clean your phone.
Spray a clean rag with alcohol and use it to wipe your phone (mobile and landline), making sure to get all the crevices, too! While you’re at it, after cleaning your phone, you can use the same rag to wipe your doorknobs and light switches. If you have time, you can also start uninstalling apps you don’t use and deleting duplicate photos. Export the photos you want to keep to something like Dropbox or Google Photos. Also, my original phone case was getting ratty, so I ordered a few new ones online (only P50 each! Much cheaper than in Greenhills).
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Snack prep!
Prepare some snacks in advance. 20 mins is too short a time to do actual meal prep, but snack prep is doable. You can prepare 3 servings of overnight oats. Or you can make 3 sandwiches that you can eat for the next few days. Instead of making 1 serving of omelet, it’s not that much effort to cook a bigger batch – keep the extra 2 servings in containers in the refrigerator, ready for you to eat in the next few days! Do what works for your diet (low carb, keto, etc…). Also, the snacks don’t always have to be for you. I am not a big snacker, but I snack prep for other members of the family. This saves the family money by reducing food deliveries and we know what’s in the food (hopefully, it’s healthier than store-bought snacks). Our current favorite snack is egg muffins.
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Schedule self-care.
You can book a dentist appointment, or a medical check-up. You can also schedule a massage, or even a vacation! Make an appointment for a facial, or a mani/pedi, or a haircut. Or you can book a class on a topic that interests you, like maybe a Vietnamese cooking class or something 🙂
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Do 1 quick self-care thing.
It could be applying a face mask – we need to moisturize our skin, and hopefully, prevent wrinkles as much as possible! Or you could do some stretching, a little bit of yoga, follow one of those 10-minute workouts on YouTube, whiten your teeth with something like Crest strips, eat a healthy snack (fruits), make yourself a health drink – you can make some green tea, or ginger tea, or a turmeric drink. You can also take some wheatgrass, or make calamansi juice. Or you can also make a smoothie or even juice some fruits and vegetables. You can also read something motivating or inspiring.
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Create a music playlist.
I am the type who needs a music playlist to keep me motivated to finish my home chores. So I made a Spotify playlist filled with upbeat songs to help me get through my chores. You can create playlists to get you to wake up in the morning feeling positive. You can create your “house music” to play when you just want to enjoy being at home (I make something similar to the ones they use in coffee shops). You can make a workout playlist, too, or you can create a relaxing playlist you can play every night to help you wind down before sleep.
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Scan your old photos.
Some of us still have non-digital photos of when we were kids, or family photos of relatives from the older generation. Take some time to preserve these precious memories by scanning them. I just use my all-in-one printer scanner to do this, and upload the photos to a shared family cloud drive. I still have a few more piles to go 🙂
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Declutter / clean /organize your handbag.
Sometimes I still have receipts in my bag that are a few months old! I tend to keep my “pending” to-do stuff in my bag because I know that if I don’t see it, I will forget about it. If I file things in a folder, it’s as good as forgotten, LOL. I am also the person who brings *everything* just in case. I am the one people ask when they suddenly need emergency things. Hand sanitizer? Yes. Wet tissue? Yes. Sunblock? Yes. Sanitary napkin? Yes. Makeup remover? Yes. White Flower oil? Yes. My bag is ginormous so one of the things I hope to do more this year is to keep up with cleaning it out.
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Do a quick tidy.
Go around your home / office / space and put things back in their proper places. For example, fold washed clothes and put them away in your cabinet. Bring used cups and plates back in the kitchen, wash them and put them away. I have this tendency to bring my water glasses everywhere around the house and leave them where I stayed (on my desk or near the couch). Put back used cleaning supplies, put back that book or magazine you were leafing through, etc…
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Label things!
Does it bother you when people don’t put things back where they should? Do people always get things wrong? It annoys me when people don’t follow my system, LOL. So I go around the house and label drawers and containers so that people know where things should be put back. I even label our light switches because even after years of living in this house, sometimes, most of us still press the wrong switch, like we turn on the lights for the Left side of the room but we meant to turn on the lights for the Right side of the room. If it’s not obvious, I also label which side is ON and which side is OFF. This also helps a lot when we have new people in the house like helpers or guests.
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Shred paper and stuff you don’t need.
I mean, papers with personal, private information that you don’t need any more but don’t want to get in to the wrong hands, like old bills, shipping information, receipts, old credit cards, etc… When I get things shipped to me, I always cut out the shipping info before throwing the packaging away – it’s just best practice – so scammers won’t be able to make any use out of them.
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Clean your cleaning stuff.
The things we use to clean need to be cleaned, too. Vacuum cleaners need to be cleaned out when full, dishwashing sponges need to be disinfected, dirty cleaning cloths need to be laundered, the washing machine needs to be cleaned (run a cleaning cycle).
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Help.
What can you help someone with in 20 minutes? It can be as simple as listening to a friend who needs some emotional support. Maybe a friend needs an online vote for some contest he entered. Sign an online petition for something you care about. Help an older relative organize their phone contacts list. Or take out your label maker and help them label their drawers so it’s easier for them to find things. Donate money, time or things. Take 20 minutes to pack some extra toiletries and stuff in a “donation” bag that you can quickly take to a donation center when a calamity strikes.
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Visualize the life you want and find mentors who will lead you to the right path.
Think about your future. What kind of person do you want to be? Who is a good example of someone living the life you want? Rarely can we find someone who 100% is living the life we aspire to, but I’m sure there is someone who is a good example of an aspect of it. It can be you want to learn from this person who is a good businessman, so learn from him on this subject. Maybe you want to be more stylish, so find someone who is similar-looking as you and has great style, and learn from her. Maybe you want to be a God-fearing, humble person who is a good example of integrity and service, so find someone who embodies these traits to guide you. Try to create/ join a positive support group. You can follow these people online or, if you have the opportunity, make friends with them in real life. You can read their books or watch their videos, if they have any. You’re also not limited to real people, or people who are alive. You can choose to admire fictional characters, as well as historical figures, too. Maybe you’re into Gandhi’s inner strength, like Marilyn Monroe’s style, or admire Naruto’s resolve…
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Weed out bad influences in your life.
Are there people in your life who are leading you down a destructive path? Some people are just bad for us, but we don’t realize it because we’re “in the moment” and they are feeding our negative impulses for thrills / “fun” / YOLO / acceptance / whatever. Before we know it, we’re doing things that ultimately lead to the destruction of other, more important things in our lives and not even realizing that our actions are slowly damaging our relationships with people who love us. Examples of bad influences are people who are always inviting us to go out drinking and clubbing until morning even though they know we have a family or are in a committed relationship; these can be people who encourage us to do risky behavior like drugs, drunk driving, smoking, etc… These can be people who, knowing you’re going through something, instead of encouraging you to stay on the right course to better yourself, lead you down the wrong path and let you make bad choices. These may also be people who keep hurting us, keep acting out, or people who are so toxic, or so lost in their own crises and impulses, or so hopeless that you just have to accept that there’s nothing more you can do. As an INFJ, I am aware that I have a tendency to mirror the people I surround myself with. If I am around people with low or “flexible” moral standards, my own morals tend to get corrupted and I tend to lower my moral standards and expectations to their level until I feel like I have compromised too much of myself. This is why I am now consciously surrounding myself with people of good moral character, high integrity, and who make good choices in life. If I am around high quality people, I tend to rise up to be on their level as well. Stop surrounding yourself with low quality people, just stop. High quality people can be so much more fun, without the self-destructive behaviors, bad influence, and negative drama of low quality people! They say that you are the average of the people you surround yourself with. Take this time to start thinking about it. Choose wisely.
From https://personalexcellence.co/blog/average-of-5-people/:
Shape your life by choosing who you are with
By choosing who you spend time with, you literally shape your future. Start by examining the people you spend the most time around. Consider if these people are enabling you toward your envisioned self. If they are not, identify and increase contact with the people who will enable you to become the best person you can be.
