Good Life Tips

A few tricks that have helped me:

• Don’t email, twitter or facebook first thing in the morning as this will undoubtedly lead you off on some tangent that will consume 30 minutes of your day.
• Don’t turn on the TV while you’re getting ready as you’ll undoubtedly find yourself staring at it instead of getting ready. Turn on the radio instead, it’s way less distracting.
• Do everything in the exact same order and you’ll naturally get more efficient at it, my preferred morning order is eat, groom, dress (to avoid getting food or anything else on my clothes).
• Eat the same thing for breakfast every weekday. As soon as I wake up I grab a chilled bottle of water out of the fridge and chug it while I’m relieving myself. Then, I get a cup of coffee brewing in the Kuerig and preheat my pan. Then I drink the coffee while I’m cooking two eggs. Eat the eggs and finish my coffee without rushing, this whole process takes 5 minutes without hurrying.
• Turn on the water to the shower, disrobe, apply toothpaste to your toothbrush and brush your teeth as you’re getting into the shower.
• Keep your showers short, it takes 5 minutes to brush your teeth and wash everything (more for long hair). Nobody needs a 20 minute shower.
• Keep things in their place, and you’ll save tons of time not looking for them. This doesn’t have to be complicated or involve a trip to Crate and Barrel: take a bowl (or box or baseball cap) stick it next to your cell phone charger and put your wallet, keys and cell phone inside it.
• Time your commute and compare different routes, you might be surprised. I thought I was saving time by taking the backroads into downtown, but it turned out it was faster to just creep along with all the other traffic on the freeway.
• I set my set of cloths out the night before. I make sure I have my shoes and bag next to the door complete with keys. I then make sure I have my lunch packed the night before.
• If you wet shave, shave in the shower. Good anti-fog mirrors actually exist (the kind you fill with hot water), and the mess you’d typically make in the sink just washes down the drain. Also nice: if you’re nearsighted, you can typically stand right up close to the mirror and see your reflection clearly without glasses. It beats leaning over a counter to get a better view.
• play the same playlist every morning. I know when I hit certain songs I should be doing certain things, so I never fall behind schedule.
• i put my phone on the floor (my bed is lofted) so that i have to climb down from my bed to turn off my alarm in the morning. it makes pressing the snooze button feel dumb.
• Start things that take time and finish the selves first. For example, instead of putting bread in the toaster and doing nothing, put it in to toast and then pack your bag or finish something else using the time that you’re waiting. Same goes for boiling water, brewing coffee etc.
• Get up the FIRST time the alarm goes off!