Over the last few years, and particularly in the last 6-12 months, I’ve made some lifestyle changes that have improved things generally for me. I’m sharing them here in case they are of interest or useful to others.
Installing hook next to door: I put my keys on this as soon as I get in, which means I never have to hunt for them when I want to leave.
Checking news once a day: This has reduced my stress levels, given that so much news is negative. I’m also skimming the news rather than reading all the details. I still read The Economist each week, so I know what’s going on, but I control when I do that, and somehow it’s not as stressful as reading on a screen.
Unsubscribing from politics podcasts: Similar to checking the news, these were causing me a lot of stress (but I only really noticed once I stopped).
Removing ads from podcasts: I opted for a paid subscription to the Late Night Linux family of podcasts, as well as The Rest Is History. I didn’t realise how annoying the adverts were until they disappeared – they were one of those minor irritations that I would call a ‘papercut issue’, annoying but not quite enough to do something about unless I put a persistent effort into it. I don’t blame podcasts for having adverts – they need to make a living – but breaking up the flow and hearing the same advert again and again was ruining the experience for me.
Mastodon filtering: I’ve ramped up my filtering on Mastodon, again to reduce the amount of negative news I see. I’ve also unfollowed a few people who were relentlessly posting or boosting political articles without content warnings or hashtags.
Decluttering: I am a bit of a hoarder, not helped by the fact that I have not moved house for a long time (one advantage of being a student was that it forced me to declutter every year or two). In particular, I have far too many books, some of which I will never get round to reading. I’ve started a stricter approach to decluttering, looking at every book individually and making a decision as to whether I will read it multiple times (keep), read it once (add to reading queue and donate once read) or never read it (donate it now).
Walking: I am trying to increase the amount of walking I do, as it helps with my health and otherwise I would be sat indoors in front of screen all day.
Therapy: I’ve tried therapy many times over the years but never had much luck with it. However, I’m giving it another try with a therapist who I think is more aligned with the way I think, and it seems to be helping.