1mo ago

What's something that massively improved your quality of life?

98 comments

Working from home. I didn’t realize until the pandemic how energy draining the office really is. Once I started working from home I found out quickly that I had energy to spare for evening activities - while also being more productive at work.
- Just saving the commute time alone is a game changer. I get to spend much more time with my daughter as I work from home.
  
  Saving time and money. I sold my car in 2020 and saved thousands of euros. It's unbelievable how much money owning a car costs you.
  
  Commuting through traffic stresses me out. I didn't realize how much it was stressing me out until I stopped the routine. I realized I was coming home every day stressed and irritable from it, making my free time after work less enjoyable. WFH changed all of that for the better.
- 1000%.
  My company is slowly pulling back work from home. So I’m looking for another job.
  I’ll never go back, simple as that.
  
  I switched jobs 2 years ago. It was mainly because of Return To Office, but really because the incapable git - installed as manager by the incapable fuckwit installed as CIO by the meddling narcissist CFO who organized a coup to depose the former I.T command chain who kept saying no to things like kicking I.T out of the fancier newer offices and gutting security budget and capital expense for HA projects, really really - really was a harbinger of shitty things to come. RTO to a dank, funky, hot, bright, loud, cramped sexist* hell was a great motivator to quit, but the underlying cause was the outlook when seeing this keystone kops management in action.
  So yeah, switched to a company that went from 100% WFO to 100% WFH on CoViD Day 1 with no clue how, but a desire for business continuity, so it coped and adapted, and then sold off the office space. I'm on a gov pension plan as a mere Senior flunky in a contract house, I know some great people from past gigs and respect them, and my boss is gonna retire at the top of her career in about 3 years. The workload is easy but dumb, and that's entirely okay: I have this gorgeous river view from my fancy lifty desk and aeron ass-cradle, I haven't driven a car in about 2 years - and I learned on a 71 beetle in the '80s, so driving is my jam - because everything is walkable, and "going on a walk" is absolutely acceptable in my day job. We do Teams a lot. We do Cameras VERY rarely, and usually by accident.
  Oh. Surveillance. They gave me a laptop to use. I bought the KVM switch. Don't use it for dumb stuff. Also I put Google Locate on my phone and shared to my peers. That's it.
  Find a good remote-first place to WFH at. Then move to a great neighbourhood. Have a great life.
  Edit: missed the * reference. In the UK, open-plan offices are now considered sexist because they consistently disadvantage a protected half of the population. Be grateful if your office workplace is only "60% sexist" and, for fun, see if you can get HR to promote that detail on job descriptions. ;-)

Lifting weights did wonders for my health and wellbeing, I would highly recommend it
- How do you get the motivation to? I’d love to get more fit, especially since I’ve got a kid coming in September and want to be in shape when she comes. I’m not exactly out of shape too bad (not overweight or underweight), but I’d like to be more muscular. At the same time, my neurodivergent ass won’t let me for more than a couple weeks at a time, and then I’m burnt out for months on end. It’s extremely frustrating. I’ve heard it gets easier the longer you do it consistently, even for ND folks, but I haven’t been able to get to that point. If you have any advice I’d love to hear it.
  
  Brace yourself, unskippable special interest cut scene activated.
  For myself I was relatively active my whole life but I had always been curious about lifting weights and wanted to get more muscular. I felt awkward about gyms and would have felt super uncomfortable getting a personal trainer, and having to learn dozens of different exercises, the whole thing was just daunting.
  But it turns out there are quite a few ways to get jacked, and one of them is very straightforward: barbells. In the most basic form there are 4 lifts to learn, and you can teach yourself using YouTube (You can add a few more lifts later on but they are so simple to learn a 60 second video and you've got it) With a rack, barbell, plates and a bench in the basement I was able to completely avoid the gym and trainer experience. If you don't mind going to a gym then the cost of entry is very low.
  There are apps to help you select a routine, tell you exactly how many sets and reps to do, the correct weights to use, can demonstrate how to do the lift correctly, track your progress and graph it for you in a dozen different ways.
  As a beginner if you even brush up against a barbell you will start growing muscle really quickly. And your progress will be impressive and addictive, particularly since we are only talking about the same 4 lifts. You'll be tracking your progress on the app week to week, watching the numbers go up, getting stronger all the time. Technique getting better all the time. Before you know it you'll outgrow your clothes. And we are talking 3 workouts a week, less than an hour each. The minute work is done Monday, Wednesday and Friday immediately hit the weights, you'll have time to wash up before dinner.
  I went from about 165lbs to 210lbs in the last 3 years. Size medium shirts to size L and XL, Size medium underwear to size XXL. I underestimated how undeveloped my legs and butt were. Regular squats and deadlifts will give you a monster truck ass. My family friends and coworkers that I haven't seen for a while have trouble believing it's the same person. I've walked right up to a coworker that I had known for 10 years and started talking with them and it took them more than a minute to realize it was me. This really makes you feel good and will keep you motivated. As time goes on you'll want to expand your routine a little bit, add in some more bodybuilding exercises for bigger biceps or whatever you want.
  Anyway if you ever did want to get started I would be happy to help you out with specific advice: apps, exercises, routines, eating, cardio, etc

Daily walks and eating healthy food (aka no industrially processed shit). I went from being barely able to walk at all a few years ago (not exagerating) to someone happily walking for miles every single day. Also I'm somewhat much slimmer too :p
Cutting down screen time, like by a lot. Which helps in getting more time to do fun & exciting stuff (including walks)

Air Fryer. Hands fucking down. I put them off for years because I assumed it was overhyped shit.
It fucking wasn't.
- Ditto; for me it's like a small, powerful, and flexible oven. Chicken wings, taters, spring rolls, sometimes I even use it as a dehydrator for my homemade spice mixes.
- Yep, I was like you... up until I tried one.
- Our kitchen is too small at the moment to get one, but it's definitely on our to-do list once we move.
  
  Maybe a combo unit would suit? Replacing your microwave.
  https://www.thegoodguys.com.au/panasonic-34l-4-in-1-air-fryer-and-convection-microwave-oven-nn-cd88qsqpq for example.
  
  Sir, if you get an air-fryer you'll be able to replace a couple of things. I genuinely haven't used a microwave since getting the air fryer. Like the only thing that an airfryer can't do is defrost something. And some of them can even do that.
  
  Not to shill, but we picked up a pretty well known brand combo pressure cooker/air fryer. I thought it was the stupidest thing ever, but I use it all the time, mostly when I don't want to heat up the house with an oven.
  It lives on the counter directly next to my oven, doesn't take up a ton of space.
  
  If you cook, they're not for you.
  Air fryers have extraordinarily limited use and they are for novice people who want to reheat food, not cook, just saying

Running, also marijuana
- Starting or quitting the marijuana?
  
  Starting ofc,no smoking though,dry herb vaporizer (even better if water filtered but not necessary) is my way. Also edibles

Leaving America.
- Hoping to do the same in the next couple of years. My current employer seems to be open to allowing me to relocate to the EU (I already work on an international team), but I need to work through the logistics. I also don't want to be just another expat driving up housing costs and barely speaking the local language
- I planned to do the same since 2021 if the election went to shit. Only because I landed in a relationship with someone who can't relocate am I still in this shithole.

I was just talking about this with someone this past weekend. For me, it has been removing most "smart" features from my phone.
I've disabled Chrome, so I can no longer access the internet.
I've disabled the "google" app, so I don't have a back-door to the internet, as that seems to have a browser built in. This also disables voice to text, which I never used anyway.
No social media, games, etc. of any kind.
The only thing I use my phone now is calling/texting, navigation, music, a calendar, and a notes app. It's taken me a long time to get here, almost 3 years at this point, but being able to take my phone out, use it for the one intentional thing I need, then put it away... It's so liberating. I use Olauncher, which is a minimal text-based home screen, and it also tracks your daily screen-time and displays it on the home-screen. I'm down to around 30-45 minutes MAX of screen time per day. Most days its 15 or below.
- If you use the F-Droid repository, you can install the fubo keyboard, which does voice-to-text locally, through a whisper client.
  It is different than the Google client, but it's good enough, and the fact that it increases and respects privacy makes me much more happy.

Green tea. 🍵
- I've heard good things about green tea (or matcha). How does it help your QoL in your personal experience?
  
  I believe that green tea, both from a psychological and biological perspective, may help enhance dopamine activity in the brain and contribute to feelings of upliftment and increased energy. I recognize that I have a dependence on caffeine, and I find that the pleasant aroma of green tea often helps me experience a sense of happiness and well-being. For me, this is one of the factors that contributes to my overall sense of happiness.

Work pants with pockets for built in kneepads.
If you do any kind of maintenance or trades, you're probably kneeling a lot.
Knee pads make it so much more comfortable but they're usually annoying and tight, even painful.
Putting them in the trousers makes it a non issue.
- Somebody needs to design these but with a basic khaki or slack design, they'd make a killing advertising to IT folks. For some weird reason some companies think the people crawling under desks or wiring things should be dressed in business wear. Its a weird intersection between trades and white collar.

Working out. Even if everything is my life is falling apart, that one hour is where I make progress. It keeps the hope and positivity alive. It is like meditation for me. I have overcome depression with working out.

Getting a job that paid more money than I actually need to survive.

being late from work every day 1 hour. i realised that nobody cares about me. as long as you keep the status quo, nobody snitches. i even changed from public transport to biking, and it feels great for my shoulders. (and actually get there faster)
going to the supermarket at later times. they usually close around 9pm. i arrive at 8.30, no ques, no idiots standing at the bread trying to pick the perfect one, no old folk moving in your way, nobody tries to kill you in the parking lot with a big ass suv.
elastic shoe laces, so i can just put my feet inside, and they never get untied cause theres a little clamp in the end.
i also would like to thank my candy trio, which is one part dishwasher, one part oven. its only one machine big, so no space wasted, yet does both job great.
the adblocker called blokada on my phone, plus ublock in the browser...honestly foss apps in general.
- i also would like to thank my candy trio, which is one part dishwasher, one part oven. its only one machine big, so no space wasted, yet does both job great.
  Whhhha? What is this witchcraftery? I'm gonna need to find me one of if those
- candy trio
  whoa TIL this is a thing. that is awesome.

Solid state memory. I was just thinking about my first SSD (the "drive" for your computer) and how I video recorded the startup time before and after I swapped it into my computer. Everything was so much faster. Everyone has solid state memory today, but ~18 years ago, that was sorta rare.
Water. I used to drink a lot of soda. Water is better.
- water is good. yes.
  
  It's so good that I'd die without it.

A sleep tracker. The worst thing about sleeplessness is the fear of sleeplessness. Once i saw that my sleep wasn't anywhere near as bad as it felt, it helped me a lot to cope with it.
- Which model / type of trackers are you using?
  
  Not the person you replied to and I have really weird needs from a sleep tracker but I just use a spreadsheet
  I've used "sleep as android" and I'm kinda tempted to try pokemon sleep just for fun, but they can't really replace my spreadsheet
  
  I've had Fitbit, Samsung, and Apple smartwatches.
  Apple is the best for health and sleep tracking, in my personal experience.
  
  Whatever comes with the smartwatch I'm using at the time. Right now I have the OnePlus Watch 3.

Buying a menstrual cup. It feels so natural, I forget it's there, and it holds an entire day's worth of blood and then some.
- How do I unread something?
  
  Weird comment
  
  Grow up
  
  They're not drinking out of it, relax.

A gym membership, reducing social media, and cutting prolly out of my life who don't deserve to be in it.

A nice small (and cute!) backpack that I always take with me when I go outside, plus a water bottle that I have near me at all times.

Mood stabilizers, for sure. My episodes were getting out of hand and I'd probably be dead by now if it wasn't for that

Short answer: https://rtalbert.org/gtd/
(I'm not that guy. That's just my favorite resource on the topic.)
Long answer: Organizational system for tasks at work and in daily life. People think it sounds boring and makes your life too rigid, but I find it's exactly the opposite. Once I know what I need to get done and have it out of my head, it frees me up to (1) be deliberate about how I spend my time and (2) focus relatively distraction-free on whatever I'm doing at a given time, even if that's something simple like watching a movie without wondering whether there's something I forgot to do for work.
Everybody who is obsessed with an organizational system has their own version that worked for them -- for me, it was the one I linked above. The author's goal really resonated with me: be okay not doing what you're not doing. It's not always about doing more. It's about deciding what you need to do, doing that, and then not having to stress all the time. The article is tailored to academics, which was where I worked at the time, but I still use it now that I've moved on, and I see no reason it is not generally applicable.
It seems like a lot at first, but you don't do it all at once. Even the author of the article recommends that you start small. I spent years doing just the first few steps without even attempting bigger-picture planning and review stuff, and it was still life-changing for me.
If any of this resonates with you, I'd recommend you give the first step a shot today. Keep it simple, start small, but actually start.

Eating (mostly) clean, retirement, weight lifting / a personal trainer, and limiting my screen time.

Developing and following basic principles of organisation:
If it's in use, set it apart.
If it's often used, it should be at hand.
If it's used with something else, group them together.
Beyond that, put it in a predictable place. Don't try to be smart.
For some people this might look obvious, but for me it wasn't - my mum is noticeably disorganised and my father was a hoarder, so I never had the chance to learn those things through my childhood. But once I got those things right, they improved my quality of life by a lot.

20h/week job that pays well
- I want a part-time job that includes full-time benefits and not hourly tracked or at least automated tracked hours. And remote too

Not internally criticising myself as harshly as I was brought up to.
- That's hard to unlearn well done

Teaching myself how to cook from scratch ingredients.
It allowed me to completely reform my diet, I could eat anything I wanted (on the condition I self-imposed that it had to be made by) and I lost 130 lb as a result.
I'm not saying it wasn't a lot of work, it was, but it was an investment in myself.
Now I am able, with no pre-planning, to look in a fridge and whip something up delicious in 30 minutes.
An accidental discovery through this diet reformation, was that I discovered I am intolerant to wheat and gluten! Not celiac, not allergic, but it provokes my autoimmune disorder.
I am now psoriasis free after being a terrible sufferer for almost three decades. Also my joint pain went away.
It has saved me a phenomenal amount of money, given me great body awareness. It's also expanded my food horizons.

Drugs

Stopping shaving my legs and armpits ; stopping wasting my time and money on stinking, irritating hair-removing creams and torture machines (aka “epilators”) and whatnot ; stopping feeling disgusted and ashamed by my normal, healthy adult woman’s body.
I started more than ten years ago and I’ve never be tempted to remove my hair again. Too bad society is so prejudiced about this.
- Genuinely never cared about a woman having a natural amount of hair on them. I say this as my partner's leg hair is brushing against mine.

A couple of small things for me:
Getting a knee pillow. It has helped prevent a LOT of lower back pain in the mornings
Nasal strips. They help me breathe better overnight

Book called "Discover What You Are Best At" by Linda Gail. It's a bunch of self-tests that take about half a day to finish with a list of jobs that use those skills. When you can wake up on a rainy Monday and not feel awful, you've solved most of your problems.
- Eh. What I’m best at used to be a fun hobby. But now it’s a job and it sucks.
  What I want is the same income without a job.
  
  Think of it this way. A nurse, a hair stylist, and a product demonstrator all need good people skills and good dexterity. Three totally different jobs with the same skill set.
  The book gives you dozens of options

Amitriptyline 10mgs daily

APAP. I'm less tired and less stupid from lack of sleep.

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