Modern living means we spend more and more time checking our Facebook friends’ photos of their cousin’s birthday bash. Twitter updates also take away that precious time we once found to play monopoly with the family, or arrange to meet up with ‘real’ friends. We collectively have longer lives, but progressively fewer hours to spend on living. Here are some necessary things you should take time off to do at least once a year.
Remember that a free, uncluttered life is a more confident life.
Essentially, give back some of your time. Do a sponsored run, raise money for a charity your friend supports (building up your relationship for life), or help a colleague get over a difficult period. All of these take away the focus from yourself and validate your humanity and lust for life.
Although these efforts may seem like giving, they’re actually exercises in self-enrichment.
If you’re one of those people who never take your holidays or allotted days-off because you can’t be bothered to – change this now. You don’t have to have an expensive (or foreign) holiday planned. Taking a holiday can simply mean spending time away from your normal routine.
Two weeks at home, playing with your nephews and nieces, going for walks, going to the cinema etc, all inject fun and youthfulness into a life that’s become automatic and frankly – automated. Ditch the iPhone for a while. You didn’t have it 6 years ago and you did just fine.
Women are somewhat better at this than men. Besides, mammograms, cervical smear tests and thyroid tests are more common, thus less uncomfortable to talk about. Men should also take time each year to make sure they’re doing the male-specific tests recommended. Women are living longer, we want our male counterparts to grow old with us too. After all, who’s going to open the jars? 😉
This is self-explanatory. Your dentist will spot any decay before they require more intense and invasive treatment. Furthermore, frequent dental check-ups will identify the onset of gum disease. Remember that gum disease – if left untreated – can seep into the blood stream causing various other health issues.
A full and over-flowing wardrobe doesn’t give you more options, it limits what you wear. You can only find the things you’ve worn recently because all your classic pieces (which are excellent for mixing and matching) are forgotten all the way at the back.
You forget about them, so you continue buying more and more cheap pieces which you end up wearing once, then never again.
If you haven’t worn something in two consecutive seasons, face it – you won’t wear it again. Pack it up and take it to the charity shop. You have to be stern with yourself. Get rid of the pieces that don’t fit you anymore or the ones that look like something your mother/father wears – you won’t ever wear these again either.
Buy fewer classic pieces rather than several cheaper options. Update your wardrobe is updating your look. You don’t have to go ultra-modern, but don’t get stuck in the past.
What other things do you do think are important to do once a year? How have these helped you to better organise your life?
