Practical Betterments is a collection of one-off actions that improve your life continuously — however marginally.

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The best practical betterments

These are posts I think are the best – either because I enjoyed writing them the most, or because they had the most positive effect on my life.

• Create a shortcut for even lower phone brightness
• Rotate your mattress
• Cut rounded corners into your documents and medicine blister packs
• Unsubscribe from staples
• Create a shared digital calendar with significant people in your life
• Drill holes in your keys
• Lubricate your keyholes

Saving time

• Put a spoon in every container that requires a spoon
• Relocate things that drip over things that collect drips
• Add mundane non-password info to your password manager
• Turn off voicemail

• Egress optimization

  • Create a space for your keys
  • Order and orient the keys on your keychain
  • Drill holes in your keys
  • Lubricate your keyholes

• Commuting

  • Create a one-tap navigation shortcut for your commute

Load lightening

• Cut the end off your toothbrush

• Sub-gram optimizations

  • Cut rounded corners into your documents and medicine blister packs
  • Unsubscribe from staples
  • Replace your physical SIM card with an eSIM
  • Debobble your clothes (before you travel)

Focus

• Place healthy apps within thumbs reach
• Delete or hide life-wasting apps
• Sort out your phone notifications
• Block ads and tracking on your smart TV
• Switch off "Raise to Wake"
• Turn off in-app rating request popups
• Turn off the lights on your Wifi router

• Working on computers

  • Get a content blocker for your browser
  • Block browser notification requests
  • Remove browsing history from your search bar autosuggest
  • Add spaces to the dock on MacOS
  • Add white space to your browser bookmarks bar
  • Organize your browser bookmarks

Health

• Adjust your office chair
• Enable sticky keys on your computer
• Organize your toiletries chronologically
• Setup a recurring reminder to stretch and correct your posture
• Set a maximum volume for your headphones

• Avoiding death

  • Setup emergency contact and medical information on your phone
  • Organize your fridge to reduce the chance of poisoning everybody
  • Optimize and monitor your fridge and freezer temperatures

• Sleep

  • Acquire and implement a bed brush
  • Create a shortcut for even lower phone brightness
  • Rotate your mattress

Organization

• Attatch felt to the feet or underside of all your furniture
• Print off a QR code for guests to join your WiFi netork
• Create a shared digital calendar with significant people in your life

• Preventing clutter

  • Create a default folder for screenshots
  • Say goodbye to objects that don't serve you
  • Opt out of junk mail
  • Establish a folder for instruction manuals
  • Write a persuasive "no junk mail" sign

Resilience

• Apply for or claim citizenship of another
• Make a list of things you might need for a hospital stay
• Leave a copy of your keys with a trustworthy pal
• Download all of Wikipedia on your phone
• Backup vital data and media you'd miss if it disappeared

• Cybersecurity

  • Delete disused phone numbers from your contacts
  • Setup a password manager
  • Delete long-forgotten digital accounts
  • Rename bluetooth devices to something generic and unidentifiable

• Prolonging battery life

  • Set your phone's home screen background to solid black
  • Switch your phone to dark mode
  • Turn off background app refresh

Saving money

• Pretend to cancel your digital subscriptions
• Put your money into a savings account
• Cancel forgotten subscriptions

• Saving energy

  • Adjust the temperature of your boiler
  • Switch off bad TV settings
  • Bleed your radiators