As the title so cleverly says, here are some actions I have found to make my life more…livable. I am a firm believer that an easier life is a more sustainable life. Wait, wait, hold on, I’ll explain.

When we wake up in the morning, we have a certain amount of energy and focus. This amount varies from person to person, during the time of the month, and depending on many factors. Picture your energy and focus like two pokemon health bars at the top of the screen that is your life. Every decision, conversation, action, and thought drains these bars, either a little or a lot depending on your personality.

Running with this line of logic, the more choices we are forced to make, the less focus and energy, let’s shorten that to f&e, we have for the more important choices present in our lives. This is why you probably have a standard coffee order, not only because you like it, but because it takes away the tiny bit of stress that comes with having to choose a new coffee drink every time you go to a cafe.

Another example, famously smart people a lá Steve Jobs and the Zuck were/are notorious for wearing pretty much the same outfit day in and day out. Why? They are conserving their f&e for decisions and conversations regarding taking over the world running huge tech corporations.

Now we’ve exhausted the why we should conserve our f&e, let’s get a bit into the how. This list will be a different, maybe I daresay even unexpected, than other lists of a similar nature. Take as much or as little as you want away from this, and, as always, use your own intuition and a dash of salt.

Mini meal prep

This one has the option to mean the full start-to-finish operation of making complete meals and putting them in separate containers to be stored in the fridge until needed. Or, we can dial it back ten notches if that sounds like too much work.

Here are a few examples of how I mini-meal-prep:

• I like cinnamon and (plant) milk in my coffee. I make a small container of milk with cinnamon to use as a DIY creamer. Boom, two steps combined into one, especially profound when it’s one of the first things I do in the morning.
• I add all my hummus vegetables into one container: baby carrots, sliced bell peppers, cucumbers, grape tomatoes, sugar snap peas. This way I have immediate access to healthy and balanced food when I can’t be arsed to cook somethings. Want to take it up a notch? Grab crackers, tortillas, chips, whatever for a bread component.
• Be a spice magician. Pepper increases the bioavailability of turmeric (makes it more absorbable in your body), so add a couple shakes of pepper into your turmeric container. Salt can give you high blood pressure, but boy is it delicious. Trick yourself into using less by adding other things to your spice mixes. I buy an industrial sized garlic salt container and a small garlic powder, and then mix them together. Less salt in each shake, but I’m not depriving myself of anything. If you want to really go for it, add cayenne pepper (a tiny amount) to any spice mix you want to consume in smaller amounts.
• On that note, add a spice agent to as much of your food as you can. Spicy things are good for you, so buck up and figure out how to like them. Ease in by mixing a mild and medium salsa together. Find the pepper with the lowest Scoville rating and incorporate it. Bump up your Thai takeout order by one point. If you’re American, this is especially pointed at you (if you’re offended, then it’s triply for you).

Create a Strategic Environment

This one is something I intuitively used in my life, but I didn’t have a name for until I work at a large coffee company that will remain unnamed. They called it ‘lean thinking’ or something along those lines. It refers to the concept of stacking activities together to increase your efficiency and productivity. Say if you were working at the espresso machine and needed to go to the back to get a clean blender because your coworkers are inept or blithely oblivious to the concept of hardwork, why not grab a sleeve or cups or a vanilla syrup to bring to the front as well. It also involves the notion of putting the things you need or use most right where you need them, thereby reducing time spent going to get them or dithering about. Great for forming us into stressed out, over worked, robot monkeys when applied at an extreme level, but the takeaways remain valuable.

Examples from my life:

-I have a cordless phone charger in my bathroom. I’m fully aware I can charge my phone at any moment in my life, but it’s extra simple to have my phone charging while I do my skincare or make up. It just works.

-I only listen to my favorite podcasts while doing a physical activity. Now I have an ingrained habit to move when I get the urge to listen. I self-trained a Pavlovian response in myself. I get smarted and more fit at the same time. I can walk, bike, or hike longer without getting bored because my mind is being stimulated.

– Be a clean aesthetic girlie in that condensing and reducing are your life mantras. In the kitchen, I’m always combing spices, grains, nuts, snacks, etc. Crackers can all go in the same container, as can nuts. If there are two jars of the same spice, no there isn’t, it’s one jar now. With uncooked grains, be wary of mixing cook times, but honestly I’ve mixed brown and white rice and the world didn’t explode and they both cooked perfectly evenly.

– Color code your fucking closet. The order is color → sleeve length → pattern. Put short sleeves next to each other, long sleeves behind them. Slutty napkin shirts is the only completely valid section that is separate from the above criteria.

If you are reading this and think to yourself, “damn this be reading like neuro-spicy self help tips,” congratulations, you’ve hit the bullseye. Here’s a trophy.