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 money

• Switch your phone to an MVNO
• Get a strong phone case
• Cancel forgotten subscriptions
• Decrease the frequency of product subscription deliveries
• Pretend to cancel your digital subscriptions
• Put your money into a savings account

• Saving energy

  • Reduce the sleep timer on your devices
  • Switch off bad TV settings
  • Switch off quick-start in your tv settings
  • Adjust the temperature of your boiler
  • Bleed your radiators

• Saving data

  • Downgrade your phone to a limited data plan
  • Download the map of your city for offline use

Saving time

• Add mundane non-password info to your password manager
• Only own one type and color of sock
• Put a spoon in every container that requires a spoon
• Relocate things that drip over things that collect drips
• Turn off voicemail

• Egress optimization

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

• Commuting

  • Create a one-tap navigation shortcut for your commute

Load lightening

• Cut the end off your toothbrush

• Sub-gram optimizations

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

Focus

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

• Working on computers

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

Health

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

• Avoiding death

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

• Sleep

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

Organization

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

• Preventing clutter

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

Resilience

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

• Cybersecurity

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

• Prolonging battery life

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