my masterlist of ‘how to life’ tips

dick-winters:

Cleaning & Tidying

  • Make your bed in the morning. It takes seconds, and it’s worth it.
  • Reset to zero each morning. 
  • Use the UFYH 20/10 system for clearing your shit. 
  • Get a reed diffuser and stick it on your windowsill. 
  • Have a ‘drop-zone’ box where you dump anything and everything. At the beginning/end of the day, clear it out and put that shit away.
  • Roll your clothes, don’t fold them – or fold them vertically.
  • Automate your chores. Have a cleaning schedule and assign 15mins daily to do whatever cleaning tasks are set for that day. Set a timer and do it – once the timer is up, finish the task you’re on and leave it for the day. 
  • Fold your clothes straight out of the tumble dryer (if you use one), whilst they’re still warm. This minimises creases and eliminates the need for ironing. 
  • Clean your footwear regularly and you’ll feel like a champ. 

Organisation & Productivity

  • Learn from Eisenhower’s Importance/Urgency matrix
  • Try out the two-minute rule and the Pomodoro technique.
  • Use. A. Planner. (Or Google Calendar, if that’s more your thing.)
  • Try bullet journalling.
  • Keep a notebook/journal/commonplace book to dump your brain contents in on the regular. 
  • Set morning alarms at two-minute intervals rather than five, and stick your alarm on the other side of the room. It’s brutal, but it works. 
  • Set three main goals each day, with one of them being your #1 priority. Don’t overload your to-do list or you’ll hit overload paralysis and procrastinate. 
  • If you’re in a slump, however, don’t be afraid to put things like “shower” on your to do list – that may be a big enough goal in itself, and that’s okay. 
  • Have a physical inbox – a tray, a folder, whatever. If you get a piece of paper, stick it in there and sort through it at the end of the week.
  • Consider utilising the GTD System, or a variation of it.
  • Try timeboxing
  • Have a morning routine, and guard that quiet time ferociously. 
  • Save interesting-looking shit to instapaper. Have a set time where you read through the stuff you saved to instapaper and save the shit that you like from instapaper to evernote (or bookmark it properly). 
  • During your working hours, put on your footwear, even if you’re sat on your bed. (Why?)
  • Have a folder for all your important documents and letters, organised by topic (e.g. medical, bank, university, work, identification). At the front of this folder, have a sheet of paper with all the key information written on it, such as your GP’s details, your passport details, driving licence details, bank account number, insurance number(s), and so on. 
  • Try using StayFocusd and RescueTime (or similar apps/extensions). (I promise, you’ll find that you’re not as busy as you think you are.)
  • Schedule working time and down time alike, in the balance that works for you. 

Money

  • Have. A. God. Damn. Budget. 
  • Use a money tracker like toshl, mint, or splitwise. Enter all expenses asap! (You will forget, otherwise.)
  • Have a ‘money date’ each week, where you sort through your finances from the past seven days and then add it to a spreadsheet. This will help you identify your spending patterns and whether your budget is actually working or not. 
  • Pack your own frickin’ lunch like a grown-up and stop buying so many takeaway coffees. Keep snacks in your bag. 
  • Go to your bank and take out £100 in £1 coins (or w/e your currency is). That shit will come in useful for all kinds of things and you’ll never be short on change for the bus or the laundry. 

Food & Cooking

  • Know how to cook the basics: a starch, a protein, a vegetable, and a sauce.
  • Simple, one-pot meals (“a grain, a green, and a bean”) are a godsend. 
  • Dried porcini mushrooms make a fantastic stock to cook with. 
  • Batch cook and freeze. Make your own ‘microwave meals’. 
  • Buy dried goods to save money – rice and beans are a pittance. (Remember to soak dried beans first, though!) 
  • Consider Meatless Mondays; it’s healthier, cheaper, and more environmentally friendly.
  • Learn which fruits and vegetables are cheapest at your store, and build a standard weekly menu around those. (Also remember that frozen vegetables are cheap and healthy.) 
  • Learn seasoning combinations. Different seasoning, even with the exact same ingredients, can make a dish seem completely new. 
  • Don’t buy shit for a one-off recipe, especially if you won’t use it all. If you really want to try out a recipe, see if a friend would be interested in making it with you, then pool for the expenses. 
  • Make your own goddamned pasta sauce. Jamie Oliver has a decent recipe here, but the beauty of tomato sauce is that you can totally wing it and adapt the fuck out of it. 

Misc

  • Have a stock email-writing format
  • Want to start running, but find it boring? Try Zombies, Run!. 
  • Keep a goddamn first aid kit and learn how to use it. 
  • Know your OTC pain relief
  • Update your CV regularly. 
  • Keep a selection of stamps and standard envelopes for unexpected posting needs. (It happens more regularly than you would think!) 

Some final words of advice:

  1. Organisation is not a goal in itself, it is a tool. Don’t get caught up in the illusion of productivity and get distracted from the actual task at hand. 
  2. Routines and habits will help you. Trust in them.
  3. You have the potential to be an organised and productive person, just as much as anybody else. It just takes practice. 

You don’t like alcohol abd you listen to pop

True/False game. Make an assumption about me in my ask and I’ll tell you if it’s true or false. Go.

true – I absolutely can’t stand it 😖

kinda true? – I don’t really know enough about music to know whether a song is pop or not – but I did find out some of the songs I like are pop songs so…

eretzyisrael:

Jewish Children with a Teacher in Samarkhand,1911

From the series:10 Photos To Remind You That Jews Don’t Fit Into A Stereotype (And Never Have)

There’s something so powerful about this picture.  Taken by a photographer named Sergei Mikhailovich Prokudin-Gorskii in a rare instance of color photography for the time, it beautifully captures a teacher and his pupils.

The funny thing is, most of us think of religious Jews, and especially Russian religious Jews, as only wearing black and white.  This colorful image destroys that conception, reminding us that Jews, for much of their history, and many of the places they lived in, were a colorful people.

source: popchasid

jewish-privilege:

Today is International Holocaust Remembrance Day. 

Today we remember the more than 11 million people, Jewish and Gentile, who were slaughtered in the death camps, who succumbed to disease and the elements in concentration camps, who were sterilized to prevent the “dilution” of the “Aryan race,” who were worked to death, or nearly, in the works camps, who were imprisoned for their political or religious beliefs, who were sterilized or killed for being considered disabled, who were gassed to death in the Einsatzgruppen mobile gas chambers, who were shot into graves they had been forced the dig, and those who managed to survive all of that and were forced to remember the horrors they had seen and experienced.

May they rest in peace, may their memory be a blessing, may peace be upon them, and may we all say Never Again.

fierceawakening:

explainingthejoke:

sprachtraeume:

learninglovingliving:

vrabia:

dontbreakthechain:

vrabia:

bobcatmoran:

allthingslinguistic:

seductive-celery:

wordfully:

chaotischkladblok:

awelshpolyglot:

langsandlit:

sprachtraeume:

viktor-risjak:

uselessslovakiafacts:

useless-finlandfacts:

psychokonfetti:

useless-finlandfacts:

samtaims ai vonder if inglis spiiking piipöl aar eiböl tu riölais thät ai äm äksöli vraiting in inglish rait nau bat tsast vith veri finnish spelling

sou if juu spiik inglish bat not finnish kän juu pliis reblog änd liiv ö komment on tis post tänk juu veri mats

Sammteims ei wonda iff inglisch schbieking pipel ahr ebel tu rieleis set ei ehm ecktschuli reiting in inglisch reit nauh batt schast wiss währi tschörmen schbelling

So iff ju schbiek inglisch batt nott tschörmen kenn ju plies riplock end lief eh kommänt on dies pust senk ju wäri matsch

tänk juu for joor tsörman kontribjuusson, ai äpprishieit it veri mats. änd it oolsou helps mii tu gräsp tö essens of tsörman äksent

Samtajms aj vonder if ingliš spíking pípl ár ejbl tu rielajz det aj em ekšuely rajting in ingliš rajt náv bat džast vit veri slovak speling. Sou if jú spík ingliš bat not slovak ken jú plís riblog end lív en koment on tiz poust tenk jú veri mač

Самтаймз ай вондр иф иньглиш спикинь пийпль ар эйбль ту риэлайз дзят ай эм экшуалий райтинь ин иньглиш райт нау бат джаст виць вейрий рашин спеллинь. Со иф ю спик иньглиш бат нот рашин кэн ю плиз риблог энд лив э комент ан дзис пост цянк ю вейрий мач

Samtæms æ wonda if ínglis spíking pípl ar eybel tú ríalæs ðet æ em ektsuali ræting in ínglis ræt ná bat dsast við veri æslendik speling

so if jú spík ínglis bat nott æslendik ken jú plís ríblog end líf a komment on ðis post þenk jú veri mats

Samtaims ai uonder if inglisc spiching pipol ar eibol tu rialais det i em acscualli raiting in inglisc rait nau bat dez uid veri italian spelling. sou if iu spic inglisc bat not italian chen iu plis riblog end liv a comment on dis post tenk iu veri macc’. 

sumtaimes ai wundère eef angliche peepole ar ébl tu rayolize zat i am actualie ritin en angliche rite nau bat dees iz veri french spélling. sau if u speec angliche bat nut french plis cun u reeblog end leev a commant en deez post tank u veri muche

somtajms ai wonde if inglisj spieking piepel ar ebel toe riëlais det ai em eksjelie wraiting in inglisj rait nau but djust wif verrie dutsj spelling

so if joe spiek inglisj but not dutsj ken joe plies rieblok ent lief uh komment on dis poost tenk joe verrie mutsj

Samtajms aj łonder if inglisz spikink pipul ar ejbul tu rielajs dat aj em akczueli rajtink in inglisz rajt nał bat dżast łif weri połlisz spelink

Soł if ju spik inglisz bat not połlisz ken ju plis riblok ent lif a koment on dis połst fenk ju weri macz

somtaghms aigh bhondar iobh iunglois spíocang píopal ár éabal ta ríalaghs dat aigh eim aicsiúlaí raghtuing in iunglois raght nadh bot diost bhot bhéirí aighris spoiling

sómh iobh dhiú spíoc iunglois bot nát aighris cean dhiú plíos ríoblág eand líomh a camoint án dus póst taenc dhiú bhéirí moit

sʌmtaɪmz aɪ wʌndɚ ɪf ɪnglɪʃ spikɪŋ pipl ɚ eɪbl̩ tə ɹilaɪs ðæt aɪ æm ækʃəli ɹaɪɾɪŋ ɪn ɪnglɪʃ ɹaɪt naʊ bʌt dʒʌst ɪn ði ɪntɚnæʃʌnl̩ foʊnɛɾɪk ælfəbɛt

soʊ ɪf ju spik ɪnglɪʃ bʌt nɑt aɪ pi eɪ kæn ju pliz ɹiblɑg ænd liv ə kɑmənt ɑn ðɪs post θænk ju vɚɹi mʌtʃ

ソムタイムズ アイ ワォンダー イッフ イングリッシュ スピキング ピーパル アル エーブル ツ リアーライズ ザット アイ エッム アックシャリー ライティング イン イングリッシュ ライット ナオ バット ジャスット ウイッス ベッリ ジャパニーズ スペリング。

ソ イッフ ユー スピック イングリッシュ バット ノット ジャパニーズ プリーズ リブロッグ アンッド リーヴ ア コメンット オン ディッス ポスット サンク ユー ベリー マッチュ。 

samtaims ai uandăr if ingliș spiking pipăl ar eibăl tu riălaiz zet ai em ecșuali riating in ingliș rait nau băt giast uiz a veri rumeiniăn speling. său if iu spic ingliș băt not rumeiniăn chen iu pliz riblog end liv a coment on zis post senk iu veri maci. 

Sometimes I wonder why non English speakers are like this

because it’s a funny harmless joke at the expense of the world’s current lingua franca, whose native speakers often make fun of the ‘weird’ accents and pronounciation of people who very likely speak at least one more language then they do.

^^^^

Bitch👏how👏do👏you👏call👏these👏people👏"“non-english speakers”“👏👏👏👏👏
Literally the only language used in this post is English

The phrases above are in English, but are written using pronunciation
rules of other languages. I’ll place the rest of this explanation under a cut, because the post is so long.

Keep reading

I got about halfway down and dissolved into giggle fits.

English is my native language. I don’t find this insulting, I find it hilarious.

סמתיים איי וונדר איף אינגליש ספיקינג פיפול אר איבול טו ריאלייז איים אקשלי רייטינג אין אינגליש רייט נאו באט וויס היברו ספלינג.

סו איף יו ספיק אינגליש באט נוט היברו פליז ריבלוג אנד ליב א כומנט און זיס פוסט טנק יו ורי מץ’