How to Better Your Life One Step at a Time

Do you want to better your life? Is there a problem you need to solve? Do you need a step-by-step guide? Then this is the post for you. Sometimes life gets too much, and you need a solution. Sometimes they come from interesting places in strange ways. This post will have a step-by-step guide to an easier life, a way to get going and focus on what is important.

Step 1: Find the biggest problem with the easiest solution.

First, you have to find the biggest problem and see if it has an easy, simple solution. Sometimes those solutions require money, sometimes they require action, and sometimes they require other people's help.

For example, if you keep watching the dishes pile up, overtaking your tiny kitchen until it is unusable. When you keep running out of utensils, forks, knives, plates, and pans because you keep meaning to do the dishes but never get to them, when day after day, you keep thinking: "I need to do the dishes today," and then never do them. When you keep delaying and deferring other things because you need to do the dishes, but you don't get to it. So you don't vacuum, write, dust, watch a movie or whatever else you have been meaning to do because you are always on your way to do the dishes.

This is a problem that can be easily solved by getting a dishwasher. It requires money and a little time, and patience, especially if you have to save up. From now on, this post will use the example of the dishwasher.

Step 2: Decide to buy a dishwasher.

So you need to solve this problem, and this is the easiest solution, but you don't currently have the money. That means you can't buy this right now, but you can set yourself a goal of when you are going to have the money, a timeline of sorts. This step has some smaller steps embedded.

Step 2.1: Decide when you will try to buy a dishwasher.

Sometimes when this decision unveils itself, it is a difficult time financially and mentally. So let's say it's November and the holidays are approaching, and you are tight on money, so you think: "April is a good month. I should be able to do it then." And then, as April approaches, you remember that there are six birthdays in the family in April, also easter. So there is no chance.

Step 2.2: Find a new time to buy a dishwasher.

So April didn't work, and now you have to pick a new month to aim for. So you start thinking and remember that you are getting a little extra money in May. So now you have a new month and a date because it will come in on the 11th. A plan starts to form in your head.

Step 2.3: Use the time for other things.

Now that you have decided, your brain starts thinking about other things it can do, and you have a period of 10 days where you write every day. And then you get sick, and then you move on to the next step because it's May, and you need to.

Step 3: Figure out the plan.

So, now you have a date and the money (or will have the money). The next step is to figure out how this will work. Let's say you don't have a car and you don't have the equipment to connect it. So you either need to borrow a car, but it's better to have someone help you carry the machine to and from the car, or will you pay extra for someone to bring it to you and maybe install it for you? But you can also do it for free because you know your mom has a car that is big enough, and your dad has the equipment and know how to install the machine. So you have to call your parents separately because they're divorced. You also realise that your brother works for a company that sells dishwashers and gets a discount. So that is the third person you need to contact.

Step 4: Contact the people.

Now you know approximately when this is happening, how you will pay for it, and who you need to contact. The next step is to contact your people to see when and if they are available to help you so you can set a time or make other arrangements if one of your helpers isn't available.

Step 4.1: Delay contacting people.

You are now ready to call people, but your anxiety gets in the way, and you delay it until the date is almost there, and you absolutely have to contact them, or this doesn't work.

Step 4.2: Actually contact the people.

Now you finally call and contact the people. The response you get is along the lines of: "Yeah, I'm available some days. When where you thinking?" and because you don't have a definitive time right now, other than preferably before next week, they are going to get back to you in a couple of days because the plan is a little too fuzzy. But everyone is ready to help.

Bonus step: Have a panic attack.

It is Thursday, 11th May, and this plan is too close to happening, but so much can still go wrong. Things are happening but not quickly, and nothing is 100% definite except you have chosen the dishwasher you are buying. You are waiting for a response. As Thursday slowly passes, your anxiety rises. When you get home and are still waiting for a response from your brother, your brain is running on million, you can't focus on anything, you can't do the dishes, you can't sit still, you can't watch the television, and you are hoping you can pay attention to Eurovision because your country is on tonight. The excitement for finally getting a dishwasher and the anxiety that something will go wrong come together and make a terrible cocktail of emotions that leads to a high-stress, panic-induced state.

Somehow you get through that, and you constantly think about calling your brother, and you need to talk to your dad. Your dad calls, and everything becomes slightly clearer. Then you call your brother for a response. Still, things clear up. And then, to cement that things are seemingly going well, you call your mom. After talking to your mom, it is around 21:40, and you think you can finally think about dinner. However, your brain has a different idea. You pace around your apartment, talking to yourself rapidly for about half an hour. In that time frame, you decide to make eggs. You take the eggs out of the fridge, get a bowl, and then they sit on the table for about half an hour until about 22:15 when you finally manage to get to cooking, and the frantic energy subsides slowly.

Normal stress levels

Abnormal stress levels

Step 5: Put faith in other people.

Because your brother has a discount, he offers to order it for you, and when you ask him if he wants you to transfer the money over, he doesn't respond. You know he has a one-year-old and might get distracted easily, so you give him time, but the wait is torture (see bonus step). Then your dad calls and says he can come on Saturday, it is currently Thursday, but he doesn't give you a specific time. So you call your brother, who has been building a shelf all day, and you get confirmation on transferring the money. Then you call your mom to see if she can help you pick it up on Friday or early Saturday. Saturday becomes a bit of a stretch, but there is a possibility on Friday, a slight possibility but a possibility nonetheless.

The next morning, Friday, you haven't gotten confirmation from your brother, so you send him a message to make sure, and he apologises because his one-year-old woke up while he was doing it, and he forgot. He goes straight to it, and you have confirmation about 10 minutes later. That's done. It has been purchased.

Step 6: Pick up.

Just before you finish work, your mom calls and tells you she can't help at this moment, it is 4 o'clock, and she has a work responsibility at 5, which should take about an hour. The warehouse closes at 7, so that becomes the next plan unless you want to pick it up around 3 or 4 on Saturday, but you don't have a specific time for your dad and know that is a bit late. About two hours later, she is heading to your house to get you, and you manage to get the dishwasher on Friday just before they close. You get it to your apartment, and it sits happily on the floor, waiting for instalment.

Step 7: Install.

The dishwasher has found its way to your apartment. This is actually happening, and now the only thing left is to install the machine, connect it to electricity and water and then try it out. At around noon, shortly after you wake up, your dad calls, telling you he will set off soon and should be there in about two hours; he lives in a town around an hour away and has other things to do. You breathe easier that you got it yesterday because otherwise, it wouldn't be here when he came.

Because the kitchen is full of dishes, you decide to do some of the dishes to have a little less mess. Your dad comes, and you install the dishwasher together. It works.

Step 8: Try it out.

You turn it on to see if it leaks. It doesn't leak. It works very well. You are happy and can fill it up and do the dishes easily. And get the kitchen ready so you can make homemade pizza for you, your mom and another brother when you watch Eurovision. The amount of dirty dishes you have fills up two loads, but you only get one done before Eurovision.

Step 9: Use the dishwasher.

Now that you have a dishwasher, you can stop thinking about the dishes and fill it when you have dirty plates. Just keep that up and wash the few things not allowed in the dishwasher after using it.

Step 10: Use the time for other things.

Now that you don't have to spend around 2 - 3 hours a week washing the dishes, you can use that time and brain space for other things. Such as vacuuming, writing, yoga, or whatever you might want to use your free time for.

Now you have solved one problem. If things start going downhill again or it doesn't give you more time, you do it again and find the next big problem with an easy solution. Maybe that is getting a car, a dryer, or setting up a cleaning schedule. Maybe it is getting rid of a bad habit or starting to exercise. Whatever it is, you have a blueprint for what to do, even if it doesn't entirely go to plan. As long as it works, you should be fine.