TIP #63: Create a Before to go Shopping list

I am not saying do the shopping list before you get to the groceries. I am saying had one that you can check. That contain the items you are constantly buying, so before you leave to do groceries, you can check.
Nothing worse that come back from the store and discover that you forgot to get beans or toilet paper and then you need to do a second trip. It is not only extremely frustrating but honestly, most of us don’t have that amount of time to waste. This is not a list to bring to the groceries, this is a list to make sure, you are not going to forget anything before you get to the store.
Toilet Paper, Klennex, Kids Juice Box, Kids Milk Box, Milk, Eggs, Vitamins…
I have a list that include the Veggies, Babies Stuff, Cleaning Supplies, Food in General, Freezer Stuff, Bathroom Stuff, Pets…
Once a week, I open this list and walk around the house to make sure I will not need anything that it is on that list in the next week of two. Then simply add it to the shopping list.
i.e. I used to be the person that for a couple of mornings, every once in a while curse the fact that my deodorant was almost gone and I need it to stop on the store. I know I always one extra. When I am doing this review, if the extra is not in the closet, I add it to the grocery list, but the trigger many times is this checklist.

TIP #62: Write down that promise to your Wife

If you are married, how many times you had made a promise (or an agreement) with your significant other and had simply forgot.
You are not ignoring the commitment, honestly you have no recollection you made it. Even if I remind you, you remember it differently.
It’s all fine, except that are those little things what deteriorate relationships at the end of the day, she remembers one way, you said it was in another. You remember one thing, she said it wasn’t like that.
The solution is simple, write it down. You can’t make the other write it down and remember it how it was, but at least you can do your part. Write in detail the agreement and the promise. You will be able to come back to that list and remind yourself, not only the agreement, but the reason you did it. Think on this like writing a note to your future self, that will have no clue about this day.
i.e. Years ago, my wife got offered a job ninety seven miles away from our current home. We talk, and decided that it was going to be a good thing for her to take the job. As part of that agreement I was going to drive over one hundred and ninety miles each day. It’s easy to say, exhausting to drive. The only reason I did it for more than two years, was the note that remind me Why I decided to do that. I drove more than one hundred thousand miles, and every time I got tired of frustrated, I open the list, read the agreement, and the why: “You are doing this, because one of my goals in life is making my wife happy.” and so I drove that morning or that afternoon.

TIP #61: Create a Weekend Lazy Eating List

You get to the weekend so tired, that your only option is eat outside, fast food and poor options. I understand, you work fifty to sixty hours. Sleep little. You are exhausted. You have no energy to think or to cook.
Create a Weekend lazy Eating List. This contain a couple of things, one is places you can go an eat that are healthier than a fast food place. Second are recipes that you like that require zero energy to make.
The problem is, that while you are on that weekend mode, exhausted, depleted you can’t think on any of this options, so you go and grab the fast food and the bad call.
In our list for example is Chili, PB&J, Pasta with Meat Sauce, Lasagna that we freeze in advance, frozen taquitos. We also have a short list of places where we can go and make a better decision than the greasy burger and the pizza.
i.e. I love Pizza it’s one of my favorite things, but I am aware that a weekend full of trash food will never help me to begin a better week on Monday. Again while you are there is not the time to think how to get out, it is the time to recover, the planning need to happen in advance. Have those easy meals list (you will not think on the frozen taquitos even if see the box on the fridge, if you are that tired) or those places that you can go and make a better call.

TIP #60: What are going to stop doing this month

We all have stuff we should stop doing. We had already established yesterday that you should use the opportunity to start something, and as important as it is start new things it is to stop doing things that doesn’t work.
Reflect what are you doing that you should stop doing, we all have things.
Should you stop drinking too much coffee, over-commiting, watching the news before going to bed, going to bed so late?
We all have things that we should stop doing. So use today opportunity to stop doing something that doesn’t work anymore (or that you really shouldn’t be doing)
i.e. I stop drinking Diet Coke on November 2010. Before that date I was drinking between six and eight cans a day. To this day, I am proud of that decision. Stop something.
(I understand that if you didn’t began this book on January First, maybe today isn’t March First or the first of the month, but if you had read a tip a day, today is a good day to stop something.)