Creating Helpful Habits

Quicken Alyssa

What’s one small change or habit you’ve picked up recently that’s made your day a little easier or better?

I’ve recently started getting up earlier than I used to, and it’s made a surprisingly big difference. I feel like it opens up the day and gives me a head start, especially on things I used to feel rushed doing.

Even just having a bit of quiet time in the morning to plan things out or enjoy a coffee without rushing has been a nice shift. It’s definitely helped me feel more productive and less scattered throughout the day.

Not to mention, the extra time it gives me at the end of the day with my children is absolutely priceless.

How about you? We’d love to hear what small habits or changes have been working for others. Please share!

Quicken Anja

I recently stopped hitting snooze…mostly. I still set a few extra alarms, but now I actually get out of bed on the first one. The rest are just there to remind me how much time I should have left to get ready—because apparently my brain still needs a warning system. Small change, huge difference: mornings feel less chaotic, and I’m only mildly grumpy instead of fully zombified. 😅

Quicken Kristina

I recently started setting my alarm clock earlier so that I have a bit more zombie time in the morning. To help make that possible, I also had to adopt a couple other habits. I keep the alarm clock out of reach from the bed, so that I actually have to get up to turn it off. I also put away the electronics and pull out a book about 30 minutes before bed time to reduce the temptation to stay up late and to create a mini bedtime ritual to tell my brain it's time to sleep.

Palace

Definitely, as I age, I've moderated my eating habits. Meaning, eat smaller portions. Added more fruits, nuts veggies to my diet, via a smoothie; or adding them to my meal. Stay away from excessive red meat. Substitute fish, chicken or turkey, but never fried. Cut way back on salt & sugar. Lastly, EXERCISE. Such as hiking, kayaking and other type activity that doesn't stress joints. Finally throw in some push-ups for muscle tone. Of course, I DON'T always do this; MUST have some ice cream & salty snack every so often! 😉😋🤣

Quicken Anja

https://community.quicken.com/discussion/comment/20514078#Comment_20514078

I should really follow these healthy eating habits too, but unfortunately, I love snacks so much that my reminder for eating healthier has a permanent sticker attached to it that says, “start doing this tomorrow. Read this again tomorrow”. 😂

Palace

Yea, @Quicken Anja it ain't easy, that's for sure. One thing seems to help me. Maybe you find it helpful? Locate an ole pair of clothes you use to be able to 'fit into'; and use that as a guide. Don't worry about checking the scales all the time. For example, for years I've keep the Ole Sailor Boy uniform I wore back when I left Navy at 23. Finally after last few years I can now 'fit into it'. Of course, I don't 'feel or look like 23'; now gray hair, with a craggy ole face ( I prefer to call that 'battle scars') 😉. Back then, I would JUMP out of my rack onto the deck in a flash; now I slowly CRAWL out of bed with a few aches & pains thrown in, till I warm up a bit 🤣

Quicken Anja

https://community.quicken.com/discussion/comment/20514097#Comment_20514097

Oooh that’s a good idea! Perhaps I should pull out my wedding dress—I’m definitely no size 3 anymore! 😆

Jeff76

I'm pretty organized, I suspect most Quicken users are, hence why they bought Quicken to balance their checkbook to the penny and organize their investment holdings etc. But I had very unorganized clothes drawers. I just put clothes in a drawer. But I noticed I always grabbed the clothes at the top of the drawer, those clothes got a lot of wear, while the other clothes never got worn and got the funky sitting in a drawer smell.

So a few weeks ago I took everything out, got rid of stuff I never wear, washed the rest. Put everything back and now I take from the left side of the drawer and put newly washed clothes to the right. Seems to work out a lot better….sadly it took me 60 years to come up with a process that a smart kid would come up with by second grade.

Quicken Kristina

@Jeff76,

I do similar, but hang my shirts/pants in the closet rather than having them folded in drawers. I still have favorites that see more wear than the rest, but it does help to even out how quickly my clothes wear out.

@Quicken Anja,

If you use a belt, that can also make a good reminder, since it gives you a tangible reference of how much you have expanded or shrunk. I've been using a belt since my weight loss has put me in that awkward spot where I'm between pants sizes.

Quicken Anja

https://community.quicken.com/discussion/comment/20514773#Comment_20514773

@Jeff76 My husband and I just bought a new house, and I've been trying to figure out how to better organize our closet. So thanks for sharing this here, so I don't have to wait 60 years to figure that out because that is BRILLIANT! 😄

https://community.quicken.com/discussion/comment/20514778#Comment_20514778

@Quicken Kristina I don't use belts, but that's a good idea, actually. Guess I gotta go buy some belts!

John_in_NC

Not recent, but I learned being disciplined and a gatekeeper of my home really helps. Small, simple activities really help before things become projects or chores:

Process/file/trash mail immediately when walking in door. Everything is returned immediately to its spot-nothing left to be put away later. File papers immediately. Clean as you go. Fold dirty laundry before putting in hamper. Fold plastic grocery bags simply for the fact you know you weren't sloppy. It makes you feel better.

Only keep essential items-get rid of the excess that serves no purpose. Purge the closets of less worn clothes. Old decorations you have had for years that became invisible (yet you clean around)? Eliminate. If it doesn't (or will) provide utility, get rid of it. Don't research better storage options: the goal is to reduce, not make more space for more of the same.

Don't bring in more "stuff". All those trinkets (Yeti cups, pens, etc.) companies throw at you? Decline. If you don't let clutter into your home, then you'll never have to declutter. We spend the first half of our lives accumulating, only for the second half to be eliminating.

You want to sustain a clean home, not clean a dirty, cluttered one. A simple home is easier should you move (new place, assisted living, etc.) or heirs having to clean out your place.

Habits evolve, and how you go about doing this is different from person to person. But, the underlying concept is to stay ahead of the situation. A few seconds spent as you go avoid hours (or weeks) long projects to repair the damage. Less is easier.

(I've always kept a clean place, but this realization became clear 15 years ago when I saw your usual pickup truck hauling a trailer of belongings, and I wondered "are they moving or going to the dump?" Then I looked around my place 😐️ . . .)

Quicken Anja

https://community.quicken.com/discussion/comment/20514929#Comment_20514929

@John_in_NC I learned this lesson the hard way with our recent move. Turns out we had a bad habit of "shove it in the garage to deal with later". Well "later" didn't come until moving day, and we ended up with 3 large dump trailer runs to the landfill. 😬

Here's to hoping we do WAY better in our new home. I told my husband that if I hear "put it in the garage", I'm interjecting to change that to "put it in the trash" from now on. 😅

Jeff76

@John_in_NC well said. The deal I made with my wife years ago, I'm fine with us buying anything new for the house as long as whatever we buy we toss out or give away the equivalent…buy a new chair…get rid of an existing chair, etc. This deal my seem costly, but it has ended a lot of fights (and purchases) before they happen, and reduces what @Quicken Anja just mentioned.

Quicken Kristina

https://community.quicken.com/discussion/comment/20514929#Comment_20514929

Well said. It really is shocking just how much clutter accumulates over time. I've learned to be a fairly good gatekeeper when it comes to my own purchases of physical goods (although I do have a bad habit of buying more digital books and games than I'll ever find the time to enjoy). The clutter I find the hardest to part with is gifts from family/friends. It's stuff I never use, but it has sentimental value.

John_in_NC

@Jeff76 Yes, I follow this as well: for anything that comes in, something must go out.

But, we all know we should declutter 😁 So, in the spirit of this thread, does anybody have any simple tips/tricks that has improved their lives? Wait, tips and tricks are now termed "life hacks".

And we are never too old to learn new things: after grousing about those messy detergent spigot bottles, I sheepishly learned you simply toss the cap into the wash load and replace before drying.

skeleton567

I have taught myself to look around a room I'm leaving to see if there is any clutter that needs to be picked up or organized, such as dishes, coffee cups, full waste baskets. Then at the destination I make myself put items is the right places instead of just dropping them. A job done is a job well done.

Quicken Anja

https://community.quicken.com/discussion/comment/20515104#Comment_20515104

@John_in_NC Speaking of laundry, one life hack I do is putting socks in a mesh laundry bag before washing.

As the only female in the household living with 4 dudes (husband and kids), I found myself buying socks ridiculously often. Now with the mesh bag, they actually stay paired, and no more missing socks!

skeleton567

I think my career in IT made me create habits of keeping my personal data well organized. One thing I do is avoid taking the default locations for data created by applications. Applications often like to keep their data in their own locations which can make it difficult to find. I try to install all my applications at the root level so I can easily see what apps are on my machine, such as C:\CATtrax\, C:\MP3Tag\, C:\Notepad++\

I keep ONE directory on my machine called C:\AllData\ under which I then create individual directories for each application s data files. And using the 'All' in the name brings this directory to the top of my list This also makes my backups easy because I can simply click and drag my AllData directory to another device for off-machine backup. Within AllData I have another directory called AllStatements-Financial which contains my history of electronic billing documents. I also maintain a directory called INSTALLS where I keep the processes for creating/updating my applications. I back up my data regularly, but don't worry so much about other things that I can easily recover or re-install.

Another habit is dating my data clearly. When I save electronic billing files I name them using the service provider name followed by a date in format YY_MM_DD, such as 'C:\AllData\AllStatements\MyCU\2025\Stmt_2025_10_31.pdf.

Within my AllData directory there is \QW2014Data\RQ1986\, \QW2014Data\RQ1987\, etc which organizes my data and backup files historically.

Regarding the thousands of historic family photos/slides/digital pics that I have scanned and digitized from storage boxes in a closet I again create a directory structure using dates like C:\Data\DigitalPics\1962_06_30\ColoradoTrip\. Couple things about this, you can also name files with date AND description. And more, most digital picture files have internal attributes you can use photo editing software to insert 'tag data' - names/descriptions/etc - and some picture applications even display these along with the picture. We can now display our picture collection on our 53" TV over our home network. And it is easy to adjust/retouch pictures with Photoshop Elements. Even when pictures were glued to album pages, I can scan a page, then use Photoshop to crop, enlarge, retouch individual pictures.

About the pictures, start this process now. I have spent literally man-years of hours working on prints from my grandparents in the early 1900's that have been stored in moving boxes and rarely viewed.

Our home office currently has about 40TB of off-machine data storage.