It’s the New Year! The plague of our age is lists of 10 Things You Must Do Daily For Your Health and 7 Things You Must Do Every Morning to Boost Your Productivity. These are things like “drink eight glasses of water” (myth), “make a To Do list for the day” (perhaps).
I have grown so tired of the cult of productivity that seems to fill the blogosphere that I just can’t bear it anymore. Personally, I think there is a lot to be said for wasting time, for not getting things done, for being unoccupied. Not so long ago, the way you could tell that someone was rich was that he or she had lots of time to waste. Now it seems that the mark of success is being too busy to enjoy life.
That is jacked.
So what is my complete list of things you must do every day in 2018?
- Breathe.
Wait, were you expecting more than one item?
Unless you have some medical condition that requires daily medication or something like that, there is no second must-do for 2018 or any other year.
Despite the advice that you must drink eight glasses of water every day, in fact, unless you’re out in extremely hot weather every single day of 2018, you can go a day without water. It’s not fun, nor recommended, but the simple fact is that you don’t need to drink every day.
Eating? Well, you can go more than a day without doing that. In fact, there is growing evidence that it’s healthy to skip eating for a day or two every once in a while.
Now we get into a whole list of things that you do NOT need to do every day. In fact, if you are doing these every day, in some cases it is definitely hurting you. In others, you should do it most days, but relax. Missing a day will not hurt you. The list of things not to do every day is too long to even get much of a start on, but here’s a start:
- Read the news, listen to the news, watch the news
- Watch TV
- Check email
- Check Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat, or anything at all on the internet
- Buy something
- Turn on your mobile phone or interact with it in way
- Answer the landline when it rings
- Get exercise
- Eat right, eat organic, eat gluten free (celiacs excepted),
eat ice cream. - Read
- Write
- Work
- Shower
- Change your clothes
- Put on makeup
- Check sports scores
- Walk 10,000 steps
- Floss, though it won’t hurt you to do it every day
- Be happy. It’s okay. Be sad today. Letting yourself be sad sometimes can be a salve in hard times
- Read blog posts
I’m sure if I thought about it for a bit, I could triple or quadruple that list, but let’s leave it there.
Now, go take ten deep breathes. That may not be all you have to do today, but try to find one day in 2018 where that is all you have to do.
You write convincingly with well thought out logic. I loved your thoughts on that 212 the extra degree book. Don’t be discouraged by the flak you took. Read Phillip Larkins poem This be the verse and you’ll understand those negative responses. Keep writing! Best wishes
Well Ed, that just warms my heart. Thank you! You correctly guessed at some thoughts going through my mind.
What I find interesting in the responses to that 212 Degree post is that it is super long, and yet people read it and then write comments about what a waste of time it is to read it or even, as the last commenter, what a bad and evil person I must be to write such things. But I try not to take it personally.
And for the benefit of future readers, the poem you mention is online at The Poetry Foundation.
Philip Larkin: This Be the Verse
I must say, though, I think my view of the world is a bit more positive than Philip Larkin’s. But speaking of poetry and of the desire to perhaps strike back when criticized, one of the poems I memorized last year was Conscientious Objector by Edna Saint-Vincent Millay. I try to think like that.
Nice musings. By the way, you are back on Facebook, aren’t you? :)
Nope, I’m not back on Facebook
I read this now in September 2019. I do not use make up. Other than that it´s still the same :-)
Vilo