From morning pages to eating with the seasons, here are 25 simple ways to improve your life this year
1. Keep a planner
Don’t underestimate the wave of relief that’ll wash over you once you transfer your Google Calendar into an actual physical notebook. We recommend a trusty Moleskine, or if you want something more luxurious, try a Smythson.
2. Get a red lamp for your bedroom
Red light is said to stimulate the secretion of melatonin, a hormone that your brain produces to help you fall asleep.
3. Go to the cinema on your own
Making some alone time for yourself is the ultimate indulgence, and this coming year is promising to be another great year in film.
4. Buy a radio
Marilyn Monroe was once asked, “Is it true that when you posed for that famous calendar photograph you had nothing on?” She responded, “No, I had the radio on.”
5. Get rid of email and social media notifications
Our pocket-sized pests always seem to want something. Encourage yourself to check notifications at your own pace. If it was urgent, they’d call you.
6. Write morning pages
If there’s one key takeaway from Julia Cameron’s cult 1992 self-help book The Artist’s Way, it’s morning pages: the daily practice of three pages of longhand, stream-of-consciousness writing done first thing in the morning. Many writers and artists swear by them. In the author’s own words, “They are not high art. They are not even ‘writing’. They are about anything and everything that crosses your mind – and they are for your eyes only.”
7. Master a new recipe once a month
Feel as if you’re lacking recipes in your arsenal? Master a new one each month, and if all goes swimmingly, keep a record of the recipe on your phone so you have it on hand for the future. If you’re looking for something minimal and nourishing, try the River Cafe, or, for something elaborate and impressive, delve into Ottolenghi. Scan our recipes by Max Rocha, Laila Gohar and Jacob Lillis too. By the end of the year, you may well have 12 new dishes up your sleeve.
8. Find a new signature scent
Knowing which type of fragrance you prefer – woody, spicy, floral or aromatic, et cetera – and what your skin works with makes perfume decisions easier. Have more than one scent on hand for varying seasons and occasions.
9. Wake up half an hour early to read or write before work
Stave off sleep inertia with some light reading and writing in the morning.
10. Invest in some non-IKEA furniture
Eschew IKEA and invest in a secondhand piece that can travel with you over the years.
11. Sleep away from your tech
On a sleepless evening, try expelling your screens from sight and opening a book. Your tired eyes will thank you.
12. Eat with the seasons
With everything available all the time, it’s a challenge to eat seasonal produce. But doing so is not just a case of eating the freshest, tastiest produce, it’s also a great way to help the environment and feel more in tune with nature. If you can, go to your local farmer’s market, or simply buy what’s in season at the supermarket: this month, go for carrots, brussel sprouts, cauliflower, kale, swedes, and savoy cabbage. Remember, absence makes the stomach grow fonder.
13. Invest in a print
We suggest perusing Dashwood Books, Claire de Rouen, Climax Books and Donlon Books for works by Jamie Hawkesworth, Jet Swan, Mark Borthwick, Ren Hang, and more. Or, get in touch with an emerging photographer you like via email and ask if they’re selling anything off-market.
14. Grow a plant
Try a tomato plant on your windowsill; proving you can care for something as small as a plant for at least a year is a great accomplishment.
15. Go to the theatre
At the Barbican, there’s the Royal Shakespeare Company and Joe Hisaishi award-winning staging of Hayao Miyazaki’s anime classic My Neighbour Totoro, running until March 23. There’s a revival of Neil Simon’s romantic comedy Plaza Suite arriving at London’s Savoy Theatre on January 17 starring Sarah-Jessica Parker and Matthew Broderick, and the much-anticipated new play from Jez Butterworth, The Hills of California, arriving at the Harold Pinter Theatre on January 27.
16. Send thank-you letters
Writing thank-you notes is a good (and sadly dying) art. Stock up on postcards on trips to art galleries, keep a stamp sheet from Royal Mail in your wallet, and send a note after receiving a gift, attending a particularly good party, or staying at someone’s home. It will brighten someone else’s day, and takes less than five minutes to execute.
17. Holiday alone
The ultimate character-building exercise. And it’s great being beholden to no one.
18. Go cold water swimming
People either love or hate cold water swimming, but you can’t knock it until you try it. Those who fall into the former camp cite the rush of dopamine and serotonin, and ensuing euphoria, as a reason to get into icy water during the colder months. Find more information about wild swimming safety and access in the UK from The Outdoor Swimming Society.
19. Paint one room in your house a colour that isn’t white
Painting your house white (yes, even off-white) may be a calming choice but it’s also a safe one. According to Pantone, Peach Fuzz is set to be the colour of 2024 – it could easily spruce up a tired bathroom or bedroom. Or, take some retro inspiration from the modernist master of colour, Le Corbusier, the hand-painted murals of the Bloomsbury Group’s Charleston House, and the maximalist rooms of English decorator David Hicks. Create a moodboard of what you like and go from there.
20. Find your tipple and learn how to make it
Finding your signature drink will be a game of trial and error, but once you’ve discovered it, there will be no more poring over cocktail menus for minutes on end. Get your hands on the ingredients that you need to make it, and soon, you’ll be able to impress houseguests with your favourite beverage, perfected your way. For inspiration, look to these recipes by mixologist Sean Blake.
21. Get your trousers tailored
Finding the perfect pair of trousers is a rarity, especially when it comes to fit. We forget a tailor can adjust our trousers to make them just how we want them, or even give them a small customisation to make them unique. A pair of jeans can take 1,800 gallons of water to produce; working with what we have can help not only take care of the planet, but our pockets too. Read master tailor Lizzie Radcliffe’s top five tips on securing the perfect pair of jeans here. And we’re not necessarily talking about Savile Row tailors here; your local alteration services work well too.
22. Support independent journalism
Or better yet, subscribe to a title in print. For indie titles, we love Apartamento, Butt, The Leopard, Marfa Journal, Luncheon, Motor Dance Journal, Worms, Viscose Journal, TON, and The Skirt Chronicles.
23. Come up with a packing list
If you travel often, it’s handy to come up with one definitive packing list. Joan Didion famously taped her list on the closet door of her house in Malibu, which consisted of everything she needed while on journalism assignments; her chicest essentials include a mohair throw, a typewriter, stockings, cigarettes, and bourbon.
24. Join a book club
Worms Magazine runs a free monthly book club at Reference Point in London, hosted by gallerist Rose Easton (the group will discuss Julia Fox’s new memoir on January 15); or there’s Burning House Book Club, where UK members get sent a new book each month (£15 monthly), and access to online discussions – experimental, countercultural titles are favoured by the likes of Annie Ernaux, Tilly Lawless, Lynne Tillman and Audre Lorde. Equally, why not start your own book club with a couple of friends and voyage through the literary canon together?
25. In spring and summer, walk to work
Clear your mind before you fill it with work, and you’ll find yourself having a more productive day. Use the walk to plan your day, breathe some fresh air, and find some peace. Plus, last year’s study that just 4,000 steps a day could be enough to reduce a person’s risk of early death should be enough to get you out the door.