4 Hacks to Improve Your Life
Everyone wants to improve their lives, but where is the best place to begin? It can be hard to know where to start making the chances that are needed. The feeling that you need to put together a long-term plan can keep you from taking any steps at all. The hacks below can all bring about big, timely improvements and do not require a lot of soul searching or energy expenditure.
Sell Your Life Insurance Policy
You may think of life insurance policies as things that only become valuable after a person’s death. In fact, life insurance policies can be used as an investment even when they were not purchased specifically for that purpose and do not have a cash value. Selling a life insurance policy through a life settlement or a viatical settlement can represent good financial planning, providing you with a lump sum of cash that might not be as much as the death benefit but is significant nonetheless. You can review a guide online about how to go through with a life or viatical settlement and how to determine your eligibility. You can also find out more about the companies that offer these settlements.
Pay Yourself
The best way to save money is to pretend that you never had it in the first place. This is why an employer retirement plan where your contributions are deducted from each pay check can be useful. You can apply this to your regular savings as well, having a portion of money that is direct deposited shifted immediately into a savings account.
Be Mindful
If you groaned at the words ‘be mindful’, this section might actually be perfect for you. Mindfulness is not some mystical concept and does not require you to abandon your rationality. It is just about making sure that you are present in the moment and not living in the future or the past all the time. Mindfulness also helps you stay away from stress as much as possible. Once you start to pay attention, you might be stunned at how much time you spend thinking about the past or the future instead of the now and how this affects your perception of things. Try instead to notice the small things unfolding in front of you right now. Regular mindfulness practice can help you get better control of your negative emotions.
Lists and Systems for Productivity
When you make a to-do list, something happens in your brain. Suddenly, instead of having to hold all of this information, your brain is free to do the things it is best at, such as brainstorming innovative ideas. If you struggle with productivity, perhaps surprisingly, a less is more mindset might work. Rather than putting your head down and trying to work long hours, ease off. Work 50 minutes out of every 60 and build in a block of a few minutes down time. If this sounds much too ambitious, start with just 10 minutes of work. You may be surprised at what you can drill through when you have the right mindset and you know there’s a break ahead. Giving yourself rewards can also help spur motivation.