Advice For Better, More Fulfilling Lives

Air Date:
Heard On The Morning Show
Thank You Card Note Gratitude Appreciation
Kealey Bultena/WPR

Don’t waste a day off! That’s advice from our guest who wants people to live better, more fulfilling lives. Discover options to make the most of time away from work. Learn why people should say no to certain opportunities, and explore the value of doing things usually put off – including delivering a overdue thank you.

Featured in this Show

  • New York Times Editor: 3 Things You Should Stop Procrastinating And Just Do

    As editor of The New York Times’ Smarter Living newsletter, Tim Herrera dispels advice about spring cleaning, budgeting and New Year’s resolutions.

    But when it comes to his own life, he’s a bit of a procrastinator.

    “I’m one of those people who always puts off everything until the last minute, until deadline is here,” he says.

    Herrera says it’s natural to have a mental block around some tasks. Sometimes it can be difficult to just send a simple email.

    “We just kind of shut off because it feels like a heavy task,” he said. “But the reality is there are a lot of smaller things that won’t take all day that really improve your situation.”

    Herrera shared a few small tasks you should do today for a huge payoff:

    Tackle Your Finances

    Have a spare 30 minutes? Checking your credit score won’t even take that long. But it’s a good way to check how your financial life is doing.

    Herrera also recommends getting a credit report done as well for a deeper dive.

    “That is one of those things, especially considering all the privacy and hacking issues today, really should be part of everybody’s financial health upkeep,” he said.

    Back Up Your Photos

    Two years ago, Herrera’s computer crashed. He had never backed up any of his photos saved on it, never made physical copies.

    The computer is unusable, but all of his photos are still trapped on it.

    He’ll have to pay to get those photos transferred off of it, even though he could have backed them up long ago for free.

    “To pay to get the data back is gonna cost a fortune and it’s gonna be a another hassle,” he said. “We live so much of our lives online, we really need to protect those and make sure if some tragedy happens… That we aren’t totally stuck without it.”

    The Times offers a beginner’s guide for how to do that, whether through a cloud service or an external hard drive.

    Clean Your Fridge

    In an ideal world, you’d throw out things in your fridge as they go bad. But chances are there’s a number of long-forgotten items in there that are destined for the trash.

    The best way to get started: take absolutely everything out of the fridge and set it on your counter. From there, you can check the expiration dates and see what should stay or go.

    The fridge will then be clear for some heavy-duty cleaning.

    “Every so often it can be really helpful, for your own personal happiness and your own personal happiness in the kitchen, to give your fridge a deep clean,” Herrera said.

    Getting past that crippling procrastination, Herrera says, can have a big happiness payoff.

    After he wrote about the subject in March for The Times and urged others to tackle one thing on their own list, hundreds of messages flooded in from readers.

    Including this one:

    “Her parent had died in the last year and she had been putting off sending along her gratitude to a friend who kind of saw her through that process,” Herrera said.

    His article had finally convinced the woman to reach out to her friend and express how much her support had meant.

    “The idea is that today, just do that thing,” Herrera said. “And you’re gonna feel so much better for it.”

Episode Credits

  • Kate Archer Kent Host
  • Kealey Bultena Producer
  • Tim Herrera Guest