{"id":26170,"date":"2014-06-02T22:30:27","date_gmt":"2014-06-03T06:30:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.pickthebrain.com\/?p=26170"},"modified":"2014-06-02T22:30:27","modified_gmt":"2014-06-03T06:30:27","slug":"8-tips-smooth-happy-day-ahead","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.pickthebrain.com\/blog\/8-tips-smooth-happy-day-ahead\/","title":{"rendered":"8 Tips For A Smooth, Happy Day Ahead"},"content":{"rendered":"<div style=\"margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;\" class=\"sharethis-inline-share-buttons\" ><\/div><p><\/p>\n<p>Especially for that Monday with its terrible blues attacking you from all directions.<\/p>\n<p>And the way I see it, the typical solutions out there are well, a little too hard. Some of them are counter productive even.<\/p>\n<p>A smooth and happy day doesn&#8217;t have to be hard. You just have to make the conscious choice of making things happen, rather than waiting for life to happen for you.<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><strong>Here&#8217;s 8 tips for a smooth, happy day ahead<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p><strong>1) Make your bed in the morning<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>This isn&#8217;t just about fostering a habit that improves your tidiness in your own room. It&#8217;s about kick starting your day proper and also showing how the little things in life matter.<\/p>\n<p>As\u00a0US Navy Admiral William H. McRaven puts it, &#8220;&#8221;If you make your bed every morning you will have accomplished the first task of the day. It will give you a small sense of pride and it will encourage you to do another task and another and another.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>It&#8217;s the little things that matter indeed.<\/p>\n<p><strong>2) Think of the goodness you contribute to when you pay bills<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Maybe this is a little tricky as nobody likes to pay bills.<\/p>\n<p>Well, instead of whining about it, think about the goodness you&#8217;re creating when you&#8217;re paying them. You&#8217;re helping the phone company&#8217;s employees maintain their jobs. You&#8217;re allowing them to have money to buy food and shelter for their loved ones.<\/p>\n<p>And no, it&#8217;s not a stretch when you think that way. Give it a whirl.<\/p>\n<p><strong>3) Switch off all music when you&#8217;re working<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>I know, I know. &#8220;But I&#8217;m playing songs with no lyrics in them&#8221;, is what you&#8217;re thinking now.<\/p>\n<p>But the thing is, playing music can be very counter productive as you&#8217;re constantly multi-tasking to switch songs or typing in new tracks on YouTube. So even if they&#8217;re soothing, background music, it could be wasting more time than you think.<\/p>\n<p><strong>4) Go to work late if possible<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>That way, you can avoid peak hour for your commute. Try this out if it&#8217;s possible. Work it out with your boss. It&#8217;d be worth it to not have to deal with a crowded bus or train and of course, to be able to sleep in.<\/p>\n<p><strong>5) Leave the office late<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>And on the flip side, leave the office late for the same benefits as above.<\/p>\n<p>With most people always in a rush in today&#8217;s world, it can very suffocating to be in the same crowded and hectic environment.<\/p>\n<p>If everybody wants to catch a break, you probably can&#8217;t get it if there&#8217;s so much competition around.<\/p>\n<p><strong>6) Tell someone you&#8217;re grateful for them<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>This is a play on the quintessential, &#8220;Good deed of the day&#8221; practice, which ironically, a lot of people don&#8217;t adhere to.<\/p>\n<p>So instead of doing a good deed, tell someone you&#8217;re grateful for them instead. Not only are you expressing yourself; your love for somebody, but it&#8217;d make your day and even your entire life as you realize how important you are to someone, and how that someone is important to you. Never take things for granted.<\/p>\n<p><strong>7) \u00a0Get that one uncomfortable task out of the way early<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Nobody likes feeling uncomfortable. It&#8217;s pretty much what&#8217;s causing procrastination in us.<\/p>\n<p>The way I see it, the whole point is to feel uncomfortable! It&#8217;s a sign of a good day ahead, that is, if you get it out of the way fast.<\/p>\n<p>For me, I do twenty chin-ups in the morning any three days in a week. It&#8217;s not a regime or anything like that. It&#8217;s just a random burst of exercise and discomfort. Everything feels good after that.<\/p>\n<p>You just know things will be good after that. Just rip off the band aid already.<\/p>\n<p><strong>8) Have your space and time alone<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Everybody needs their own space. This means nobody should be around you, no social media , no email, no phones or whatever.<\/p>\n<p>You need time alone to do nothing. This is where you breathe, quiet your mind and allow simple insights to come in.<\/p>\n<p>We&#8217;re all so preoccupied with something that we forget nothing could be the answer. No matter what, always remember you&#8217;re doing things for your life. You aren&#8217;t doing things for the life supposedly thrown to you by society.<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><strong>Just for Pick the Brain readers<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p>If you reach to the end of this article, that\u2019s awesome!<\/p>\n<p>I just wanted to tell you about my new free book!\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/alden-tan.com\/happy-people\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">12 Things Happy People Don\u2019t Give a F**k About!<\/a><\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s a simple, free book that let\u2019s you know what you need to let of in life to be super happy!<\/p>\n<p>This free book is only available through\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/alden-tan.com\/happy-people\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">this link to Alden-Tan<\/a>. Check it out!<\/p>\n<p>Bio:<\/p>\n<p><i>Alden Tan keeps it real at his blog and writes about\u00a0<\/i><a href=\"http:\/\/alden-tan.com\/happy-people\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\"><i>motivation in unconventional ways<\/i><\/a><i><a href=\"http:\/\/alden-tan.com\/happy-people\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">.<\/a>\u00a0His two main passions are Bboying and writing. Check out\u00a0<\/i><i><a href=\"http:\/\/alden-tan.com\/happy-people\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">his free report<\/a>,\u00a0<\/i><i>12 Things Happy People Don\u2019t Give a F**k About!\u00a0<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A smooth and happy day doesn&#8217;t have to be hard. You just have to make the conscious choice of making things happen, rather than waiting for life to happen for you. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.pickthebrain.com\/blog\/8-tips-smooth-happy-day-ahead\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":442,"featured_media":26210,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0},"categories":[32,6],"tags":[3658,637,66,387,4629],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v19.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>8 Tips For A Smooth, Happy Day Ahead - Pick the Brain | Motivation and Self Improvement<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"A smooth and happy day doesn&#039;t have to be hard. You just have to make the conscious choice of making things happen, rather than waiting for life to happen for you.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.pickthebrain.com\/blog\/8-tips-smooth-happy-day-ahead\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"8 Tips For A Smooth, Happy Day Ahead - Pick the Brain | Motivation and Self Improvement\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"A smooth and happy day doesn&#039;t have to be hard. You just have to make the conscious choice of making things happen, rather than waiting for life to happen for you.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.pickthebrain.com\/blog\/8-tips-smooth-happy-day-ahead\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Pick the Brain | Motivation and Self Improvement\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/pickthebrain\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2014-06-03T06:30:27+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.pickthebrain.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/happiness-tips.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"494\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"363\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@pickthebrain\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@pickthebrain\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Alden Tan\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.pickthebrain.com\/blog\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.pickthebrain.com\/blog\/\",\"name\":\"Pick the Brain | Motivation and Self Improvement\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.pickthebrain.com\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.pickthebrain.com\/blog\/8-tips-smooth-happy-day-ahead\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.pickthebrain.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/happiness-tips.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.pickthebrain.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/happiness-tips.png\",\"width\":494,\"height\":363,\"caption\":\"self improvement\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.pickthebrain.com\/blog\/8-tips-smooth-happy-day-ahead\/#webpage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.pickthebrain.com\/blog\/8-tips-smooth-happy-day-ahead\/\",\"name\":\"8 Tips For A Smooth, Happy Day Ahead - Pick the Brain | Motivation and Self Improvement\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.pickthebrain.com\/blog\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.pickthebrain.com\/blog\/8-tips-smooth-happy-day-ahead\/#primaryimage\"},\"datePublished\":\"2014-06-03T06:30:27+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2014-06-03T06:30:27+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.pickthebrain.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/ba0d4fdf0643fc29407f6b776bd721ff\"},\"description\":\"A smooth and happy day doesn't have to be hard. 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