Most of us start the year with resolutions to improve their financial standing and perhaps their sustainability score too. I can bet, of all the useful practices you read about and tried, most did not lead to major improvement. The reason is, occasional good practices do very little compared to consistent ones that have become second nature. Therefore, to not waste our effort, we really need to focus on creating new habits. Here's a few to consider:
1. Blindfolded logistics: Organize your household in the way that allows you to go about your daily chores mostly without using your eyesight. That will help you keep your utility bill down, because you won't have to turn the light on very often. It's also helpful in case you experience a blackout.
Tips: Remove all the sharp objects you can walk into. Use caution around open doors and other hazardous objects. Spend a few minutes every day learning your way around; learn which tasks require the use of vision (cutting with a knife, applying cosmetics etc.) and which are more forgiving. Streamline your logistics to minimize encounters with pets and family members. This last skill alone is well worth the trouble.
2. Getting more use out of every item before you get rid of it. Sure, you recycle that cardboard packaging; but how about all that information, printed on it in many tongues? Why let it get wasted? If you make a habit of reading boxes, you can actually learn new language in just a couple of years.
Tips: if you indeed decide to learn a language, facilitate your progress by learning a few things about its grammar and by keeping a dictionary at hand. Also, highly technical manuals should be approached with caution. The rule of thumb is, if you can't understand it in your own language, don't attempt reading it in Chinese, even if it seems more authentic.
3. Using your imagination more. Typically, it's the most underemployed device we have. That is just too bad, since nearly all ways to have a good time without spending any resources require imagination.
Tips: Be sure to use imagination correctly. That means, every time your acquaintances get a promotion or a really cool gadget or are going someplace nice - imagine all the horrible disasters that may happen to them because of it. That way, you will rejoice in knowing just how many things you don't have to worry about. Most importantly, DON'T USE IMAGINATION ON RELATIVES AND CLOSE FRIENDS! That will only get you in trouble.
4. For being more frugal with your time and energy, combining the things you dread can go a long way. For instance, if you are like me, you might have skimmed over #3, because you just don't do imagination, and #2 because you don't do manuals. The good news is, if every time you have to read instructions you engage in pretend play, it will help the contents go down.
Tips: Involve your kids in playing; they might enjoy playing tech support or Santa's elves, and a flotation device manual may be useful for playing pirates. If you do it consistently, you will become more and more creative with the material at hand; the kids will discover the perils of not reading small font early enough, and may even pick up the message that reading instructions is fun.
5. Making a tradition of multipurpose activities. We all know, single-purpose items may be a waste of space and money; but it is rarely mentioned that single-purpose activities are not the thriftiest use of our resources. It's best to arrange most of our activities as multipurpose from the start. Of course it takes some getting used to, but come to think of it: if you know a job yields two independent outcomes, aren't you twice as likely to do it well?
Tips: Start small and simple; pick a chore that can be done with two or more outcomes in mind, and start doing that as a tradition. If you need to sort large amounts of mail or paperwork, for instance, arrange everything so you end up having both neatly sorted paperwork and a stack of scrap paper for shopping lists or kids' projects. Or whenever you want to make people laugh, try to make sure it doubles as a source of useful information, or at least food for thought.
