If you wake up early, or pre-plan your day, it feels like you are guiding your day as opposed to it feeling like your day is commanding you to commit to the chores when you wake up late or at time. 

If you exercise regularly, it feels as if there is a buoyancy in your footstep and its carrying you through the daily chores, as opposed to when you have lazy habits and are not physically fit, then if feels like you are being dragged through the chores of the day because of their necessity and you can hardly keep up with them.

In either case, the difference seems to be in the idea that either you claim your day and your life, or you don't. You face the consequences of whichever decision you make. It sounds hopelessly like a self help book but it's just true.

 I had a lot of fun with Black Friday deals this year.

Among the things I upgraded :

My backpack, my shoes, some things for the house, some things for the hospital.

I am also getting iPad Air. I am pretty excited. Each day when I come back from work, there's a package waiting for me. Now this happiness is rooted in materialism, and at other times I have felt a different kind of happiness in buying zero things for a month. But these days, at least about this much of happiness, I am not thinking a lot and I am letting myself be. You can say, I am treating myself in a way that is quite easy.

 Today during morning rounds, I was asking the patient with headache some questions when the nurse came in with the food tray. Now the service went beyond my expectations. The nurse made such a fuss of the patient , that I haven't received such a service at some of the hotels I have literally paid for. He made the patient really comfortable up to exactly the desired level of height the patient wanted to be in, then supplied her with cutlery, her choice of maple syrup, made sure that her hot chocolate had the desired level of sweetness. All the while, the nurse maintained a very chirrupy tone and kept asking the patient if she was good. Whatever the nurse did filled the room with excitement.

 As I stood by the side, waiting for the encounter to be over, I thought about the change that had come in patient's countenance. While, some minutes ago she was complaining of the pressing headache and abdominal pain and was averse to answering many questions, she was now relaxed and cooperative.

The nurse could have gotten away with doing her task in the most uninterested manner, but he didn't.

How much beauty in our life, do we owe to the people like this?

Where do you go to unwind?

To a coffee house?

To your bed?

To someone’s arms?

To your bed?

To your book?

To your kid?

To the shopping mall?

To the movies?

To your favorite TV show?

The four-step floor cleaning routine.

My father used to buy appliances which were from some popular German companies like Philips etc. But the shopping habits have changed down a generation, I don’t know about the rest of my siblings, but I shop on Amazon after going through the reviews. And I am usually satisfied. 

Always read the manual. I know someone who became a pro at machines just by reading the manual for each of them. Now I don’t want to be a pro at machines, but it’s good to have the basic understanding of how your device works and all its functions.

Omg. Getting a cordless vacuum cleaner is already a life changer for me. I realized that the basic hesitation I had about vacuuming floors was about having to manage the long cord that came with it, and now with a sleek and cord-less vacuum cleaner, that trouble is all gone. Truly, sometimes you don’t know what you are missing until you have it.

So I formulated a three-step floor cleaning routine. In the first step, all the visible trash like paper pieces and Cheetos, has to be handpicked or swept away with a brush or broom.

The second step is vacuum-cleaning the floor which will extract all of the other dirt including hair, those small pieces of dirt that keep sticking to your feet etc.

Then is the time for mopping. 

There is an additional fourth step in case there is a tough stain on the floor that you need to scrub. 

So these are the four horse-men of floor cleaning for me. 

I have a to admit that I never liked cleaning. I didn’t really know how to clean properly until I moved in. And it was long after having moved in, that I realized the proper steps of cleaning through trial and error. 

In life when I truly realize that I have to do something, then no matter how much I dislike the task, I try to see how to incorporate it into my routine without resenting it. Because no matter how much I disliked cleaning, I disliked living in an unclean home more. 

Also the thing about resenting a task is that,  If I resent it, I still have to do it. Why feel so bad about it? I realize that making things fun or simpler for myself really helps me in staying motivated to do them. Like now I have a four step floor cleaning routine and my mind sticks to it, without going crazy.

Oh another way to make it fun is that you listen to a playlist, or Ted-talk or whatever :-)