Introduction

We all love checklists. Who doesn’t? It’s simple and helps us keep track of where we are. Anyway, this is a really ambitious mini project to try to cover every aspect of our life.

It’s ambitious because there is way too much to write. I will only cover the physical and mental aspect of it. I will leave out spiritual because it’s too open to controversy.

The intention behind this writing is that each item is actionable. Don’t you hate reading those articles that says “do these 5 things” or “avoid that 3 things?”

The worst part is how the advices are so vague. We all know sleep is good, you just spent a whole page telling us the benefits and end it with “therefore buy this sleep product.” Come on. That can’t be all there is to it, right?

The fact is, we come into life with various problems and they are always complex. I am writing this assuming the largest possible population. In other words, I try not to cover specific genetic disorder or psychological issue.

While I intend to append a citation list, see your medical professional to cover all grounds. There is no advertised products in here. Almost everything should be free or relatively cheap.

The Checklist

The easiest way to get started (now) is to make sure there is no clutter in your physical space. That makes it easier to declutter your mental space when you have less things to worry about. I already wrote about this so I won’t go over it here. You can read it here.

As I said, actionable and largest population. This means you can go down the list and most of it should apply to you if you haven’t already done so. Make use of your phone apps. I happen to like what came with my iPhone and Notability.

Medical

  1. If you don’t have insurance, find ways to get one. This is priority.
  2. If you have insurance, but don’t have a doctor, dentist and mental health specialist, go find them now.
  3. If you have them but don’t have a regular schedule to see them, go do so now.

Sleep

  1. If you don’t have a consistent sleep schedule, attempt to find one. It doesn’t really matter when you sleep as long as it’s consistent.
  2. If you followed my guide on organizing and cleaning, you should now have the ability to easily arrange the room in a way that makes it peaceful.
  3. Arrange your bedroom in a way that makes it hard to get caffeine. For example, don’t put a coffeemaker in the bedroom. If you have appliances like this, move it out now.
  4. Don’t eat large meals, don’t do it close to your sleeping time. This is where you move food and workout equipments out of your bedroom now.
  5. If you can’t sleep, you should get up and walk around, that’s it. One thing that really helps is reading. Music might wake you up and anything bright will definitely wake you up.

Diet

  1. Your goal is to make a list of ingredients to buy. Start one now.
  2. If you have more junk or processed food than ingredient, perhaps it’s time to start learning to cook. Prepare your meals on the weekends for the weekdays. Start by looking up cooking classes and learn some recipes.
  3. Once you have the recipe and ingredients, you can cook at a regularly scheduled time. I’d setup a 30 minute block for this purpose on your calendar.
  4. You should arrange your food in a way that makes sense for health gain. For example, instead of a bowl of only candies (it’s okay to enjoy yourself), put a bowl of nuts next to it. Move as much bad food away from you as possible.
  5. Portion your food! Buy smaller dishes, food containers, etc. If you notice you have a lot of large containers and you are in a small family (or basically living by yourself or with one roommate), I’d start getting rid of some now.

Conclusion

At the end of the day, if it’s issues like genetics, there isn’t much you can do except wait for science to get better at this. I hope this was helpful and would appreciate any feedback.

Citation

  1. https://www.nih.gov/sites/default/files/health-info/wellness-toolkits/physical-wellness-checklist.pdf
  2. https://www.nih.gov/sites/default/files/health-info/wellness-toolkits/emotional-wellness-checklist.pdf
  3. https://www.webmd.com/sleep-disorders/your-sleep-checklist
  4. https://www.webmd.com/diet/obesity/weight-loss-checklist

Originally published at: The Health Checklist