I confess. I used to be one of those guys who reads self-help articles online, while procrastinating, and calls it off as productive procrastination. I do that now as well, but not as much as I used to before. If you’ve been through that rabbit hole, you’d by now heard about the power of habits.
Self-help or not, forming “good habits” are the single most powerful strategy a person can wield to bring some sort of sense in this chaotic world of ours. Understanding this, I’ve developed a habit of my own, that I do every single day, that puts life in perspective for me.
I create a wallpaper for my phone/laptop every single day.
No, this is not a daily creativity challenge.
The content of the wallpaper is what matters. It highlights the no of days passed in this year, and the no of days left in my quarterly plan*.
I hear you techies going, you can write a simple app that does this for you, AUTOMATICALLY! But, the point is that, the act of actually making one everyday, is a reminder of how time is fleeting.
This acts as a daily reminder for me, as to how little time we have left and how one by one, we can make those days count. If you are getting anxious reading this, I would like to clarify a few things for you.
This is not about being hard on yourself. This is about making the best use of every single day. It is not everyday that you feel 100%, it is okay. However, reflecting on mortality and such, gives me the motivation on those days when I feel down. Quite ironic, but it works for me.
I am trying to practice stoicism and this little exercise is my version of it. Google “memento mori” to learn more about this reflecting on mortality thing.
If you are still here and are interested in trying this out yourself, you can download the PSD versions of both the desktop and phone wallpapers.
If you don’t have access to Photoshop, you can use the paint app or the notes app in your phone, write it down, take a screenshot and set it as the wallpaper.
I posted about this in Instagram and a few of my friends said it is helping them a lot, and thus the post to dwell deeper on it. Hope you find this useful as well. Ciao!
*I try to plan my year out in quarterly terms (12 weeks), I’ll explain the idea behind it in another blog post, let me know in the comments if you’d like to hear that, sooner than later.