75 Adults Share Their Best ‘Cheat Codes’ That Make Grownup Life More Bearable

Way to be happy is to be endlessly forgiving, understanding and patient with yourself.

Bidet. So fresh, so clean.

This is more useful for people with ADHD or lack of time management skills, but put EVERYTHING, no matter how small, in your calendar with a reminder. if you know you are going to need to wash your clothes this week have it in your calendar for a specific date and time, and stick to it. it means you have allocated free time to do boring adult things and you aren’t waking up on a monday morning panicking because you have one clean sock and a questionably clean pair of shorts. i’m a nightmare for making/agreeing to plans that consume all of my free time, and not leaving any time for things that i actually need to do to live and thrive as an adult. since i’ve started doing this my life just flows and all the pieces fall into place, rather than me being overwhelmed because i’ve got so many things to get done and no free time to do them.

Salads. Stop thinking of them as a side dish. If you don't like them, that's your problem. You can put anything in a salad and still call it a salad. Any kind of protein. Hummus. Guacamole. Pasta. Blueberries and other fruit. Anything.

Wanna eat some nachos but are worried about your diet? Turn them into an exercise in hot salads, throw as many vegetables as you can at the situation. You may not be cutting cheese and carbs out of your diet, but you are decreasing the ratio of them to actual nutrients.

Got a sweet tooth? Start making fruit salads and add a little bit of chocolate, ice cream, whatever.

Dial back the unhealthy stuff slowly as your gut biomes learn to enjoy things that are good for you. The cravings for the bad stuff tend to go away.

Taking care of small problems early. It sounds boring, but it saves you from dealing with way bigger stress later.

Realising in my mid twenties that I didn’t need to apologise all the time to get into people’s good graces, especially in the work place. I only apologise now if I’ve done something objectively wrong. I avoid undermining myself.

Be bold, not arrogant.
Be honest, not exposed.
Be brave, not careless.
Be useful, and understand your leverage.

When you make mistakes, take the lesson and move on. Don’t get stuck overthinking. Most of it is imagined risk anyway. You won’t get everything right first time, so stop expecting that you will.

Move forward. Try things. Adjust as you go.

Find where you’re actually needed. Find the kind of work and service that fits you and matters to others. Then commit to it.

Choose people and environments where the act of showing up and contributing already feels worthwhile, before anything comes back to you.

I heard my sister saying something like "my husband and I have decided that..." then refused to answer a nosy question. 


It occurred to me that if someone is single, people will try to give unsolicited advice, ask nosy questions, or influence their decision-making.


Whereas if something is presented as a couple's decision, people will back off and stop trying to interfere with a couples matter.

Not really a cheat code but a new habit that helped my mental health - I won't check my work phone until 8AM when I get to the office. My client facility starts their workday at 630AM, so often times I have [stuff] brewing in my email that will either throw off my morning routine/stress me out instantly.

I also consistently leave work just a touch early and take a random long way home. Just to get an extra 5-10 minutes to decompress before I shift from employee to husband to father.

“No.” Is a full sentence.

Messaging for work: Never respond with your initial reaction to something perceived as negative. Let the emotional response, like the epicenter of an earthquake, falloff and then respond once the initial reaction fades.

Getting a credit card with high cash back on groceries and buying gift cards at the grocery store for everything we buy that isn’t groceries to get high cash back. Saved us hundreds of dollars on our renovation by buying Home Depot gift cards at the grocery store and then buying our materials with the gift cards.

Let people be wrong.

If it takes less then 5 minutes do it now.

Prep a meals or snacks ahead of time, stress disappears when u stop negotiating with urself in the moment carry the load.

Always speak good of yourself.

Replying to emails and messages immediately when they take less than 2 minutes. Sounds small, but it eliminated the mental overhead of a 'pending' list I was silently maintaining in my head. Zero inbox isn't about email — it's about cognitive load.

Meditation.

A tongue scraper. It's a game changer for your daily routine.

Honestly using my kid as an excuse to not do anything that I didn’t want to do.