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Feb 17, 2023·edited Feb 17, 2023Author

I'll go first, I have a few... both big and small:

- if washing machines were upstairs instead of downstairs in houses so you didn't have to carry the laundry down only to take it back upstairs

- if schools and work started at different times

- if the UK tax calendar and the regular calendar started on the same day (!)

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- Restaurants, bars and pubs should have play areas so we can bring kids and let them run around while we relax. Huge demand for this!!

- More cycle lanes, and priority for cyclists over drivers ala Amsterdam (seemingly big tweak but only a fraction of road infrastructure budgets!). If streets were more safe for cycling, then more people would do them. Right now, only the crazy and / or committed cycle in my area, which gives the identity of 'cyclists' a bad name. Cycling should be a daily normal thing that most people do to get to most places. Bicycles, tricycles, cargo bikes, recumbent bikes, all. Cheap, accessible and good for health.

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If school started an hour later, kids would wake up more refreshed and the morning could be more sunshine-y, more joyous and less rushed. 🌞

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This sounds so silly, but it makes a HUGE difference in my life. A tweak I made about a year ago was put my toothbrush and toothpaste in the kitchen behind the sink faucet so I'd remember to brush my teeth after I finished eating instead of relying on my ADHD brain to (1) remember to pair finishing eating with brushing my teeth and (2) not get distracted on my way to the bathroom from the kitchen.

Having the tools I needed where they made sense (for my brain) and having them displayed openly (in a cup behind the faucet instead of under the sink) made it a visible cue instead of something I had to remember.

The result of this tiny change? I remembered to brush my teeth more without shaming myself for forgetting, getting distracted, being too busy, or not having the energy.

It isn't a rule we HAVE to keep our personal hygiene tools in the bathroom. (Or specific house items where everyone else keeps them.) We can make our own rules and curate a space that works for our brain and energy levels.

Another change I made was working when my brain said it's time to work, which is 6pm.

It means if clients expect to reach me at my local 9-5pm time, I'm not their ideal consultant, and we know it won't work. But it also means I get to work with lots of Europeans and Australians because my midnight hours coincide with their daytime hours. (And it means I can do creative work in solitude and peace because nighttime is silent where I am.)

I used to shame myself for not being able to hold regular hours, but I read an anthropological paper about how humans evolved to have different wake-sleep schedules so someone was always awake (even at midnight) to protect the rest of the community. If we ALL evolved to have the same sleeping schedule, then we'd be largely unprotected and extremely vulnerable to attack.

It made me feel a lot better knowing there was an evolutionary, scientific explanation and that I wasn't just a failure.

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Feb 17, 2023Liked by Anna Codrea-Rado

Bring the watershed time forward to 8pm, so I can watch [insert favourite tv drama at the time] and be in bed and asleep for 9.30pm. Do children even watch tv anymore for this to matter? It’s all Netflix and You Tube, surely?

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Feb 17, 2023Liked by Anna Codrea-Rado

Great question.

If all flour products, like bread and pasta, were wholemeal and fortified with Vit D (and others) to get a few more nutrients in us. Or at least 50:50.

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If your boss promised something and actually followed-through with it

If interviews for new jobs were 2-3 interviews max; not 4, 5 or 6; not 3 with writing samples and a test; not 6

If your fave candles could last a little bit longer or not be discontinued

If pizza places and diners in VA stayed open 24 hours similar to a college town

More sidewalks not just damn highways

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If 12pm could be a normal lunch hour (I live/work in Paris area), then 6 -7pm would be a normal hour for diner. Work day would start earlier, finish earlier, and we could all have more time after work & diner for fun & activities!

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Big fat yes to working days starting a little later/simply being more flexible around our natural human rhythms – things like having every other Friday off work without losing out on pay etc being as standard/the norm, no matter what sector you work in. It would give parents more time to spend with children/to save on childcare, and those without kids more time to visit family/or simply just *be*.

Also agree with the cycling comments – I'd love for the UK to shift toward being a pedestrian/bicycle-forward nation, particularly in cities like London. As Liz mentioned, creating new cycle lanes, making roads safer for cyclists, *prioritising* pedestrians and cyclists over motorists – we need to phase out the idea that owning and using multiple/private cars in cities is the norm.

I also wish everyone was just that little bit more thoughtful... both towards each other, other living beings, and the environment we all share. Moving a little more gently through the world, stepping a little more softly, thinking a little more deeply (and having the time and support from the government to allow us all to do so)

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