Record what makes each day special

How to make life a little more interesting

One complaint about adulthood is that life can start to feel like the movie Groundhog Day. The main character lives the same day over and over again.

We don’t literally do that, but we do tend to get up around the same time, get everyone off to work and school (or camp), collect everyone at the end, eat dinner, get ready for bed and then do it all over again. Tuesday’s commute is indistinguishable from Thursday’s and you have to look at the calendar as you wonder… is it Friday yet?

But today is not Groundhog Day. Each day can be its own little jewel. Noticing what makes each day distinctive helps us value all our days, whatever is going on.

These precious days

So each day, try asking this question: why is today different from other days?

Perhaps today is different because you made s’mores around your fire pit.

Today is different because you Face Timed with Uncle Rob for his birthday.

Today you hiked a new trail on your lunch break.

Today you rearranged the furniture in the guest room so you feel better about hosting a college friend next month.

Today is different because you figured out how to edit a video.

Today is different because you received your first vegetable delivery from a local farm.

Today is different because the kids taught the dog to shake hands.

Plan to make the day different

These are not life-changing differences, but they’re enough to make the day special and distinct and worthy of notice…if one chooses to notice them.

This is simple enough to incorporate into any end-of-day routines. You can write in a one-sentence journal, or just put a note somewhere.

But whatever you do, know that there’s a sneaky little upside to recording what makes each day special.

Once you know you’ll need to write something down, you realize that you can engineer special things into your life. You can set an intention to do something worth remembering. You see nothing particularly promising on the calendar, so you elect to cook a new dish, go for a walk by the lake, or call a friend you haven’t talked with in a while. Or maybe today will be different because it’s the day you start recording what makes each day special. And just like that, today is different from all other days — just as you intended.