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How to Stop Letting Little Things Ruin Your Day
Welcome to Effective Habits, a weekly newsletter where I share evidence-based strategies and tools to help you live a happy, healthy, and productive life.
Today at a Glance:
How To Tolerate Annoying Things
Dietary Fiber and Health Outcomes: Real Benefits, Overhyped Claims, and Practical Applications
What if it Works Out? The Science of Strategic Success
“Results tend to accumulate to the person who enjoys the lifestyle that precedes the result.”
How To Tolerate Annoying Things
Dr. Patricia E. Zurita Ona
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Annoying moments are an unavoidable part of being human—spilled coffee, long lines, glitchy phones, loud chewers, unexpected interruptions—and while none of these micro-stresses are life-altering, they can quietly accumulate until your whole day feels off. We’re often told to “not sweat the small stuff,” yet these tiny hassles can leave emotional residue, build into real stress, and even influence our physical health and habits. Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) offers a useful reframe: there’s the unavoidable pain of daily hassles, and then there’s the avoidable pain we add through resistance, frustration, and self-judgment. The goal isn’t to eliminate annoyances but to change your relationship to them, by pausing, noticing the irritation, and choosing a more flexible response. Over time, this shift can turn your metaphorical “barking dog” from a trigger into background noise, reducing the emotional cost of everyday life and helping you move through hassles with far more ease.
🎬Action!
Practice Radical Acceptance. When something annoying happens, acknowledge the reality instead of resisting it. Let go of the mental loops, like wishful thinking, rumination, self-blame or blaming others, as that only deepens frustration. Use short reminders like This is how things unfolded or Fighting this only fuels my pain to ground yourself. Then respond with calm rather than resistance: pause, breathe, name what happened, and choose your next helpful step instead of spiraling into irritation.
Make Space for Your Emotions.
Notice your feelings. When frustration hits, scan for sensations (tight chest, racing heart, clenched jaw) and acknowledge them.
Name your feelings. Use short labels like I’m irritated or This is anxiety to reduce reactivity.
Check whether your impulse is workable. Ask: Will acting on this urge move me toward or away from the person I want to be?
Centre yourself with one of the following 60-second resets.
Ground your body. Feel the soles of your feet or grip a table edge
Steady your breath. Practice slow belly breathing: inhale 4, hold 2, exhale 6.
Release tension physically. Clench your fists for 7 seconds and let go for 14.
Use simple soothing actions, such as a long sigh or quiet humming, to activate your body’s calming system.
Act According to Your Values.
Identify the qualities you want to embody (e.g., patience, curiosity, compassion).
Translate those values into small, concrete actions when annoyances strike, like putting in earbuds instead of snapping, asking a question instead of shutting down, or staying curious rather than giving up.
Use your values as your compass. When irritation rises, ask: What really matters right now? Which action reflects the person I want to be?
Identify When You’re Most Sensitive to Annoyance. Pay attention to the contexts or physiological states that make you more reactive—fatigue, overstimulation, rushed mornings, mid-afternoon energy dips, or coming home drained from work. Recognizing these patterns allows you to anticipate when you’ll need extra patience and grounding. Enter these moments with awareness and apply your skills proactively rather than waiting for annoyance to escalate.
Meet Annoyance With Self-Compassion. When frustration arises, acknowledge what you’re feeling without judgment (This is frustrating; That comment stung). Then check what you need and offer yourself the same warmth you’d give a close friend. Ask: How can I respond to myself kindly right now? or What would a caring friend say? A small dose of self-compassion, combined with a breath, a gentle phrase, or a moment of understanding, helps you navigate annoyances with more steadiness and bounce back faster.
Dietary Fiber and Health Outcomes: Real Benefits, Overhyped Claims, and Practical Applications
Dr. Peter Attia
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Fiber sounds as simple as “eat more plants”, but under the hood it’s a whole universe of different molecules that behave very differently in your body. Broadly, dietary fiber is the portion of carbohydrates you can’t digest with your own enzymes, so it survives the journey through your stomach and small intestine and arrives in the large intestine mostly intact. From there, things get interesting: some fibers are insoluble “roughage” that add bulk to stool and speed transit; others are soluble and form a thick gel that can blunt blood sugar spikes, modestly lower LDL cholesterol, and keep you fuller for longer; some are fermentable prebiotic fibers and resistant starches that your gut bacteria turn into short-chain fatty acids like butyrate, which help fuel and protect the cells lining your colon. Different foods contain different mixes of these fibers, and processing (like milling grains or turning oats into instant packets) can change how viscous or fermentable they are, which in turn changes their impact. On top of that, our tools for studying fiber are imperfect: a lot of the big health claims come from observational studies where high-fiber eaters also tend to exercise more, smoke less, and sleep better, making it hard to tease out fiber’s true causal effect. Clinical trials do show real but modest benefits for weight, glycemic control, lipids, and possibly colon cancer risk, which are helpful nudges rather than magic bullets. Additionally, people vary widely in how well they tolerate different types of fiber, especially rapidly fermentable ones. All of this means fiber is best thought of as a diverse toolkit rather than a single ingredient: different types do different jobs, work better in some contexts than others, and usually play a supporting role alongside overall diet, medication when needed, and other health behaviors.
🎬Action!
Fiber Type | Primary Benefits | Common Food Sources | Approx. Daily Target | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Viscous (gel-forming soluble fiber) | • Increases fullness | •Psyllium husk | ~5–10 g/day of viscous fiber | Take with or right before higher-carb or higher-fat meals. |
Rapidly fermentable fiber (often high-FODMAP) | • Feeds bacteria in the proximal colon | • Beans, lentils, chickpeas | ~5–10 g/day if tolerated | If you’re FODMAP-sensitive, start with small portions and increase slowly or lean more on resistant starch. |
Slowly fermentable fiber & resistant starch (RS2, RS3) | • Feeds bacteria in the distal colon | Cooked & cooled starches (RS3): | ~10–20 g/day | • Batch-cook potatoes, rice, or oats, chill them, and eat as leftovers cold or gently reheated. |
Insoluble fiber (roughage) | • Increases stool bulk | • Vegetable skins (carrots, potatoes, apples, etc.) | ~10–15 g/day | • Eat vegetables with the skins on when appropriate. |
Total fiber (from all types) | • Overall metabolic health (weight, glucose, lipids) | Mix of all the foods above + optional targeted supplements (psyllium, resistant starch) | At least 25 g/day; many do well at 30–50 g/day | • Build meals around plants first: veg, fruit, legumes, whole grains, nuts, seeds. |
Increase fiber gradually. Add ~5 g/day each week to avoid bloating; allow microbiome to adapt.
Pair with hydration. Drink a full glass of water with viscous fibers (psyllium absorbs ~40× its weight).
Time matters. Viscous fibers must be taken with meals; fermentable and insoluble fibers are flexible.
Separate fiber from medications. Keep 2–3 hours between high-dose fiber and antibiotics, thyroid meds, seizure meds, or other narrow-therapeutic-window drugs.
What if it Works Out? The Science of Strategic Success
Anne-Laure Le Cunff
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We spend so much time preparing for failure that we rarely ask the more revealing question: what if it actually works out? Success, whether it’s a promotion, a creative breakthrough, or a long-shot opportunity suddenly becoming real, can be just as destabilizing as failure, because the brain treats any major change, even positive, as a loss of control. That’s why good news often carries a quiet undercurrent of now what? Some people respond by shrinking from success, fearing the comfort, identity, or predictability they might lose; others charge ahead blindly, climbing ladders without checking whether they lead anywhere they truly want to go. But there’s a third path: strategic success. It’s pausing long enough to ask what “working out” would actually mean for your life and whether you want the version of yourself that comes with it. When you shift from reacting to reflecting, you stop hoping success will magically feel right and start consciously designing the version of success you’re willing to pursue.
🎬Action!
Name the success clearly. Write down the specific outcome you want and make it concrete and measurable, not a vague hope. For example, instead of “grow my career,” write “I land the VP of Product role at my company.”
List what would change. Map out how your routines, energy, relationships, responsibilities, finances, social identity, and sense of self would shift if you achieved it. For the VP example, imagine the new meeting cadence, the travel, the expanded team, and how people would treat you differently.
Ask “do I actually want that?” Notice your reactions: which parts feel exciting, which feel draining, and which make you hesitate or want to shrink away. Maybe the VP title energizes you, but the thought of constant visibility or managing 25 people makes your stomach tighten.
Adjust accordingly. If certain changes don’t feel right, adjust your definition of success, design boundaries to protect your priorities, or reconsider whether this goal is truly the one you want to pursue. You might realize you want the strategic influence of a VP, but not the people-management burden, so you shift your goal toward a Principal-level individual contributor path instead.
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Disclaimer: The information provided in this newsletter is for informational purposes only and is not intended as medical advice. Please consult a medical professional for advice, diagnosis, or treatment. We are not liable for any risks or issues that may arise from using this information.
