As I write this article, I’m a few short hours away from getting ready for a date that fell into my lap just minutes ago. That’s how life works: you don’t always have a lot of time to prepare, but you have to say yes to the opportunities that present themselves and put the best, most sparkly version of yourself forward. I don’t have much time to waste–and if you’re reading this you probably don’t either–so let’s get into it! Here are your date night dos and don’ts, whether you have minutes, hours, or days to prepare. 

Hygiene matters

To look your best for a date you must start with a fresh, clean base. A proper shower is the first step. If you’re short on time, you don’t have to wash your hair (drying and styling takes forever) but scrub where it counts, do a quick once-over with a razor to get rid of any rogue body hairs, and cleanse your face to have a fresh palette for your makeup. Moisturize your skin from head to toe. You may want to consider throwing a whitening strip on your teeth and wearing it throughout your getting ready ritual, so that you have an extra zingy smile!(Just don’t forget to remove it and brush your teeth before heading out the door!)

Don’t overdo the makeup

There are thousands of exciting, if a bit weird, makeup techniques floating around Instagram and YouTube. But a first date isn’t the right time to try out the contouring or eyeliner trend that all the beauty bloggers are loving, or break out your sparkly black lipstick. Worst case scenario, you spend an hour trying out one of these trendy makeup looks, just to have it turn out terribly, with little or no time to start from scratch. After all, your date liked how you looked the first time he saw you! He’s not expecting you to be in some crazy over the top makeup for your date. You want to look like yourself, just an extra polished version. So keep it simple with your standard night out beauty ritual. 

In an age of tablets, smartphones, and hundreds of television channels, it can be difficult to encourage kids to tear their eyes away from the screen and pick up a book. Despite the benefits of technology, it’s just as important now to read books as it ever was.

Rather than allowing a child to passively watch as stories, ideas, and visuals are presented to her via websites and television, reading is active; a reader uses the information on the page to construct her own worlds, and must decipher themes, analyze characters, and pick apart story arcs on her own. These skills are highly important, if not mandatory, in school settings and the real world – after all, how will your child come up with great startup ideas without being able to research the industry?

Responsibility can be difficult to embrace. It means the buck stops with you whether you’re at fault or not. Delegating isn’t an option. You’re the one who has to make a decision or do something to create forward movement. If you’ve been handed a mess, you have to clean it up. It may not even be your own mess, but when you’re responsible, it’s yours to resolve.

Why would anyone want to take responsibility for something they didn’t create? Or clean up someone else’s mess? Shouldn’t the person at fault clean up their own mess? 

Not if you want swift resolution.

If you want to solve a problem, you must leave all blame behind. It sounds illogical, but it’s actually the most effective way to problem solve. To understand more, let’s look at how and why blame gets in the way.

Blame prevents resolution

Have you ever been yelled at by a boss, a teacher, or a parent? Have you noticed that no matter how bad your punishment was – whether you got suspended, grounded, or fired – the problem didn’t get solved? Admitting you were wrong didn’t resolve anything, either; it just made the other person feel good for making you feel bad.