With the election favorably concluded and midterms nearing their end, this is a good time to commit to having a really good day.

Here’s the thing: good days don’t happen, they’re made. If you want a good day, you have to make it happen. You have to force those elusive things into existence, or they’ll never come around … ever.

You don’t need a reason to create a good day, rendering them the perfect indulgence. Good days can happen whether things are awesome or ghastly. After all, that’s the best part — you can’t control the outcome of your day’s events, but you can make the day good.

Hypothetically, let’s say that a girl you ask out invites another guy to join you, introducing him as her new boyfriend. Relax — even if she then cluelessly invites both of you back to her place for a round of shared awkwardness, you can control how the rest of your night goes once you escape. Let’s assume that later in the week, hypothetically, you’re stood up for a lunch date with a cute, completely different redhead. Don’t let it matter.

The key is preparation. Wake up ready. Maximize your sleep by cutting out superfluous tasks. Assess the key requirements and necessities behind everything. Can you B.S. your way through a class discussion without reading the material? Will a little more pomade disguise the look of unwashed hair?

Know exactly the most efficient time requirements for your morning routine, streamlining when possible. It’s essential to brush teeth, but perhaps you sleep in clothes suitable for public exhibition.

A great many classes are really pretty good — there’s no reason not to go to class on your good day. Just drink a great deal of tea. The frequent visits to the water closet are more than made up for by antioxidants and vitamins. It also helps to have a way of playing music. Apple truly made the world better by introducing the iPod.

An essential element of having a good day is good music. Though I don’t like to brag, a great many of my friends say I have exquisite musical taste, so e-mail me if you need some good alternative/indie rock selections. It’s probably why this part of the process works so well for me.

I’m serious — if you pick a good enough song, any day can become awesome through listening to it on endless loop. The song should be conducive to walking — you’ll feel like you’re dancing without consciously making a fool of yourself. Take care to avoid absent-minded singing or rocking out.

Try “Good Morning,” “Bohemian Like You,” “We Used to be Friends” or “Last High” by The Dandy Warhols. Also suitable are Muse’s “Bliss,” Barcelona’s “It’s About Time” or “First Floor People,” Snow Patrol’s “Run” or Coldplay’s “Clocks.” (On Coldplay: I shockingly find most of their music paradoxically provoking on these forced good days).

Also, be careful to select appropriate songs — though beautiful, “Reckoner” by Radiohead inexplicably makes a friend of mine burst into tears.

Listen to your music loudly. I don’t just mean people-can-hear-your-music-from-your-earbuds loud, I mean someone-calls-out-at-you-twice-before-throwing-a rock-at-you-in-a-bid-for-your-attention-so-he-can-compliment-your-song-choice loud. From the moment you leave the house to the moment you find yourself in your bed, curled in the fetal position, listen to that music like it’s going out of fashion.

It works because if the song is good enough, it’ll envelope you in a cocoon of musical bliss and technology-induced coma. If you can’t hear anything over the music — including your own thoughts — you’re doing it right. Yes, this promotes premature hearing-loss, but society can cause insanity, so pick your poison.

Anyway, between the extra sleep you’ve padded your day with, the warm cup of tea you’re holding and the explosive personal soundtrack you’re enjoying, there will be nothing to break the bliss you’re creating. Do it in a way that makes sense to you: the trick is blinding all of your senses to the stimuli around you — perhaps you’ll pass the cute redhead without noticing. Isolate yourself within the environment of your good day. You’ll know the day’s been good when you can’t recall a single detail of the outside world that detracts from your forced day of awesomeness.

Reach columnist Matthew Jackson at opinion@dailyuw.edu.