The majority of the things that we are doing on a daily basis are driven by habits. They are an integral part of our life. To create a habit we need to consider that it requires time and effort. In this article, from the beginning of the year, I explained the process of creating a new habit and how to stick to it.
Also, in that article, I listed my subjective list of useful habits. In today’s post, however, I’d like to focus on the small actions that we can perform every day. They are easy to do ( also easy not to do ) but they may have a significant impact on us. At the end of the post, I will propose the daily action tracker which will help you in making these actions happen.
Drinking water
The number of benefits of regular body hydration is uncounted. Water helps, for example, to regulate body temperature, stabilize the heartbeat, maximize physical performance and increase body and mind energy levels. It is also well known that water is a much better choice rather than other types of drinks, like those with sugar or alcohol.
How? I have two solutions to remember about regular hydration. The first one is to buy a 1-liter bottle and refill it 3 times per day (for that I’m setting the alarm in my phone) and remember to take it whenever we go. If you are not used to drinking so much water you can start with a smaller bottle. The second option is to drink two glasses of water with every meal – again for that reminder in a phone might be helpful.
Practice social media detox
According to some research, we are spending, on average, around 2 hours per day on social media. 2 hours! We can utilize this time in a more effective way. I’m not denying that social media are bad at all but believe me, that controlling usage of them will give you a lot. Daily social media detox is one of the ways for that.
How? Choose the time during the day (for example 2-3 hours) where you are not expecting any important calls and give your phone to your flatmate and ask him to hide it somewhere in the house. If you live alone, leave your phone in a different room – it will allow you to avoid compulsive phone checking. On the other hand, you can also set a time when you are allowed to surf the Internet.
Medititation practice
We are living too fast and there is not so much time for reflection – in one of my previous articles, I explained Why do we need to slow down. One of the methods to do that is meditation, especially mindfulness. By doing it on a regular basis we can take a look at our life from a different perspective and be a much calmer person. This is really important for people, who are running from one meeting to another and try to do as much as possible without any breaks.
How? It’s all about finding some time, even a few minutes, to take a deep breath and observe your thoughts without catching and thinking about them. Probably you will find this is strange and hard to do at the beginning but is a super powerful tool for reflection and having a more mindful life.
Read, read, read
Books and the Internet are the easiest ways to gain knowledge. You don’t need to go to the university or pay for the expensive courses because everything that you would like to learn is already accessible, in most cases for free. Reading broadens our horizons, helps to learn new words, and helps to understand many topics.
How? You don’t need to read a dozen pages every day. Small action here is to read one, two pages of a book or article in the meantime, for example during meals or before work. I try to have a book all the time with me and read in these moments where I would normally use a smartphone – for example – in the queue or in public transport.
Prepare for the next day
People are used to saying “budgeting” when it comes to money management. However, in my opinion, we should also budget our time as we budget our money. To do that we need some plan and the plan needs to be prepared in advance.
How? Every evening find 5 minutes to create a plan for the next day. It shouldn’t be a schedule where every minute is planned, it’s more about giving the most important tasks specific time during the day. If you have more time you can also prepare meals for the next day or any other things that you need for the next day.
Find a time for exercising
Physical activity is important for our health and mind. In the era of working from home, we used to stay at one place all the time and also the access to sports facilities is limited in some places. However small actions when it comes to exercising also matter.
How? There are many small activities that can improve your health. You can take a walk in the morning, do some yoga or any different type of stretching, or do short strength training (there are many available on the Internet).
Learn something new
One of my best ways to keep my brain in a good condition is to learn something new, every day. The world is a fantastic place with interesting skills to learn, and again, most of the knowledge that you need to learn something new is easily available.
How? Pick the skill or knowledge that you find the most interesting to learn. Find a regular slot to read something about that topic. If you would like to learn a new language you can, for example, try to remember one or two new words every day.
Write about three things
We strive to have more and more and constantly be better – sometimes it can make us upset because we realize that we don’t have something (and at the same time we are comparing ourselves to others). To avoid keeping a good mood, one of the methods is to write three good things from your life.
How? As simple as it is possible. Use your paper calendar or notebook and every morning reflect and write three things that you are thankful for. You can create a kind of journal. At any moment of sadness, you can look for that journal and remember that you have a really great life.
Habit tracker
In the beginning, remembering all of those actions may be hard. To make it easier I suggest preparing a simple “habit tracker” like this:
The left column is the day number of the month. You can print that table and hang it in a visible place in your house.
Thank you for reading till the end. If you would like to be informed about new articles and receive information about interesting articles you can sign up for my newsletter.
