Amidst New Year’s resolutions and COVID still lurking around every corner, everything can feel overwhelming right now.
How about implementing just a few tiny habits that will lead to achieving your goals AND help keep you healthy? Here are 14 suggestions. Just pick one or two and see how they work for you!
1 – Get 15 more minutes of sleep. But not by hitting the snooze button! (That kind of sleep isn’t the kind that restores you anyway.) Try going to bed just 15 minutes earlier. If you want to keep working on setting an earlier bedtime, try going to bed 15 more minutes earlier every night until you find your perfect amount of sleep time.
2 – This habit is like #1. Don’t hit that snooze button. This is a hard one and the only way I can stick to this habit is to keep my phone (or an alarm, if you use one) out of reach. Seriously. I have to get out of bed to turn my phone alarm off and by then, I’m already up and moving. My inspiration for doing this came from Mel Robbins’ awesome book The Five-Second Rule. I highly recommend her book if you haven’t read it!
3 – Try meditation. I love using the Headspace app, but you can find guided meditations for free on YouTube. I set an easy goal for myself when I started – just three minutes – then added on time from there. Even on my busiest days, I can still find three minutes. Just sitting in silence and focusing on your breathing helps bring calm to an overwhelming situation.
4 – Speaking of deep breathing – adding more of that to your day will also bring some calm and help you re-focus. Set a reminder on your phone and try to add some deep breathing throughout your day.
5 – Drink more water! If you get tired of drinking plain water, add some lemon or lime to your water or try one of the flavored sparkling waters. My goal is to drink about 8 cups of water daily. If you’re not close to that yet, just try adding a half cup more of water every day until you’re getting around 6 – 8 cups daily.
6 – Tidy up or declutter for 15 minutes every day. Whether that means folding that pile of laundry, sorting through the mail, cleaning out your purse – whatever is getting on your nerves, just spend a few minutes decluttering and see how it helps change your outlook.
7 – Add 30 minutes of movement to your daily routine. This doesn’t have to mean going to the gym. Just walking or stretching counts too. Find some activities that you love (or at least that you don’t hate) and do that for five minutes at a time. Work your way up to 30 minutes.
8 – Keep a gratitude journal. This can be in a cute journal like this one or it can just be a list on your phone or on a sticky note. The format doesn’t matter. Write down five things for which you can be grateful, no matter how small. When you start looking for good things in your life, you’ll find them, even on the darkest days.
9 – Make your bed! Even if everything else in your home or apartment feels messy or cluttered, when you see your bed made and looking pretty, it makes you feel in control of at least one area of your life! For such a small investment of time, this tip really helps.
10 – Write your goals for the day. What do you want to do or work on today? Trying to keep a big picture of what is important to you helps keep you from getting dragged down by unimportant tasks.
11 – Eat at least five servings of fruit or vegetables. This is easier to do than you might think. One serving of vegetables, for instance, is one-half cup. If I eat a salad, I can easily eat at least four servings of vegetables right there.
12 – Create a morning routine. See my post about how to do that here.
13 – Create an evening routine. I have a post about that one too!
14 – Reach out to someone you care about every day. This can be a face-to-face visit, a phone call, an email, a text, a DM, whatever works for you. Just letting someone else know that you are thinking of them and you care about them will make you feel good too.
Let me know which tips you try and how they work for you!