How many times have you sighed, ‘There is always so much to do in so little time!’?
In today’s busy world, we are often overwhelmed with a daily list of tasks, errands, and responsibilities that we cannot easily escape from.
Over time, we tend to create this pessimistic mindset of not achieving things that we like or doing activities that can make us happy.
However, humans are creatures of habit. Everything we do, we say, and we think are the result of repetitive actions, words, and events engraved to us when we were younger.
We may not realize it, but it takes effort, perseverance, and positive habits to positively change our lives. Let me give you my 10 Daily Life-Changing Habits that will deeply impact the way you view your life.
Create Personalized Morning Ritual
Morning rituals are routines of doing similar things orderly every day. A good start is waking up early in the morning instead of pressing the snooze-on button for another 5 minutes or more. Come on, who are you trying to fool?
There’s incomparable ease and peace of mind in the morning that I personally enjoy while being alone. Allocate a few minutes to go for a run or walk with your dog. Eat a healthy breakfast, read an inspiring book, and take a refreshing shower.
There’s so much that you can do in the morning that can kickstart your day on a productive note.
Moreover, writing a to-do list the night before or waking up can help you get motivated and organized throughout the day. It relieves you from the overwhelming feeling and paralyzed mindset as to what to do next.
Follow the 80/20 Rule
The Pareto Principle or the 80/20 Rule was originally a macroeconomics concept suggesting that 80% of the outcome comes from 20% causes or inputs in any situation.
But this aphorism can be applied in life and time management.
In a piece of paper, you identify the most critical and urgent tasks that deserve prioritization and choose to finish them off. It maximizes your productivity and gives you the freedom to move on to the next (less) essential tasks.
The 80/20 rule is most applicable, especially for individuals who quickly get distracted and overwhelmed with huge workloads as if they don’t know what to pick up and where to start.
Avoid Multitasking, Learn to Single Task
As we indulge ourselves with several tasks a day, we gradually believe that ‘multitasking’ can help finish everything faster. But the reality is, at least only 2% of people in the world can multitask successfully.
There’s no harm to multitasks occasionally. But doing so frequently can only limit your focus and contributes to mental clutter, making it difficult for your brain to filter irrelevant information. It pushes your brain to jump from one task to another without focusing and successfully finishing one job at a time.
Even Stanford University studies how multitasking affects people in their productivity. However, it only revealed that it lowers efficiency and impairs the cognitive control of individuals.
At this point, the best thing you can do is to choose a priority task from your to-do list and give it your best and undivided attention until you get things done.
You’ll realize how effective doing a single task at a time instead of doing multiple things without finishing anything. This will increase the probability of you making mistakes. Thus you’ll feel less stressed and be more productive.
Be More Appreciative
Are you really grateful for what you already have? Or do you think the things that you own aren’t enough to make you happy?
Complaining is a serious issue that all of us have to work on. Suppose you ride a bike to work instead of driving your dream McLaren Ferrari. Even if you don’t have the best things in the world, remember that someone is having it worse than you, but they’re still grateful.
Imagine getting a bike when other people have no means to even buy one. Imagine having strong legs to peddle, while other people even struggle to stand. What about a job in this world with a high rate of unemployment? Would you still choose to complain?
As Tony Robinson said: “When you are grateful, fear disappears, and abundance appears.” Similarly, practicing gratitude is a great way to build a positive life, feel less stress, and improve mental well-being.
Start off by meditating for about 10 minutes every day and focus only on the things you’re grateful for. You can also try to write down at least 3 things in life that you’re thankful for the day.
Dwelling in magnificence and celebrating the gift of life allows you to see the world with a positive outlook.
Go for a Social Media Detox
Do you feel guilty on this part too? Because I do. For some reason, we always need to know what’s trending or learn the latest news from other people through social media.
Undoubtedly, the digital world can positively impact our lives. However, it can only make us feel downgraded at times, especially when we get so absorbed in other people’s lives according to only what we see. As a result, we tend to get lost in touch with reality and increase the chance of mental clutter resulting from depression.
Add to the fact that social media is highly time-consuming when you enjoy scrolling through your feed and checking other people’s posts for every 2 hours (or probably more) for some.
Learn to deactivate your account, take a break, and reconnect to the people around you. I promise you, you won’t fall behind with how the world works.
Take Time to Move Your Body
Given the little time we have left for the day, it’s understandable why some people aren’t developing the habit of exercising.
However, it’s still important to note that exercise can give us countless benefits, including physical improvement, mental stability, enhancing cognitive skills, and decreasing risks of severe health issues.
The truth is you don’t have to do a one-hour cardio workout every single day nor involve yourself in heavy lifting. You can even simply dance in the living room, go for a walk, play with your pet, and even do ten counts of jumping jacks before you take a bath.
The important thing is, you are training yourself to move more actively than usual.
At first, you can start off with few movements. Then, you may now continue by spending at least 10 minutes of your time in a day. Later on, you’ll manage enough time to keep your body healthy while staying fit.
Rest! Rest! Rest!
Just like the common Snickers advertisement says, ‘Take a Break!’
It is common to feel tired or restless sometimes. But you don’t have to push yourself too hard to the point that you feel like giving up. Why? Because it’s okay to take a rest. Sit back, relax, and enjoy life. That’s what we’re supposed to do!
Take some time off to unwind, such as watching a movie, preparing a nice healthy dinner, listening to music, or even taking a bubble bath. These simple activities can do wonders for your body and self-esteem.
As humans, we all have our strengths and limitations. If rest is needed, don’t hesitate to get one. I promise you, it’s free, and you won’t affect any other person, especially if it involves your productivity.
Spend More Time in Reading Books than Social Media Buzz
Exercising is not only applicable to our physical bodies, but it is also applicable to our brain and its mental condition.
Our brain changes and slows down without exercise. It can even become less responsive and prone to diseases like dementia and Alzheimer’s overtime.
The best way we can exercise our brain is to read a book (or simply read anything at all).
Books weren’t made just to serve as a house decor or wall background. The intention is for people to read and learn valuable and relevant information.
However, reading books can be challenging for short attention spans and people who simply don’t like to reach such as myself. But books do wonders that haven’t been talked about much by society.
The activity of reading stimulates our brain, motivates us to act accordingly, develops sensible ideas, is more productive, improves memory skills, processes new information, and generally benefits our overall well-being.
Plus, the idea of learning something new makes us even more interesting and knowledgeable.
Create Social Connections with Positive People
“Birds on the same feathers flock together.” Have you heard about this phrase before?
If you’re wondering what it meant, this only shows that people with the same qualities and attitudes tend to form a bond together.
Meaning to say, if you’re with pessimistic people, you are most likely to think negatively. On the other hand, if you form a group with optimistic ones, you would get influenced to think positively.
Social connections with positive people are as meaningful as nutrition, sleep, and exercise. The people we’re around are as important as food to our bodies or sunlight to our immune system.
As you start to get to know people, always be mindful of individuals you’re associating with – how they speak, how they act, or what they think.
But that’s not all. The positive mindset and actions should also start within you. When it’s your last time on earth, how would you like to be remembered? Someone people incidentally avoid or a person that many people want to hang out while sipping a teacup over green grass?
Practice Minimalism
Minimalism is often defined mistakenly. Some people say it’s about being aesthetic, while other people say it’s about creating a neutral lifestyle.
Not that there’s something wrong with these, but the concept of minimalism is simply a lifestyle that allows you to enjoy the freedom and avoid weighing too many unnecessary things. It enables you to live your life based on your decision and according to what makes you happy.
Admit or not, we might get overwhelmed with shopping things that we find attractive yet not that useful. There are storage bins all over our garage or displayed collections on our cabinets.
Our lives are more hectic when we are overloaded with material things.
Minimalism allows you to create room for more important things that make you happy and eliminate unnecessary things that you own. Doing so can help you lead an uncluttered environment and simple life.
In the end
There are habits that we adopt as a child. Admit it or not, bad habits are hard to break, while good habits are challenging to start.
But it’s never too late to follow these 10 daily life-changing habits that can positively change your life forever. Not only will this bring change to yourself, but it can also impact other people around you.
So why not choose at least one habit among these lists and start them off tomorrow? Let us know how you did.
