Changes that seem small and unimportant at first will compound into remarkable results if you’re willing to stick with them for years. — James Clear
Scientists recommend taking baby steps for whatever you are endeavoring to accomplish in life, such as new jobs, building habits, fitness goals, community involvement, or relationships.
A baby gently lays in his crib for months before even rolling over. The next steps are rolling over, standing up with the help of parents or siblings, then finally, one step at a time.
You need to train your brain to stop procrastinating. The drill is simple, start right now instead of overthinking, do one micro-task at a time.
Start with the 2-minutes method; if it takes less than 2- minutes, do it right now. Remember, we are building micro-habits in the long haul.
I developed 9 micro-habits in 12 months to live healthy, happy, and ultimately have more control in life. You can choose anyone and start practicing. Recall one step at a time.
An effective way to execute a task
You do not need to stick with one strategy if it’s not working out. It’s also essential to keep changing based on your objectives.
Szu-Chi Huang, assistant professor of the market at Stanford University, presented a paper explaining that focusing on small steps first then gradually shifting to the bigger goals. You can read her article to boost your motivation — step by step: sub-goals as a source of motivation.
What motivates people changes, so the structure of the goal should change accordingly. — Szu-Chi Huang
Let’s dive into the learning part.
Micro habits for physical health
1- Drink a glass of water
With all this technological advancement, life is getting so busy that we always rush and forget to take care of our bodies.
Water is imperative to live. Water helps to start our system and flush the toxic from the body. You can quickly implement this habit to drink a tall glass of water first in the morning.
I always fill a big glass of water before going to bed and place it on the living room or kitchen table. It’s such a tiny habit that I feel something is missing if I don’t drink a big warm glass of water first thing in the morning.
Recently I started to drink 3.78 liters of water per day. I am happy to say that I successfully completed the first 30 days, and here are my results.
2- Say goodbye to the sedentary lifestyle
Sitting all day in a chair can have detrimental effects on your body and mind. Stand up each hour for at least a minute to relax or take a deep breath.
One-minute every hour will be 10+ minutes a day. Maybe do a couple of pushups in one minute or play with your pet if you have one.
3- Dark leafy greens
If you eat a lot of fast, especially during lunchtime, it doesn’t have to be junk. Many healthy options are available. Check this article to include healthy dark leafy vegetables to boost your mental health.
My mother always says that a dead thing cannot add value to your body. She hates chicken but loves vegetables: pumpkin, broccoli, kale, and green apples.
Enjoy mom’s green salad recipe: My mom makes green salad multiple times a month based on the season. Everything is green in the salad. I live in North America, 9400KM (nautical) away from my parents; I learned to make it and customize it a bit according to my taste.
Here is the recipe if you would like to give it a try. It’s super healthy and tasty.
Fresh cucumber — 1
Fresh green grapes
Fresh large green apple — 1
Fresh green capsicum — 1
Fresh Lettuce
Tabasco Green Pepper Sauce — 2 tablespoon
Good Mayonnaise — 2 tablespoon
Optional: cilantro, spinach, kale
Mix well
Cut the grapes in half, or maybe 4 slices each grape. You already know that green is good for the eyes.
The best, healthy, and tasty green salad is ready to serve. Don’t eat alone; share with family and friends.
4- Stretch over stress
Make stretching a part of your life. Scientists prove that stretching makes every movement super easy. I do stretching every day after a run, walk, or gym. Stand up during long work hours and stretch.
Remember we are building tiny habits. I stretch in my work breaks, it doesn’t have to be complicated or some special exercises. Just do stretch for 1–3 minutes.
You don’t need to even go to the gym or get a fancy mat; just stand up and start stretching: take a deep breath, touch your toes, move your head, arms, and shoulders. Done!
Make it a sustainable micro-habit instead of doing 1 hour a day, then nothing. Let’s move to build micro habits for mental health.
Micro habits for mental wellness
5- Try something new
Trying new things is hard in the beginning. People get nervous when they endeavor a unique natural experience.
I grew up in a small remote village, without power most of my childhood, far from the city. My grandmother taught me how to make toys with wet clay.
I always enjoyed playing in the mud or making clay castles as a kid. Later, I learned that playing in mud actually connects children with nature and other kids.
My wife bought a couple of tickets for the pottery class to try something new. I loved the part to make something, but she took it to another level to paint. My wife loved it more than I did.
Research proves that smelling the clay helps to boost mental health. The smell of the clay also helps to lower the stress hormone.
Just leave your comfort zone at least once a month to embrace new things in life. Pottery can be one of them.
Here are a couple of ideas: painting, playdough, crayons, watercolors, trying new food, reading a new book, etc. Instead of asking, “Can I do this?”, “Should I try?” Try Nike’s approach.
Just do it.
6- A couple of minutes of silence to boost your mental health
You don’t have to call this meditation, as I don’t spend more than a few minutes in complete silence to calm down. You don’t need to join a boot camp or hot yoga to get this done.
All you need to do is sit peacefully for a couple of minutes and close your eyes. Just sit tight and take a deep breath. I simply sit on the ground, on a chair, or even in the ouch to close my eyes and try not to think.
Scientists prove that silence is super important for self-reflection. It helps us to cultivate mindfulness. Starting at the micro-level, even one minute a day is enough at the beginning, then you gradually increase.
7- Brain dump benefits
Studies show that an average human has 120,000 thoughts a day. Not all thoughts are good; studies also show that 80% of thoughts are negative. If we quantify the number, it will be 96000, and 95% or 91000 are repetitive negative thoughts.
Brain dump does not mean to jot down every thought. It would help if you wrote down, brain dump — a catchy word, all the positive thoughts at the end of the day. Research shows that writing down whatever you are thinking helps reduce anxiety and depression. Some people prefer to journal.
I used to write daily in the Day One app; now, I dump all the thoughts in Google Keep, a note-taking app like Evernote or Notes by Apple. Then every weekend, I pick a topic and write in my personal journal, which I do not share with anyone but myself. I don’t edit; I just let it all out of what’s in my brain.
Pro tip: Brain dump habit is a massive contributor to Medium writing; test it if you have a hard time generating new ideas to write.
Keep it simple, start micro, jot down the thoughts once a week or month, and stay consistent.
Micro habits to boost productivity
8- Work in time intervals and absolutely no distraction to boost creativity
I always ask this simple question before I wrap up for the day.
What did I accomplish today?
The Pomodoro technique is a great way to start to work in time intervals. I work in 50 minutes intervals then take a 10 minutes break. I use this online tool, it’s absolutely free, and you can customize it according to your needs.
I do all the stretching, silence, or listen to music in a break. The breaks help me to recharge my brain. It’s working out great. If you want to implement a deep work strategy in your life, start using the Pomodoro tool or stopwatch to work absolutely without any distraction.
Study shows that the average human attention span is less than a goldfish’s. But the good news is it can be increased with effort — all you have to do is start at the micro-level.
Tip: Turn off all the notifications while you are working.
9- No smartphone in the bedroom
I implemented this policy not to bring smartphones into the bedroom; my sleep quality and productivity skyrocketed.
Sleep is one of the most underestimated aspects of your well-being. I highly recommend reading this article to understand the importance of quality sleep.
Buy a basic alarm clock to wake up on time. You can try not to bring the smartphone to bed once a week, then twice a week.
I bought a wireless charger to connect all the devices before bedtime each night, and that charger is firmly placed in the home office. The trick is working great.
Bottom line
It takes time to build a new habit or break the bad one. Study shows why people don’t create a sustainable habit or reach their goals easily due to their gigantic goals.
Do not make massive transformations in your life to see a change. Build micro-habits, then scale them. Think like micro-habit as launching a new product in the market.
Every intelligent business launch a minimum viable product (MVP) in the market to get attention. The business only launches the final product after positive feedback from the audience.
Building micro-habits, you are the audience, and the MVP is your first step to launch your product (micro-habit). See if you like it or as Professor Huang said, you might need a few tweaks to reach your goal or increase your motivation.
Everyone has good and bad habits. I recommend writing down all the good, bad, and new habits on a piece of paper, then choosing to break the bad one or build a new one.
Thank you for reading; follow me and clap a couple of times.
