12 Micro-Habits That Will Completely Change Your Life in 2022
How Small Actions Lead to Big Results
When aiming for your goals, you need a system. You need to build habits and you have to stick around long enough to let them do their magic.
Changes can happen overnight, or they can happen over time. Micro-changes don’t happen immediately, they happen over a long period.
Imagine planting a seed today, you want to grow a plant. It will not happen overnight. You can’t plant a seed today and expect it to grow overnight, right?
The same goes for most things you want in life, especially when it comes to achieving success.
James clear, the best selling author of Atomic Habits, a highly recommended book, wrote:
“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, Atomic Habits
If you haven’t read the book yet, make sure you don’t just read it, put in practice everything you learn from it. Until you do so, here are 12 micro-habits that will completely change your life in 2022.
Prepare Your Next Day the Night Before
Write your to-do list the night before so that you would not waste time thinking of what you want to complete that day, you should plan the night before.
If you have a plan, you get things done faster and more efficiently. There’s no magic involved, it’s pure logic.
Use a Timer for Your Tasks
When you set a specific amount of time for your daily task, you would spend less time completing the tasks. I use The Pomodoro Technique which is a time management method developed by Francesco Cirillo in the late 1980s. It uses a timer to break work into 4 intervals,(e.g. 25 minutes), and then take a short break (e.g. 5 minutes), before starting to work again. In addition, as part of the Pomodoro, once you complete a certain number of work cycles (e.g. 4 cycles), you can take a longer break (e.g. 30 minutes), before getting back to work.
This is one of the best and main tricks that have helped me meet my deadlines whilst writing these articles you are reading right now and everything I do every day.
Improve Yourself Everyday
When was the last time you picked up a book or enrolled in a course? Most people can’t remember that.
If you want to improve yourself and your brain for the good, you must adopt the habit of constantly improving yourself. Warren Buffet reads 500 pages a day, Elon Musk read everything he knows about building a rocket company by reading about it.
Thus, make it a habit to read every day, even if it is just 15 minutes a day.
Schedule Quality Time to Build Relationships
You are the average of the five people you're mixed with most of the time. Therefore, if you want to improve and change your life, change the people you spend time with. This is why you want to schedule a time to build relationships, whether it is with people you care about like your family, friends, or with people who will benefit your business.
“….People who simply have a good friend in the workplace are more likely to be happy. What’s more, good work relationships are linked to better customer engagement and increased profit.”
Therefore, schedule time to build and grow relationships with others. Spend time with your family because success starts at home. And schedule times to build professional relationships because it will make your work more fun and enjoyable.
Write Down Everything
What do I mean by “write everything down”, your brain is not for storing ideas, it’s for making them. “It’s ok, I’ll remember it” should go down as the biggest lie we tell ourselves. Out of all things you pick up during the day, you end up forgetting more than half of it.
So make it the habit of writing down all ideas, thoughts, even the silly stuff that seems unimportant.
Enforce a One minute Rule
Most of these mundane chores take mere seconds, but when compounded onto each other, they can quickly feel overwhelming” I’ll do it tomorrow” turns into another “I’ll do it tomorrow” and then “what’s one more day?” Don’t even think about it. Just Do It.
“It’s easy: If a task takes less than a minute to complete, encourage yourself to do it on the spot. Recycle the junk mail, hang up your coat, respond to that text, close the silverware drawer, screw the lid on the peanut butter”__Gretchen Rubin, Happiness project.
Push Yourself to Complete a Task even when You don’t Feel like it
If you study all the extraordinary people like Steve Jobs, Jeff Bezos, Bill Gates, Michael Jordan, e.t.c, you will notice that all of them did not achieve their success overnight.
They did it over time, one step at a time.
A lot of people are living in mediocrity because they fail to understand that success is created through small, continuous actions.
Every day, pick a small task you don’t want to do then go ahead and complete it. From washing the dishes to making your bed and from going for a run to making dinner instead of ordering food. It can be anything.
After doing this for a few days, you’ll realize the problem is not the task itself. It’s your habit of postponing things. It’s being comfortable, especially when you have a choice. But often, once you make the first step, you get yourself in the mood and get the job done.
Once you’ve spent a few days completing small tasks, make the jump to bigger ones.
Spend a Day Away from Social Media
A lot of people can’t do without a phone, it’s just as if they were born with their phone. They would pick it up for reasons and then start scrolling on social media for 30 minutes to an hour without realizing it. I am one of those people but I’ve tried to minimize that, I’ve drastically reduced my screen time and even set a 30 minute limit for social media apps.
So if you’re struggling with this as well, start small, spend a day away from social media, or don’t connect your phone to wifi at all, After you realize you’re not missing out on anything, by being offline for one day, you’ll-consciously choose to spend less time online, every day.
Live an Active Life
Exercise. One of the most important keys to success is to have a healthy body.
Too bad most people don’t care about their health until it is too late. Exercise doesn’t just improve your health, it also improves your mood, attitude, and mental power.
Do you know that people like Barrack Obama, Richard Branson, Mark Zuckerberg, Tim Cook, Mark Cuban, etc., exercise regularly before they start their day? These are incredible and successful people and they prioritize their health and always exercise.
Hence, develop the habit of exercise, live an active lifestyle so that you will live a better, more fulfilled, enjoyable, and longer life.
“Exercise not only changes your body, but it also changes your mind, your attitude, and your mood.”
Make Time for Your Hobby and Passion
“All work and no play makes jack a dull boy.”
To live a more fulfilling life, you should make time for your hobby and passion as well.
I believe we all need time to recharge and refresh, especially when we are on our journey to success. Why?
Because success is a marathon, not a sprint.
Thus, you want to make time to recharge yourself by doing things that will make your heart sink. You want to make time to enjoy and indulge yourself in your passion.
Improving your life is not all about work and business. It is about living your life according to your terms.
“Hobbies are a great way to decompress after a long day at work or on your day off. When life becomes too overwhelming, your hobbies can help you relax. Doing something you enjoy outside of work can be beneficial for your mental health. Having hobbies can lower anxiety, lower your stress level, and help cope with depression.”
Remember Your Why and Celebrate Your Wins
“What’s your why? When you know why you do what you do, even the toughest days become easier.”
Make it a habit to remind yourself of your purpose in life.
- Why do you do what you do?
- Why do you want to accomplish the goal?
- Why do you want to be successful?
- Why do you want to change and improve your life?
Think about your reason.
Too often, we are often distracted by trivial issues, and we forgot about our bigger purpose in life.
When you have a strong and emotional purpose for the success you want, nothing can stop you.
And this is exactly why you want to make it a habit to constantly remind yourself of your ‘why’.
Besides, always celebrate your wins, no matter how small they are.
Develop the habit to feel great and praise yourself for all the progress you have made. The more you celebrate your life, the more there is in life to celebrate.
Appreciate and be Grateful for Your Life
“Acknowledging the good that you already have in your life is the foundation for all abundance.”
Finally, the last micro habit you want to build is the habit of appreciation. In other words, you want to feel grateful for everything that life has provided you.
You want to feel ‘enough’. Why? Because when you are grateful, you are happier.
“Gratitude helps people feel more positive emotions, relish good experiences, improve their health, deal with adversity, and build strong relationships.”
There was a study conducted by researchers from the University of California. They discovered that those who were grateful were more optimistic and felt better about their lives.
Isn’t that the ultimate result every one of us seeks in life?
So, make it a habit to practice gratefulness. Appreciate everything you had in your life.
But, how do you do it?
Simple, you can express your gratitude by simply thinking about the things you are grateful for, or you can also choose to write them down.
Create a gratitude list or journal and write down all the things you appreciate in your life.
Conclusion
These are the 12 micro-habits you can develop to improve and change your life…
- Prepare your next day the night before.
- Use a timer for your tasks
- Improve yourself every day
- Schedule quality time to build relationships
- Write down everything
- Enforce the one minute rule
- Push Yourself to Complete a Task even when You don’t Feel like it
- Spend a Day Away from Social Media
- Live an Active Life
- Make Time for Your Hobby and Passion
- Remember Your Why and Celebrate Your Wins
- Appreciate and be Grateful for Your Life
If you do this every day, you will slowly see your life change improve for the better. Build these tiny habits one at a time, and you will see your life change, improve, and slowly shift to your ideal life…
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