10 Small Habits That Will Change Your Life | Wit & Delight

With every new job, relationship, habit—you name it—I think about learning with baby steps. You didn’t leave your mother’s womb knowing how to walk, let alone run, did you? First, you lie there, for months, before rolling over, then crawling, then pulling yourself up, before you roll a few steps and everyone around you is happy. You have goose eggs on your head and bruises on your knees, you fell down and tripped for years to come, but eventually, you got the hang of walking and now you probably take for granted how much easier it makes your life.

The same slow and steady learning process can be applied to these small life changing habits as well. The trick to getting a habit to stick is starting now, starting small, and mostly just starting regularly.

Here are my ten tried and true little habits that will make you feel organized and in control in a chaotic world.

1. Ask yourself, “What is the best thing you can do?”

If I have the option to wait a few seconds to hold the door open for someone, I do. If I can spend an extra five minutes in Savasana, I take it. If my friend is struggling, I step in. Why? Because it’s a good thing to do.

Doing something good is not respect; it’s a daily reminder to do something kind for others and yourself, especially when no one is watching. You will set your mind to think mindfully, no matter how small the action. However, remember: If the “good thing” uses you, your time, or your giving, then it’s not good to begin with. Know your limits.

2. Use the one-minute rule.

Credit to The Happiness Project author and very wise woman, Gretchen Rubin, on this rule of life. Simple: If a task takes less than a minute to complete, encourage yourself to do it right away. Recycle the junk mail, put away your coat, answer that text, close the silverware drawer, put the lid on the peanut butter.

Simple: If a task takes less than a minute to complete, encourage yourself to do it right away. Recycle the junk mail, put away your coat, answer that text, close the silverware drawer, put the lid on the peanut butter.

Many of these simple tasks take only seconds, but when put together individually, they can feel overwhelming quickly. “I’ll do it tomorrow” turns into another “I’ll do it tomorrow” and “What’s the other day?” Don’t even think about it. Do it now.

3. Add one more.

Add some vegetables to your dinner plate. Drink another glass of water a day. Learn one sentence in Arabic. And those one more become part of your routine, consider adding—you know where this is going—one more.

4. Know how much money you have.

Information is power, even if that information reminds you of how bad your credit card debt is. Financial security and confidence starts with having an accurate idea of ​​how much money is in your accounts. Make it a habit to log into your accounts regularly, whatever that means for you. Once you have a better idea of ​​how much money you have, and how much you’re spending, you’ll make informed decisions every time you’re tempted to splurge.

Remember—and this is coming from someone who has serious money worries!—there’s a fine line between keeping track of your accounts and obsessing over every penny. I’m a big proponent of financial literacy, but when the markets crashed this spring, I removed my financial advisor’s site shortcut from my browser and chose blissful ignorance over stress from something I couldn’t do anything about. Understand what you can or can’t control and focus your attention on what you can do, like sneaking out for an emergency bag or not buying that useless jumpsuit.

5. Write it down.

Do you really think you’ll remember that funny thing your toddler said this morning at dinner, at least a few decades from now? And why do we trust our brains, after all enough recently, do you remember exactly what we need in the store to make that Alison Roman recipe?

Whenever that little flag in your head—that says “I have to remember that”—starts waving, write it down quickly. That could mean quotes, existing ideas for those hard-to-buy in your life, restaurants you want to visit on your next date night, or anything else you might have forgotten. Make lists, lists, and more lists, with good old-fashioned pen and paper or with the notes app on your phone.

6. Plan your calendar—weeks, months, and, if necessary, years ahead.

Regularly making time to organize your online calendar helps you see important events, such as upcoming bills, birthdays, and events, weeks and months in advance, showing you are prepared.

On my Google calendar—bless that piece of internet gold—green events show when scheduled payments come out of my bank accounts. Four times a year, extra green events remind me to pay my quarterly taxes—two weeks before it’s due, so I have some wiggle room to get my finances in order. My yoga teacher’s birthday is celebrated every December 10 through 2023. There’s a work project I have to check in on at the beginning of the summer, but I’ll never remember that myself; anything related to work is coral-coded coral. I plug oil changes into my calendar weeks before I need them, so I can put them on my radar in case my schedule gets full and I need to push them back.

7. Bring one thing with you.

My bedside table would fill up with a collection of water glasses, tea cups, and kombucha bottles if I didn’t take them with me each time I made a trip to the kitchen. If you find yourself with a free hand, ask yourself, “What can I bring?” Place this in a room, in your office, or in your car—any area of ​​your life that can quickly become cluttered.

8. Learn to prioritize your future.

Sounds boring, right? It wouldn’t be boring if you could retire early and hang out on Spanish beaches all day because you made the right decisions over the decades to get there. On the other hand, living all of life in the moment can be self-destructive and set you back long-term in all aspects of life: physical, mental, relational, and financial.

Take a moment to think. What would be the consequences of sleeping with him without protection? I have to drive home—should I drink again? Do I buy these shoes or contribute to my IRA?

The good news is, sometimes it’s a bad decision is something what is better for your future. Sometimes a frozen pizza at 2:00 in the morning is a forward-thinking decision, if it will help you not be lonely tomorrow. Learn your perfect, and possibly ever-changing, balance between what you need now and what you will need in the future.

9. It was fought a lot.

I got rejected no less than four times today. It wasn’t great, per se, but I recovered faster than the last four rejections. What will be lost? Remember, the worst they can say is, anyone see no, no.

If there is one lesson I learn over and over again, it is that we must ask for what we want in life. Sometimes you get it, sometimes you don’t. But you have to ask.

If there is one lesson I learn over and over again, it is that we must ask for what we want in life. Sometimes you get it, sometimes you don’t. But you have to ask. Whatever you want, career or relationship wise, submit to exposure therapy for rejection, microdoses of being told “no” over and over again. It will make the occasional “yes” more satisfying.

10. Use frustrating moments to practice your patience.

We’ve all been there, at the coffee shop or the bank, behind the seemingly slowest person in the world. In those moments, when there is nowhere to go, nothing to do, and no need to be angry, I say to myself, “What a perfect time to practice your patience.”

Use this phrase in stressful times too, like when your potty-trained child has an accident or you’re tempted to write a quick work email. He took a deep breath. Be aware of your surroundings. Have some idea. And, yes, practice your patience.