5 Habits That Will Make Your Life Better
There are some habits that just make life better, you know? I feel it's my duty as your productivity BFF to share these 5 life hack habits with you because they are things that you can actually implement ASAP - not fluffy habits that look good on paper but don’t fit into your schedule because they take like 2 hours to complete. NO.
Here are 5 habits (that you can seriously implement today) that will improve your life!
01. Create Monday Power Habits.
Or whatever day your work week starts on - which is Monday for me so that’s why I call mine Monday Power Habits. But you make it work for you.
Monday Power Habits are a list of non-negotiable habits that I like to kick my week off with. They are the same every week and I don’t have to spend energy thinking about them because I’ve been doing most of them for years now.
A lot of us are the same in the sense that our brains are wired to view Monday as a “fresh start” right? I take advantage of this by implementing my Monday Power Habits because it sets the tone for the rest of my week. When I choose to start my week out doing these things, I’m more likely to live a life that is aligned with my life vision all week.
But if I start off Monday kind of slacking on what’s important to me, then there’s a higher chance that’s how the rest of my week is going to go. Now obviously you can make a change ANY day. It doesn’t have to be a Monday or the New Year or whatever. I’m just saying to take advantage of the energy that Monday brings to the table, you know? I use Mondays as a launchpad for the rest of my week as far as my habits go. I know myself (just like you know yourself) and I know that when I start my week with these things, I’m more likely to continue them throughout the week. It’s like a domino effect.
There isn’t a specific number of habits you have to include in your Monday Power Habits or even specific habits that have to be there.
I’ll share mine with you to get your wheels turning. I have 5 Monday Power Habits and they aren’t difficult or time consuming - it’s just a matter of me being disciplined in taking action on them week to week:
⋒ Get in a bomb workout
⋒ Do my morning routine before touching technology
⋒ Eat a nutrient dense breakfast
⋒ Complete work tasks that set me up for the rest of the week
⋒ Rock an outfit that makes me feel good.
Following my Monday Power Habits positions me to start my week on a high note and ushers me into taking ownership of my days. It’s the same as how a morning routine sets the tone for the rest of your day, Mondays typically play a big part in setting the tone for the rest of your week so make your Mondays count!
Better Mondays = better rest of the week and better weeks = a better life, you feel me?
02. Using the “sleep | wake up” feature on the iPhone.
If you don’t have an iPhone this is probably irrelevant to you BUT I’m sure there are apps or settings for other phones that do this kind of thing.
But I started using this feature like 2 months ago and WOW talk about quality of life improvement. If you open up the clock app on your iPhone and go to the alarm section, you’ll see the “sleep | wake up” thing right up top.
Open that to set up all your stuff. You put in your bedtime, what time you want to wake up, and your sleep goal. Then you get to choose your alarm options - the sound the alarm makes, whether you want to enable snooze or not, etc.
You can also create your sleep schedule so you don’t have to worry about setting your alarm every night. I have my sleep schedule set as bedtime at 10:30 and wake up time at 5:30 for every weekday. I never have to set my alarm anymore - it’s automatically set. It’s amazing. You can also create a separate schedule for the weekend if you want.
So what setting this up does - my phone automatically goes into “Do Not Disturb” mode like an hour or so before bedtime so I stop getting notifications and my phone reminds me to start getting ready for bed.
It’s a visual reminder for me to stop scrolling and turn my attention to preparing for a good night of sleep. But my favorite part about this feature is how the alarm sounds - it’s a gradual sound - the alarm starts off light and builds up instead of just blasting in your ear from the get go. It’s a way more peaceful way to wake up and I honestly think everyone needs this in their life, lol.
In case you’re wondering, the sound I have selected is “Early Riser” and now I don’t go into a panic when my alarm goes off but it’s seriously such a graceful wake up. I was scared I wouldn’t wake up the first morning I used it but you totally hear it - it just eases you in, you know?
I’ve heard and read that you can also track your sleep with this feature - like look at sleep patterns and stuff - but I haven’t done that yet.
Anyway, that’s habit 2 - set up your “sleep | wake up” feature on your iPhone and thank me later.
03. Mute people on social media that don’t add value to your life.
You’ve heard this before I’m sure: you are the culmination of the 5 people you hang out with most. I totally think that counts online too - you become what you consume so be mindful about what you’re allowing to fill your feeds.
I have some friends and family who I love dearly in real life but their social media accounts seem to be a dumping grounds for all of their negative thoughts for the day and like I just am not available to be a collector of people’s junk.
Obviously I’m not going to unfriend or unfollow someone that is important to me (you totally can if you want to) so I use and love the MUTE button on Instagram. This basically hides their content from your feed so you’re not seeing it unless you specifically go to their profile to look for it.
And I think you can do this on Facebook too but TBH I only use Facebook for the BFF FB group so I’m hardly ever just randomly scrolling there.
Curate a social media feed that encourages you and grows you. I’m not saying you need to only follow people who look like you or act like you. Follow people who call you up and out.
But don’t be afraid to mute your mom or your neighbor if all they’re doing is going on Facebook to talk about how crappy their life is because the grocery clerk gave them 5 $1 bills instead of a $5 dollar bill, ya know?
04. Consume at least one thing a day that grows your mind.
Have you ever thought about this - the quality of what your input affects the quality of your output? In other words, what you consume has a direct impact on what you produce or create. We are consuming almost all day every day. Like that is not new information. But it’s your responsibility to wisely choose what you’re taking in.
I’m not saying that every single thing you watch or read has to be this heavy, groundbreaking, epiphany-inducing content - like girl, I consume cute puppy videos on Instagram with the best of them (they’re good for my soul - truly) but I do think that we should all make a conscious effort to intentionally consume at least one piece of content a day that grows our mind.
Whether it's listening to a podcast or audio book or reading personal development or watching a Ted Talk - do something that prompts you to learn from others, to expand your perspectives, and to show up better tomorrow because of what you learned today.
I like to do this first thing in the morning - by reading nonfiction because that’s when my brain is the sharpest. Sometimes I’ll also listen to a sermon or podcast while I workout. But I know that at night, all I want to do is read Outlander or watch puppy videos on Instagram and I can do so guilt-free knowing that I fed my mind already that day.
05. Celebrate action steps not just the goal itself.
I love a good goal - like forreal. I mean come on - I have a whole course that teaches you how to take your dream and create an action plan to make it happen!
But one thing I think that is overlooked when it comes to working toward goals is celebrating the journey!
Think about this - we don’t become a new person when we achieve a goal. We develop into a better version of ourselves as we work toward the goal. The action steps that make up the goal are when we are pushed outside of our comfort zones. That’s when we display tenacity and courage - when we’re doing the action steps.
Something that I started doing recently is celebrating action steps! When I create plans for my goals, I break them down into action steps - big, broad action steps and then further into nitty gritty actions steps. If you’ve taken my Dream It. Do It. Workshop, you’re familiar with these terms. Well when I hit a big broad action step, I celebrate!
When I’m creating my big, broad action steps, I also make note of how I want to celebrate it when it’s done. How I celebrate varies, depending on the goal, but some examples might be: getting a pedicure, taking a day off work to do something fun like go biking or paddleboarding, or buying a new book that I've had my eye on.
Celebration is fuel to keep going! When we pause to recognize and honor the work we’ve accomplished so far, we are pumping ourselves up for the next leg of the race, you know?
When you take time to celebrate your way to a goal, you are upping your chances of sticking it out to the end and then you can REALLY celebrate because you will have accomplished something major!
And there you have it: 5 habits that will improve your life! If you enjoyed this post, tune into episode 072 of The Hustle Sanely Podcast to listen into this topic:
