10 Daily Habits That Are Significantly Improving My Life

believe habits are the key to success in everything we do.

From health to relationships to our career, if we get our habits right, the rest will follow. Habits are the tiny building blocks of our lives. In and of themselves, they’re small. But add them up, and you’ve got yourself a good life.

“Every action is a brick, meaning it’s what you do on a daily basis that determines the house you end up with. You are the house you build. ” — Nicolas Cole

1. Writing an article

I recently embarked on a challenge to write an article every single day.

In the game of online writing, consistency is key. So writing every day seemed like a sure way to improve my success in this domain.

But writing every day also taught me about life.

Writing every day teaches you discipline. It teaches you to make time for what’s important; we’ll have a hard time “finding” time, but we can sure as hell make time.

Without the ability to make time, we’re not going to accomplish all that we want in life.

Time is our most valuable asset, yet we hardly look at where our time goes.

Want to live a meaningful life? Spend more time looking at how you spend your time than how you spend your money.

Challenge yourself to find time for the things that matter.

It also ensures I’m getting my steps in, and am working towards mitigating all the detrimental effects of our sedentary society.

I also get outside — fresh air, sunlight, cold exposure. All the things that are good for our health.

Walking every day can change your life.

“Every day, I walk myself into a state of well-being & walk away from every illness. I have walked myself into my best thoughts, and I know of no thought so burdensome that one cannot walk away from it. But by sitting still, & the more one sits still, the closer one comes to feeling ill. Thus if one just keeps on walking, everything will be all right. ” — Soren Kierkegaard

3. 45 minutes of formal movement

Again, I’ve always been active, but to dedicate myself to completing a 45-minute formal movement session every day has been life -changing.

This ‘45 minutes’ is intentionally ambiguous — as someone prone to pushing way too hard and burning out, I need the flexibility to incorporate more recovery- directed days while still moving formally for 45 minutes (and by “formal” I mean I am intentionally exercising — for example, walking around the grocery store carrying heavy bags doesn’t count — I need to be doing some sort of workout).

While I would usually exercise most days, there were definitely days when I would skip my workouts. Which, of course, is fine. But I’m at my most happy when I exercise.

And having this allocated space every single day means I’m working on the things I wouldn’t normally work on.

I’m sure many of you can relate. How much of your gym/workout time do you spend warming up, stretching, working on mobility, doing your rehab exercises, and working on injury prevention? If you’re anything like me, probably minimal.

Now, being forced to do some sort of workout for 45 minutes, I’m getting all these things done. For example, after a weekend competing in ice hockey, I spent my Monday session working on active recovery. Furthermore, if I know I have a heavy exercise day coming up, I’ll spend more time on mobility and injury prehab (prevention). Whereas before, I would do my lifting, then leave. I wanted to maximize my time at the gym in regards to getting as much lifting done as possible, and completely neglected everything else.

So not only am I exercising more regularly and consistently, but I am also teaching my body how to move properly, and ensuring my body stays healthy and mobile for a long time to come.

4. 10 minutes of meditation

I know everyone is saying meditation is changing their life, but I truly believe it’s a practice everyone should include in their lives in some form.

For me, meditation allows me to create space between event and reaction — and even more than that, to respond rather than react.

It’s like meditation gives you more space, more clarity, more contentment. A meditation practice helps you be content with how things are, right now, no matter how they look. And this increases your overall happiness and wellbeing.

I generally do my meditation in the morning, as I like having some stillness before the day gets started. However, if I don’t manage to get my morning session in then I’ll do it just before I get into bed in the evening. This is also a great way to promote good quality sleep.

We don’t all have to meditate in the same way, and a lot of us probably don’t even need to sit down to a formal meditation practice. However, having some sort of practice in your day where you can be still, introspective, and build this incredibly important skill is something that would be valuable to every single person.

If there exists a source of psychological well-being that does not depend upon merely gratifying one’s desires, then it should be present even when all the usual sources of pleasure have been removed …. In my view, the realistic goal to be attained through spiritual practice is not some permanent state of enlightenment that admits of no further efforts but a capacity to be free in this moment, in the midst of whatever is happening. If you can do that, you have already solved most of the problems you will encounter in life.” — Sam Harris, Waking Up

5. Reading

My family has always been a reading family, but I seem to have taken this to an extreme.

I read an average of 2 books per week, without actively trying to read that much. I just love reading. I read whenever I have a spare minute. I use it to wind down. I use it as a hobby. I use it to continually improve myself.

Reading may be the greatest tool at our disposal. Through books (and articles) we get to learn the things other people have spent their whole lives learning. And we can learn it in a matter of hours! Books provide access to how other people think, how they’ve achieved great things, and provide information on how we too can experience success in the areas that matter most.

Having a daily reading practice is incredibly powerful. Pretty much everything I know has come from a book I’ve read, somewhere, at some point in my life.

If you want to grow, if you want to become better, read. Read anything you can get your hands on. Read whenever you have a spare moment.

6. Morning yoga

Every morning as soon as I get out of bed, I get dressed and roll out my yoga mat.

Yoga is a relatively new practice for me — something I’ve only started in the last 7–8 months. However, it is changing my life.

Since taking up this practice, my physical strength has improved, my mobility has improved, I feel better in my body, and I start my day feeling grounded.

I love waking up and getting my muscles working and my joints moving. This practice brings me into the present moment while also setting me up, both physically and mentally, for the day ahead.

It also acts as a primer for my daily writing session.

This session doesn’t count towards my 45 minutes mentioned above, but I find myself unwilling to skip it nonetheless. Just this morning, I was shorter on time than I usually am, and I thought about skipping yoga. But I couldn’t. This practice makes me feel so good, physically and mentally, that I’d be remiss to miss it.

Moving our bodies is so important. But more than that, yoga brings our attention to our breath, and teaches us to breathe through adversity.

Movement also allows deep access into who we are, and what it’s like to be in this body, right now. You can’t help but feel the breath going in and out of your lungs. The mat under your bare feet. The stretch of your muscles.

Movement forces you to be present in this moment, within yourself.

7. Evening routine

Sleep is crucial.

And crucial to good sleep is a good evening routine. As a light sleeper who often struggles to get good quality sleep, my evening routine is most definitely a life changer.

Even for people who sleep well, or at least think they sleep well, preparing both the mind and body for rest is so important.

My evening routine changes, but currently looks like this:

Hot shower 1–2 hours before bed

Chamomile tea and light snack 90 minutes before bed

Yin yoga or foam rolling session, starting one hour before bed

Get into bed, journal for 5–10 minutes

While my routine is simple, the reasons behind each practice are grounded in science.

For example, a hot shower or bath about an hour before getting into bed is a great way to lower the core temperature before bed, which is conducive to sleep (a hot shower causes blood to move to the extremities, meaning when we get out of the shower, the core temperature is lowered).

A gentle yoga session or foam rolling are a great way to activate the parasympathetic nervous system (rest and digest) and downregulate the sympathetic nervous system (fight or flight), which again is conducive to sleep.

A routine acts as a signal to both your body and your brain that it is time to sleep. Try to keep your routine consistent — don’t change your practices on a daily basis, and stick to the same start and end time. Our bodies and minds love consistency, especially in regard to sleep.

8. Two hours of daylight

One of the best ways to support our health is to get daylight exposure every single day.

The recommended dose is 2 hours per day, but I bet that most of us don’t get close to this — with the average person spending 93% of their day inside.

This is crazy, considering how important daylight is.

Daylight exposure is crucial for telling the body what time of day it is, which is vital for good quality sleep and health in general. Our circadian rhythms regulate the timing of everything — from hormone release to turning up or down the metabolism.

These days, we spend way too much time in dim or artificially lit rooms, and this can be harmful to our health and has even been linked to cancer and retina damage. LED lights appear to be the most harmful form of light, due to the imperceivable flicker these lights produce.

I make a conscious effort to get outside as much as possible, even if it’s cold, even if it’s drizzling. And if I’m not outside, I sit by a window. I don’t wear sunglasses when I drive.

Additionally, being outside and connected to nature is incredibly beneficial to our wellbeing.

9. Standing as much as possible

Standing could save your life:

“A large study involving over 100,000 US adults found that those who sit for more than six hours a day had up to a 40% greater risk of death over the next 15 years than those who sit for less than three hours a day regardless of whether the participants exercised. ” — Chris Kresser

I invested in a standing desk when I started taking my writing seriously, and it’s been worth every dollar. Since I generally spend a good portion of the day writing or completing other tasks on a computer, being able to stand and use a computer at the same time has truly been life -changing.

I’m someone who goes crazy from sitting too much anyway, but as Chris Kresser stated, even sitting more than 6 hours each day is bad for your health. Six hours isn’t much, when you consider this time includes commuting, sitting down to eat, watching TV, and any other situation where one needs to sit down. This time adds up fast.

Making a conscious effort to stand up as much as possible won’t just change your life, but could save it as well.

Try to incorporate more standing in your day:

Stand rather than sit in waiting rooms

Invest in or build a standing workstation (at work I use a bookshelf)

Want to scroll on social media? Stand up and do it

Stand up during commercial breaks (or after an episode if watching Netflix10. Eating single-ingredient foods

10. Eating single-ingredient foods

Nutrition is confusing, and at times, overwhelming and stressful.

Fortunately, I’ve found a nutritional protocol that my body responds well to and that eliminates confusion.

Health should be simple, and what’s simpler than eating single-ingredient foods? When I have the option to eat something, all I have to ask is, How many ingredients does this have?

Eat foods your great-grandmother would recognize. Eat foods with just one ingredient. This includes things such as fruits and vegetables, meat and eggs, nuts and seeds.

The majority of my diet consists of fruit and vegetables, and meat and eggs. Sometimes I have some nuts. Sometimes I have some dairy — such as grass-fed butter. I drink a lot of black coffee. And that’s about it. It’s easy. It’s sustainable. And I’ve never felt so happy with my body composition.We don’t need huge efforts to achieve great things in life.

In fact, small efforts, repeated over time, will beat big efforts every now and then every single time. Focus on the micro, and the macro takes care of itself. If you can focus on the small actions that will lead you to the person you want to be, I guarantee you will achieve big things

Want to improve your health, one habit at a time?

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