“Lose an hour in the morning, and you will spend all day looking for it.”
-Richard Whately
You know those days when you wake up rushing off to work or to class with barely enough time for yourself, leaving you feeling all stressed, overwhelmed and anxious? Or those days when even when you’re busy going about your day from one task to another, yet feeling like you have not accomplish much? Or just wake up one day and not feeling motivated and not knowing why?
The quote of loosing an hour in the morning (usually it most of our me time) is like a symbol to loosing a precious fraction of our lives that can not be reclaimed. So, I’d like to share with you the 5 tiny habits, those the small little habits we do daily that may seem insignificant, yet when stacked up and compounded everyday have helped improve my life and help me coped with challenging days.
1.Make Your Bed
This task may seem so insignificant compared to our bigger tasks in life, yet it can influence our productivity in a big way. I really like how Admiral McRaven shared in his commencement speech that if we make our bed first thing in the morning, we would have accomplished the first task of the day and this small sense of accomplishment will encourage us to do another task on our to-do list. I will link the video in the description. Now, I understand better why my parents always reinforce this habit since I was a child to learn to make my own bed. No matter how terrible my day was at school or at work, I get to come home to a clean and tidy bed that I made – and that is at least one thing I accomplished that day and going to bed to know that tomorrow will be better.
2. Move Your Body
I don’t mean an intense workout but just a simple 10-20 minute to stretch and get some movement will really wake your body up, get your blood circulating and helps you focus better. I like to do simple stretch to loosen those tight muscle after 7 or 8 hours sleep, and mix cardio or strength workout. Even just a morning walk is so beneficial and gives us that morning boost and energy to tackle the day.
3. Meditate
After that, I like to do a 10 minutes meditation. The goal is to quiet our mind and to enhance our mindfulness. Mindfulness is so important because it helps you see things that are happening around you with better clarity, so that you have the ability to make a more controlled, conscious, thoughtful decisions. Say for example, your boss or your colleague stormed to your desk and started berating at your about a project that has gone south. With mindfulness, it can help remain calm so choose to respond wisely instead of reacting. Another simple example of mindfulness is that it will help you be more conscious if you have taken your keys with when you’re in a hurry. So, daily practice of meditation is a practice of mindfulness. I set my timer at 10 minutes (if you are a beginner, you can start with just 3 minutes, and slowly increase to 5minutes or 10 minutes). During this time, focus on your breathing. Our monkey mind will bring us off-grid, so just try to come back to focus on your breath.
4. Gratitude journal
Living in this digital and social media age, it is hard to escape comparisons with what we see on screen and so easy for us to feel like we are not enough. Gratitude journaling especially first thing in the morning is a great way to remind us to be thankful for what we have. All you need is a pen and a notebook, or if you are travelling and want to keep things light, you can journal on any e-notepads on your phone or google document. Every morning, I write three things I am grateful for that day. It could be as simple as “Today I am grateful for :-“…
- Being able to turn the keys to this apartment I can call home.”
- Being able to call my best friend when I needed someone to talk to.
- Having clean water in abundance
Daily habit of gratitude journaling is a powerful strategy to protect your mind from negativity and shift your thoughts to positive thinking.
5. Cold Shower
You probably heard of the cold plunge or Wif Hof method and all its amazing benefits such as improve blood circulation, boost our immunity, improves our mental focus, boost our mood and dopamine, has anti-inflammatory benefits and boost our metabolism. The good thing is, we don’t need to go through the extreme cold to enjoy the benefits. I started doing the morning cold shower (around 14-15°C (59°F)) for about 5 years now and I always instantly feel so refreshed, awake and alert instantly. These days I can’t hardly start the day without a cold shower.
Just remember that any new habit takes awhile to form and stick, so don’t be too hard on yourself when you’re getting started. Take it slow and easy – you can use the general rule of thumb to give yourself at least 21 days to try it out and see how you feel. If anything I hope you found something useful here.
