If you’ve ever started a healthy habit, you know that the hardest part is actually sustaining it. The moment you start neglecting it, you begin losing momentum and end up dropping the habit. This is where micro habits come in handy, as simple, small, and everyday behaviors that compound over time. Read on to find out how you can use micro habits to live a healthier lifestyle.
What are micro habits?
Micro habits are small, easy-to-do habits that you can finish in just a few minutes. It may seem trivial, but it can place a significant impact on the healthy habits that’s good for you.
Examples of micro habits include drinking a glass of water first thing in the morning, taking a five-minute walk right after lunch, or reading a page of an inspirational book before you go to sleep.
The idea is that by doing these small chunks, they all add up. By achieving micro habits, you build momentum, get encouraged, and in the long-term, establish and sustain those healthy habits.
In the long run, micro habits can lead to more significant changes in your life, such as improving your health, productivity and relationships.
Other benefits of micro habits: it helps you establish new routines quickly (as soon as you made up your mind and jump started it), and they’re not overwhelming. So even for those who are self-proclaimed lost causes, micro habits are very doable.
Effective micro habits you can do to transform your life
There are many kinds of micro habits, and truthfully, you can create or customize a micro habit according to your lifestyle. We’ve taken a look at some of the micro habits online, and here are the best ones you can replicate, especially if you’re just starting out, or looking for ideas.
Take a 60-second workout with your bathroom break
Between work and parenting responsibilities, who has the time to squeeze in a good workout?
This 60-second workout during bathroom break can solve that problem. Writer Darshak Rana, who writes for Medium, has a genius micro habit of doing a 60-second workout every time he pauses for a bathroom break at work.
Just 60 seconds of whatever exercise – it can be jumping jacks, high knees, lunges, squats, or burpees.
He finds that doing this adds up to about 5 minutes of exercise!
No matter how busy you are, you can spare 60 seconds. Will you try this micro habit? Tell us in the comments section.
Drinking water first thing in the morning
Nearly 80% of people don’t drink enough water. A surefire way to stay on top of your hydration needs is drinking water as soon as you wake up.
Put it on your night stand, or have a bottle at the reach beside your coffee maker to remind you to drink water first.
Of course, this micro habit doesn’t guarantee you achieve the ideal six to eight 8-ounce glasses of water per day, but at the least, it can help you be more inclined to refill that glass the rest of the day.
Floss your teeth – it only takes a few seconds
Brushing your teeth twice a day is not enough, according to dentists. Flossing is crucial to get those tiny pieces of bacteria out, and to prevent gum disease.
The trick is to take your time for your bedtime routine. Treat it like a mini-meditation. Hum a tune as you wash your face, apply beauty products, and as your brush and floss your teeth. This is definitely one of the things you should do leisurely.
To keep yourself from forgetting, place a post-it note on top of your bathroom mirror. Trust us, this is one micro habit that not only your dental health, but also your immune system will thank you for (periodontal health is linked to the immune system.)
Count to ten In your head before replying
Now, this micro habit is not directly health-related, but more of a work or productivity hack.
Raise your hand if you’ve ever texted or emailed something to a colleague and immediately regretted it. Has this ever happened to you?
This leads to unnecessary stress, or spending of our energy making amends, when it could have been prevented had you waited for just 10 seconds. Yes, 10 seconds!
Whenever someone blurts out a comment or a question that takes you aback, simply wait for 10 seconds to respond. Count to 10 in your head before drafting a reply and hitting send.
This micro habit will prevent you from reacting impulsively and saying something you’ll regret.
Replace one unhealthy snack
Remember what we said about making a huge lifestyle overhaul and how unsustainable it is? When you’ve vowed to eat healthier, perhaps you can start with a micro habit of replacing just one unhealthy snack every day.
Say, if you’ve made it a habit to snack on a Twinkie after lunch, simply replace it with a fruit or a pack of nuts.
Even though this replacement is not remotely life-changing, or makes you healthy overnight, the mere act empowers you. Not only did you avoid some x amount of sugar, you’ve also consumed healthful goodies from the healthy snack you consumed.
ALSO READ: Top 10 Healthiest Nuts to Snack On
Hopefully, the examples listed above will inspire you to create your micro habits. As well, we hope those successfully illustrated the simplicity and doability of micro habits. Now, let’s talk about how you can develop and stick to your micro habits for long-term success.
How to develop a micro habit
Are you ready to give micro habits a try? Here’s the right mindset to approach it. Think of starting small. So small that you’re set for success, instead of failure. You want to eliminate every opportunity for you to make excuses and not to do it. Have you thought of something small already?
Follow these steps:
- Think of a simple and accessible micro habit. For example, drinking water first thing.
- Set a specific time and place to do it. As in the example above, you can place a glass of water on your night stand, a cue for you to drink the moment you wake up.
- Focus on consistency. It has to be so small that you can commit to it every day. With micro habits, we place more value in consistency than the size or amount of the habit.
- Once you’re getting the hold of it, gradually increase the amount of frequency or duration.
- Celebrate these micro wins. They might be small, but they’re a great start. You should be proud of yourself!
- Repeat the same process for another micro habit you want to start and sustain. Believe it or not, once you’ve made micro habits a part of your life in a regular way, it will start to feel like common sense or second nature to you. Won’t that be amazing?
Conclusion
We all struggle to form and stick to good habits. That’s just human nature. The reason? We don’t understand the structure of habits (cue or trigger, action, or reward), and oftentime set ourselves up for failure. More importantly, we attempt to do too much too soon. And this is why micro habits work. They’re small, easy to incorporate into any lifestyle, and not time-consuming. If you want to strengthen your immune system, try micro habits as your launch pad to start and build on healthier habits. We hope this article enlightened you to start a micro habit soon.
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