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We all want to improve our life. Wouldn’t it be great to do so with minimal effort? These 11 microshifts will help you with that.
1. Go to sleep and wake up at the same time every day
For most people, it’s a struggle to wake up early. They are grumpy, tired and rely on coffee or energy drinks to get them going.
A small shift in your sleeping habits can solve this problem for you.
The only thing you need to do is commit to the same sleeping schedule every day.
Meaning: Go to bed and wake up at the same time Monday till Sunday.
After two weeks of this, I noticed that I was way more awake by the time I had to get out of bed because my body had gotten used to the rhythm.
After all, your body doesn’t understand why the weekend should have a different schedule than any other day.
If you always eat lunch between 12 am and 1 pm, your stomach will growl around that time because it expects to be filled.
If you always wake up at 5am, your body will already be out of its deepest sleep by that time, and sometimes you’ll even wake up before your alarm clock.
The reasons you should not only wake up at the same time but also go to sleep at the same time are simple:
- Falling asleep will be much quicker because your body will be used to it around that time.
- Sleep is important, and you should get the recommended amount for you to be healthy and learn quickly.
2. Don’t allow yourself to hit snooze
Hitting snooze is a bad habit of too many people.
First of all, it won’t really make you any less tired. Your body won’t wake up properly because it expects you to go back to sleep immediately.
It’s easier to rip off the bandaid once and get out of bed immediately than having to be rudely awakened multiple times by your alarm until you have eventually enough lack-of-time induced stress to force yourself out of bed.
Second of all, how you do anything is how you do everything.
If your first action of the day is already procrastinating and lacking discipline, it sets a bad tone for the day.
Discipline is like a muscle that requires training. The more often you use it, the easier it will get.
Every time you allow yourself to be self-indulgent, it will be harder to choose discipline the next time around.
Unless you have an entirely free day, snoozing is a self-sabotaging habit of starting your day.
3. Don’t say you HAVE to do something, but you GET TO do something
Mindset is everything. It determines whether you see the world as gloom and doom or a bright wonderland full of possibilities.
Many people have turned their whole lives around simply by changing their mindset.
One such microshift in your mindset is to start thinking that you get to do things instead of moaning about having to do them.
- You get to go to the doctor; many people don’t have the money to do so.
- You get to study for exams; imagine how many children desperately wish they could go to school or college.
- Also, you get to pay high taxes; not only are you contributing more to society that way, but it also means you are a high earner.
This microshift increases your daily gratitude, raises your energy, and in turn, attracts more things to be grateful for into your life.
4. Set up automatic savings
Within a few minutes, you can set up some monthly savings to go automatically into your savings account.
It doesn’t even have to be a big amount. Starting with a mere 5€ is already setting you up for big savings in the future.
As you earn more money, you can slowly increase the amount of your monthly savings a couple times a year.
Besides that, you can forget about it and let the algorithm do its thing.
Having a decent amount of savings that you don’t touch unless in the direst of circumstances creates a feeling of safety, peace of mind, and relative financial freedom.
This small microshift can decrease one of the most pressing worries of most people.
5. Disable autoplay
YouTube, Netflix & CO. aim to keep you on their platform for as long as possible.
The autoplay function works wonderfully for that and has caused countless people to find themselves looking at things totally different from what they planned to an hour ago.
Unsurprisingly this can steal hours and hours of your week that you could have spent more productively.
That’s why this microshift of disabling autoplay can improve your life significantly in the long run.
Read also: Digital Minimalism Book Review | 11 Lessons + Quotes
6. Use social media only through their website, not the app
Since most people use social media through the respective app, the social media companies spend a big part of their budget customizing the apps in an attention-capturing way.
They want you to open the app and stay in there as long as possible.
The more pleasant the user experience is, the longer they stay on the platform.
That’s why the small microshift of ditching the apps and instead only using the internet browser can have such a huge impact.
Using Instagram over your laptop is much less appealing than using it over your phone.
This annoyance makes sure that you only look at the things you came for and then lockout as soon as possible.
Or even better, stop looking at your feed! Open the accounts you are interested in directly.
That way, you won’t fall into an unexpected rabid hole full of content to distract you and steal your time.
Read also: 9 Easy Ways To Reduce Your Social Media Use | Tips For A Digital Detox
7. Always have a big water bottle near
Your body consists out of up to 75% of water. Unsurprisingly this means that it is of utmost importance to stay well hydrated.
Despite this importance, many people struggle with drinking the recommended daily amount of water.
One big reason for this can be summed up with the saying ‘out of sight out of mind.‘
I, for example, effortlessly drink a lot of water each day, as long as I have a big bottle of water standing next to me on my desk.
Whenever I feel a tiny bit thirsty, I only have to grab the bottle and drink.
And since it is a 1,5-liter bottle, I only have to fill it up maybe twice a day.
So, all in all, it’s a minimal effort with the very easy trigger of seeing the bottle.
8. Always look for the 1% you can improve
Most people are reluctant to do anything that doesn’t promise significant results.
That’s why people are so tempted by get-rich-quick schemes. They want to do this one thing that makes them rich quick. As soon as someone tells them to consistently run a blog for a few years, they lose interest.
It’s the same with investing and savings. People feel like small investments are not as valuable as big chunks. Yet over the years, the power of compounding can make these small investments surmount astonishing numbers.
Smart and successful people recognize the power of small improvements.
They have a lookout for life-changing opportunities and those small steps in a better direction.
It’s all about optimizing their strategy, habits, and time in the best way possible.
So take a look at your life and make a few microshifts here and there. Perhaps you can drive to college twenty minutes earlier, avoid rush hour, and use some of your time more productively.
Or maybe it’s time for you to get a new laptop/tablet because the additional time it takes to load is not only wasting your time but also disrupting your focus.
9. Always try to find opportunities
I’m sure at one point or another, someone in your social circle or even you have lamented that life would be so much better if you’d only have one of these incredible business ideas.
Or perhaps you’ve found yourself jealous of the luck some people have to be discovered online.
The thing with opportunities or ‘luck’ is that they are more controllable than most people would ever allow themselves to think.
While it’s true that you can’t pick and choose the specific kind of luck that’s going to occur to you, you can position yourself in a way that allows you to see opportunities.
One way to do that is by actively trying to find opportunities.
10. Park your car farther away/Get out one bus stop earlier
If you are anything like me, you spend way too much time sitting at your desk in front of a screen and way too little time walking under the blue sky.
We all know movement is important, yet our lifestyle doesn’t give us many opportunities to walk without actively blocking some time.
But it’s always a bit tricky to integrate a new habit into a day that already seems to lack enough time.
So, what microshift can help us with our goal to move more?
If you drive in a car to work or school, how about parking at the far end of the parking lot, instead of close by the entrance.
And if you are using public transportation, consider getting out/getting in one or two stops earlier and walking the rest of the distance.
I am always way too early for my lectures if I take public transportation. So I like to walk through the city instead of hopping onto the bus.
Also, considering how long I need to wait for the bus and the traffic lights and bus stop in between, it doesn’t take me that much longer to walk.
11. Switching one product a month for a healthier, cheaper, or more sustainable alternative
Improving your diet or buying products while reading all the labels can be a daunting task.
We all know that our health will benefit from buying that cereal with less sugar or switching your microplastic shampoo to a more natural one.
But there are so many options out there, and the research on which one is best takes ages and a lot of effort.
It’s time to stop waiting for the magical day when you will be motivated to change all these things at once.
Instead, do it as a micro shift, choose one product a month that you want to get a replacement for.
Doing this one by one might not seem like it’ll make a big difference in your life, but before you know it, you will have switched out a dozen products, and that’s going to benefit you a lot in the long run.
Which microshift do you want to tackle first?
If you are ambitious enough to do the first change today, comment NOW!
Until next time, Felicity Seeker!
