12 Mini Habits For Smoother Days

April 30th, 2010

2010 has seen me make a lot of habit changes in my life (which you can read about here) and by experiencing this, I’ve learnt so much to pass on to you. Sometimes the changes are big and life altering but often they’re just small things that will help you create days that runs just a little bit more smoother. Here are 12 mini-habits I’ve cultivated.



1. Taking Garbage To The Main Bins

When you’re finished eating, taking the food straight to the outdoor bin gets it off your plate (couldn’t resist) and it’s gone. A great idea is to get rid of your bin from your kitchen which forces you into the habit. You will always have a really clean looking house for when people come around and there will be no lingering smells or overflowing bins.

If I’m going downstairs, I take my paper bin every time, and just nip outside to empty it. It takes literally 10 seconds and keeps my house fresh and neat. This habit works well with a Raw Food Diet which I adopted and blogged about recently.You don’t have to spend forever cleaning dishes because fruit and veg doesn’t stick to the plates like meat. You eat, put the foods in the outdoor bins, rinse your plate and you’re done.

You also start to condition a mental habit which is “I’ll get things done now so they don’t grow into something huge I can’t handle”. This skill will naturally transfer to other areas of your life like your finances, health and relationships. Action will become your first response.



2. Enjoying Washing The Dishes

I genuinely enjoy washing the dishes. I love the warmth and the little rainbows inside the bubbles and the calm centred moment it offers me. Experience the vibrant colours of life. Stroke your face with a hot towel, feel the sharpness of the wind on your skin or the sun on your neck, watch a Dad teaching his son to ride a bike on the local park.

There is beauty in these things. They get you out of thought and in to experiencing this moment. The media industry imprints a view of life upon us to only be really happy in the big moments – weddings, job raises, the birth of a child etc. If this is true then are we due to experience at best average happiness for 99% of our life?

99% of life is small moments and to not appreciate them is a dis-service to yourself and everyone else. An unhappy you is useless to everyone. What sounds, sights and smells can you appreciate right now around you if you chose to? Enjoy your little slice of perfection.



3. Spice Up Dull Tasks

Every day I have to eat 100g of Brazil Nuts as part of my diet, it gets boring quickly. I do things like go for a walk and eat them or spread them throughout the day or eat them with Watermelon or an Orange. If your mind is focused on another task when you perform something boring then the task will get done but you won’t have to suffer through it.

You could listen to music whilst cleaning, return phone calls whilst riding your bike or make plans for tomorrow in your head when you’re sat in a boring meeting. There’s opportunities everywhere once you start looking around and you are only limited by your creativity.



4. Consciously Slow

The “super fast” side of personal development is mostly bogus. People who tell you productivity is about speed usually aren’t productive themselves. They tend to do lots of things but none of the right things and so the slower turtle wins the race. Do you agree with me here? Look at them in their eyes – are they deeply satisfied running about their lives? Do they have the complete lifestyle that you want or do you have a more suitable role model in mind?

I’m enjoying the ride and don’t plan on arriving early. I want to soak up all the experience life has to offer. Change happens in an instant but it takes time to manifest in the physical world so you might as well get comfortable and enjoy the journey. A great way is through slower movement.

Whenever your body is moving fast so is your mind. Consciously slowing down your body will immediately affect your mind and simplify your thoughts creating the space to get out of your thoughts and into experiencing this moment. Not to mention how sexy slow moving people look .



5. Read One Book At A Time

Do you have lots of books strewn around with folded corners and bookmarked pages left half read? Until recently, have about 5 or 6 on the go at any one time. You don’t get much out of books like that. So I developed a system for it. I created a complimentary flowchart diagram to simplify it for you too. It’s based around taking notes on books, digitizing the notes and only keeping in the long term a core selection of under 10 books.

Reading one book at a time increases your consciousness about what you’re reading. You have to finish the book before moving onto the next one so this will force you to pick better quality books so you don’t have to suffer through terrible ones.



6. Plastic Fantastic

Have you ever wondered if you could just never use cash and get by? I do 99% of the time. Places like bars have a minimum price of £2.50 ($5) to use plastic but just buy your friends drink and get them to give the to buy you the next one. We are creative enough to get around this. No coins feels great. My pockets now just hold my cash card, my house key and one pen. Simples!



7. One Pen

I use one pen, and it has my name on it. People know its mine and it’s always with me. Doing this will make sure that you never have that feeling on the phone or when you pat all your pockets looking for those darn elusive pens! Plus, it looks great when you’re always prepared with a pen.



8. Paperize Your Productivity

When it comes to staying organized I stick with good ol’ pen and paper. It’s so easy to get drawn in on-line to the latest shiniest new application and we start to forget the original purpose is to be productive. With pen and paper its easy. There’s no adverts to distract you, you just write your goals and they stay there. If in doubt, write it out.



9. Stop Talking So Much

We have two ears and one mouth. Is God having a little joke with us here? Some say he’s showing us to listen twice as much as we talk. Talking uses a lot of energy. Do you ever find that people who talk a lot are trying so hard to connect with the other person but the other person just wants someone to listen! It doesn’t work. By doubling your listening in conversations, you will connect much deeper, appear profound and save yourself lots of energy.



10. Pay off Lots At Once On Smaller Bills

If you have a small monthly bill then consider opening a new account and depositing 6 months worth of payments and setting up a direct debit. You decide what a small amount is. This unloads the hassle from your mind and allows you to concentrate on other areas of your life safe in the knowledge that this one is sorted for the medium term. Simply remind yourself to restart payments by writing a reminder in your diary a couple of weeks in advance.



11. Always See An Opportunity to grow

Develop a certainty that every event and person in life is there to make me grow. If someone is annoying you, you can grow from it. It’s an opportunity to develop your humility, patience, unconditional love and even humour. It could be the push that you need to find a new group of friends or an opportunity to show your partner your moral strength. There is always an opportunity for growth.

Can doing yard work for an elderly relative be framed as a chance to catch up and get some exercise? Could you frame working at a dull job for a while as disciplining yourself to be persistent for when you finally quit and work for yourself? Can’t your annoying boss be a lesson is laughing at yourself and humility?



12. Benefit From Social Networking Without Wasting Time

I use a site called “SocialOomph“ (The free option) and Twitters Official Facebook Application (Always Free). Combined, they can save you lots of time with social networking. The Facebook/Twitter Application lets you update Facebook via Twitter. I set it up so every Tweet appears immediately on my Facebook, reaching all of my online friends in one swoop. The coolest bit about this is that SocialOomph allows you to schedule Tweets.

You set a Tweet now, and it appears at a time of your choosing. In the morning I might write 3 statuses that are published at 9am, 2pm and 9pm. You can update your friends on how your day has been without ever having to visit the tempting Facebook interface and let it post for you. I give myself a timed 30 minutes in the morning on Facebook and that’s it for the day. It’s so efficient and I heartily recommend it. It spares you energy and lots of time to pour into other areas of your life that excite you more.