Habits are what shapes our future and dictates how we feel in ourselves, our work, our relationships, and basically everything in our lives; it’s such a popular topic for a good reason.
And I know, you might be tired of hearing the same advice over and over again, thereby, I’ve come to you with a list of my favorite habits that are rarely talked about but that have made such a huge impact on my life and how good I feel on a daily basis, and that I’m sure will be of huge help to you as well if you decide to add them to your routine.
Listen to happy music
I remember when I was in my early teenage years, there was this quote that I would come across all the time, and it said: “Music is my life”. I could not relate to it, nor could I understand it well, and I remember always asking myself, what do these people mean when they say that music is their life?
Fast forward a few years later, I’d find myself listening to music for hours at end, sometimes to the point where my head and ears felt like they were going to explode.
Thanks to headphones notifications, I started being more careful with that; but even now, listening to music is still something I engage in all the time, while working out, taking a shower, getting ready, cooking, cleaning, and probably during all my activities. I’m actually doing it as we speak.
I listen to several genres of music from pop, to R&B, to country, to jazz. I’m also a huge fan of African music and Electrical dance music (also known as EDM). In fact, my all-time favorite song has to be “Problems” by Petit biscuit. Another current favorite of mine is “Rush” by Ayra Starr. These two are guaranteed to make you vibe like no one’s watching.
And every time, I notice the difference in the way I feel based on what type of music I’d be listening to; and that’s why I’m putting an emphasis on the word ‘happy’. So although there’s a time and place for every type of music, I strongly encourage you to make it a point to listen to upbeat songs every single day, and don’t just pay attention to the catchy rhythm, take a look at the lyrics as well, because whether you realize it or not, the words that you’re hearing constantly are going straight into your subconscious, so always keep that in mind.
I’d also urge you to stay away from sad songs, especially if you’re going through something, whether it be a breakup, some kind of loss, or anything else for that matter; the music you’re listening to should always uplift your mood and not drag it down further.
Get up and make your bed immediately
I’m a sleep lover alright? That means I can very well sleep for 10 hours straight if I want to, and even if I’m not actually sleeping, I absolutely adore staying in my cozy bed for hours doing nothing but listening to music, scrolling and daydreaming. Especially in cold days like these, leaving my bed in the morning is the last thing I want to do.
But as comfy as our beds can be, staying in them all day does not get us anywhere in life, does it?
Now there’s a technique that I use for doing all hard tasks: the second I get the idea, I’m doing it right away. No space left for overthinking and thus changing my mind. And I use that especially for getting up in the morning, because as mentioned in my 5 Clichéd Daily Habits That Are Life-Changing blog post, taking on the day as early as you can and starting it on the right foot is literally the first step to success.
And even if you’re not actually waking up early, I still encourage you to get up as soon as you open your eyes, because let’s be honest, you’ll have probably wasted enough time by then. No need to waste even more of your day when you’ve already woken up at 1pm.
And I mean absolutely no offense (or maybe just a little bit).
So the moment your alarm goes off, leave your bed and make it immediately, because that guarantees that you’re not going to get back in it. And trust me, the first ten minutes are always the hardest, but once you’ve had some water and maybe a cup of coffee, you’ll be super happy and proud of yourself.
Keep your space tidy
Following our previous point about always making your bed, I’d also advise you to not stop there.
Take a look around you. Is your space somewhere that brings you peace? Do you enjoy being in there? If you answered no to these questions, you might need to work a bit on that area of your life.
The place that you live in should be somewhere where you feel comfortable, and leaving things in disarray can make it hard for you to thrive.
Especially if you spend a lot of your time at home. (Remote-workers where u at?)
And as we always hear that our body is our home and thus we should take care of it, we might as well take care of our secondary home which is the place that we live in. The two are interconnected after all.
So after you make your bed every morning, maybe take an extra 10 minutes to make sure that everything is in its place and that you don’t have left-over dishes from the night before. If you don’t have time in the morning, schedule a time in the afternoon where you can fit in half an hour of tidying. Get a cleaning routine going, fold your clothes right after you’ve washed and dried them, do your dishes right after cooking, and whenever you use something make sure to put it back in its place right after you’re done with it.
The point is to integrate this process into your daily routine, so you don’t end up every week with a full laundry basket, a sink buried with dirty dishes and a house that stinks.
Limit time spent on social media
Have you ever felt like the day was over and you haven’t managed to check anything off your to-do list, and you’re confused as to how did all that time pass by? If the answer is yes, your screen time might be to blame.
Not all of you might relate to that, but I’m sure some of you are guilty. I sure am.
Thankfully, I’ve been paying attention to that for a while now, and my average screen time has gone down from 8 to 3 hours, and only one hour of those is spent on Instagram. Which brings me to my most important screen time rule: put a daily limit on the time spent on social media.
There’s a screen time limit feature on most if not all apps, which allows you to specify the amount of time you’d like to spend on there each day, so you’ll get a notification after you’ve passed that time.
But that’s not enough, as you’ll probably just ignore that notification and continue scrolling, so I encourage you to put a time window for these activities too; the rule I’m following is only one hour of social media between 6pm and 12am, meaning I’m not allowed to open the apps outside that period.
And one more advice: before you close a certain app, make sure to log out of your account. We’re so accustomed to spending time on social media that we open the apps without even noticing, so being logged out of your account can serve as a reminder that you probably should not be in there.
You can even take it a step further by unsaving your credentials, that way you’ll have to type them in every time.
So unless social media is part of your job, use that screen time for important things like listening to happy music (quick reminder in case you forgot), studying via language/knowledge learning apps, and keeping contact with the people close to you. Which brings us to our next and final habit:
Connect with someone you love
Humans are social creatures. We are wired to connect, and depriving yourself of that connection can cause a lot more problems than you probably imagine.
And besides, just like romantic relationships, friendships require effort as well; otherwise you’ll end up losing contact with people you are super close to, and I doubt you’d want that.
I’m going to be honest with you, I’m not a fan of texting.
Voice messages? Even worse.
Calls? That’s like my biggest nightmare.
If you’re a friend of mine, I apologize to you in advance, but just know that me not responding is not about me not wanting to talk to you, it’s just me not having the energy to keep up with everyone.
However, I’ve found that isolating myself is not the way to go. Now if I get the chance to go out and spend time with my friends in person, I’d definitely choose that option over talking on the phone or texting.
But again, I don’t want to be going out every single night, especially when it’s cold outside. And I have friends who live far away from me, so connecting via phone is our only option.
That’s why I have found that making it a point to connect with someone dear to you on a daily basis is the best way to ensure that you won’t grow apart. So instead of spending your break time on Instagram, might as well pick up the phone and call/text someone you love. And since everybody has become super busy these days, you can even schedule a time to talk. Again, you don’t have to spend hours talking, sometimes a quick 10-minute call and some laughing can do wonders for your mood.
