9 Simple Habits for the Person Who is Always Staying Busy
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Daily habits are a powerful thing – especially if you’re always busy.
Good or bad, they are things we do without thinking. So if you can develop healthy habits into your daily routine, you’ll be incorporating self care throughout your day naturally and with ease. And if you are always staying busy, you probably don’t want to spend a lot of time thinking about how to add more self care into your life.
All of these habits I’m going to describe to you are simple and easy to implement.
They each take 30 minutes at the most to accomplish – some are only 5 minutes of your day. And those 5-30 minutes will make a huge difference in your physical and mental health!
Here are the 9 simple habits to live a healthier life for the person who is always staying busy.
1. Make your bed
Making your bed only takes five extra minutes of your morning, and it is a great habit to develop.
It will give you a self esteem boost knowing that in the first few minutes of your day you’ve already accomplished something. Then you can use this momentum throughout the rest of your day.
2. Eat a healthy breakfast
I know, hearing “Breakfast is the most important meal of the day” gets old quick. But it’s a saying for a reason.
When you’re constantly staying busy you might feel like there is just no time in the day to dedicate to breakfast, but it can have a large impact on your day.
Eating a healthy, nutritious breakfast gives you an energy boost to start the day. It also sets the tone for the rest of your day and will help inspire you to make healthy choices throughout.
Additionally, you will be less likely to have hunger spikes throughout the day that will send you into unhealthy choices.
Pick something you will be excited to wake up and eat, for example I like to make a smoothie bowl which is not only a great way to sneak in some fruits and veggies into my diet, but it’s a treat I look forward to every day.
If you only have a few minutes in the morning, prep a breakfast ahead of time or get easy to make items like oatmeal and fruit.
3. Meditate
Set aside 10 minutes of your day, whether you prefer it be in the morning or the evening, to meditate.
You can do this on your own or use a guided meditation in an app like Sanity and Self or Calm. You can also find guided meditations for free on YouTube.
Meditation is a great way to achieve awareness of the thoughts, feelings, and physical sensations that affect you throughout the day.
If you’re always staying busy, your mind is likely racing a million miles a minute all day long. Taking a few minutes to engage in a peaceful meditation practice can really improve your day.
4. Journal
Journaling is a tool you can use on a daily basis to reflect on your thoughts and feelings.
It can be really helpful and freeing to write everything down and get it out of your head. It will also help you process what’s going on in your life.
Look for some inspiration to get started? Use my post below to find the right journal style based on your personality and journaling goals.
To learn how to start a journal, read more here.
5. Exercise
In addition to all of the many physical health benefits, exercise has been proven to reduce stress and do wonders for your mental health as well.
Incorporating some kind of exercise – even if it’s just a walk at the end of the day – into your daily routine will be so beneficial to you.
I know with how busy life can be, it is intimidating to think about exercising every day.
But here’s how I think about it: I come home and watch a few hours of TV every night. Just cut out one 30 minute show and suddenly you have time to get the blood pumping!
Or if that doesn’t work for you, incorporate some crunches while you watch TV.
Click here for a full body at home workout.
6. Stay hydrated
Staying hydrated is important, but when you’re at work or running around all day it’s easy to forget about.
By making hydration a habit, you won’t even need to think about it. Carry a water bottle with you everywhere and you’ll start drinking a lot more.
Consciously take a drink from it every 30 minutes and then the more you do this it’ll soon become a habit.
I use this bottle from Simple Modern because the straw makes it easy to drink throughout the day. I also love that it’s 32 oz so I don’t have to refill it as often as smaller bottles.
7. Take off your makeup at the end of the day
Lengthy skin care routines with moisturizers, toners, serums, etc. can feel daunting and expensive. But skincare is important and there are smaller, more manageable habits you can start with.
Taking off your makeup every day let’s your skin breathe.
Keep a pack of makeup remover wipes next to your bed. That way, if you hop in and get comfy before remembering you haven’t taken your makeup off you won’t even need to stand up and have no excuse not to wash off the day!
I recommend these cruelty-free makeup removing wipes from Josie Maran because they are effective and donate a portion of sales to NRDC’s polar bear SOS initiative.
8. Unplug 30 minutes before bed
We spend so much time on screens. We sit at a computer all day at work, come home and watch TV, and then we scroll through Instagram until we fall asleep.
But research shows that looking at the blue light created by our screens right up until bed can really affect our sleep patterns.
By unplugging 30 minutes before bed and reading a book instead, you’ll be on the way to higher quality sleep.
Also be sure to set a timer on your phone to switch to the blue light filter which will help reduce your blue light intake right before bed.
For an Apple iPhone, go to Settings > Display & Brightness > Night Shift > Toggle Scheduled and input a time.
If you’re always staying busy, it can be a great relaxation time before bed to just enjoy a little bit of peace and quiet away from technology.
9. Go to bed early
I am not naturally a morning person – so I get it, sometimes it’s hard to get into bed early, especially when we get caught up doing other things at night.
But by developing a habit of going to bed early, you will feel so much better when that early morning alarm goes off. You’ll have much more energy and just feel better.
If you try this a few times and feel like you’re unable to fall asleep at an earlier time and think this is such a waste of time, stick with it!
Your body is just used to going to sleep at a later time, and it will adjust as you develop the habit.
Now that we’ve talked about the 9 simple health habits for the person who is always staying busy, let’s talk about how to implement these habits.
Choose one habit to focus on at a time. Biting off too much to chew at once can lead you to get discouraged.
You can also keep track of how often you are accomplishing your habit goals to keep yourself accountable. By tracking your habits, you can reward yourself when you hit milestones like a month of doing one of these daily habits.
A lot of people ask how long it takes to make something a habit and the answer is honestly that it depends.
A habit you do every hour is going to stick a lot faster than a weekly habit.
The most important thing to keep in mind when developing these healthy habits is to be patient and forgiving with yourself.
It takes time to develop a habit and you will miss days here and there, so that’s okay! It’s all about progress and the larger picture.
Comment below if you try any of these habits and let me know how it goes!
For more posts about healthy habits and routines, read more here:
