We’re kicking off our study habit series with one-minute habits that you can easily implement into your daily routine! Lofty goals and time-consuming habits can feel overwhelming, which is why we’re here to suggest smaller, and perhaps more manageable, one-minute habits for you. You won’t need to overhaul your entire morning routine or invest in fancy gadgets to start seeing real changes in your days. Just try these one-minute habits to make your life a little bit better each and every day.
Embrace the one-minute rule
Gretchen Rubin, author and happiness expert, coined the One-Minute Rule as doing any task that can be finished in one minute (or less) immediately. Does your bed need to be made? Can you wash those dishes in under a minute? Can you shoot off that email before it gets lost in your pile of to-do’s? Then stop everything and just do it! You’ve got to stay pretty consistent with the one-minute rule to see valuable results, but once you start implementing it into your daily routine, you’ll feel calmer and ready to take on larger and more daunting tasks, like writing that sociology paper or completing that problem set. Just try doing anything that can be done in one-minute!
Get out of bed
It’s easy to lounge around in bed, staring at your phone or laptop for 5 minutes, which turns into 10 minutes… and before you know it, you’ve just wasted 30 minutes on social media each morning. Kickstart your day by hopping out of bed right away when you wake up in the morning (this habit should take even less than a minute!). If this is intimidating to you, schedule (or just think about) all of the exciting, happy, and productive things you could be doing with that time. Look forward to making breakfast, drinking coffee, going for a walk, or talking to your roommate instead of looking at your phone.
Take a break to move
We’ve discussed the importance of daily movement here on the Class Tracker blog before, but we want to reiterate the importance of moving your body each and every day. This movement doesn’t need to look like an hour-long workout or dance class – it could just be a minute in between tasks or work blocks that you use to stretch, do some jumping jacks, or walk down the street. One of our favorite one-minute break activities? Turning on some energizing music and dancing! Just one minute of movement is enough to reawaken your senses, restore your focus, and energize your body.
Organize in the morning and before bed
Every morning before you get started working and every night before you get into bed, take one minute to do a quick clean-up or room organization. You don’t need to make every corner spotless, but just try to tidy up one section of your room that might have become dirty or cluttered in prior hours. Clear the laundry off of your chair, clear your dishes, organize your make-up, or wipe up that tea stain on your bedside table. Cleaning or organizing for one-minute will leave you with a clear mind and space to tackle your tasks for the day or get a good night’s sleep.
Repeat an affirmation
Replace any negative thoughts that infiltrate your head with a positive affirmation or intention! For example, if you’re hearing that you’re not good enough, shut it down with an uplifting affirmation like: “I am ready to shine” or even “I’ve totally got this” to motivate and inspire for the rest of your day. You might write this down or repeat it aloud to yourself just so it’s really imprinted in your mind.
These one-minute habits will get you started on the right foot to accomplish tasks – big and small – throughout your day. You don’t need to overhaul your entire life to start seeing real change, just start small!
