22 Things You Can Do Daily to Improve Your Life

There is no such thing as instant improvement in life. Instead, you can only grow yourself. And as you know in agriculture, growth can only happen little by little over time. Bare eyes won’t be able to see the growth of a tree daily, but over the years it will grow to a big tree.

Similarly, you grow yourself little by little everyday. The things that you do daily may seem small and insignificant, but overtime people will be surprised to learn how much you have growth in life.

streamingTherefore, to improve your life, the focus should be on the small things you do daily. The key word here is daily. If you do not have the persistence to do these small things consistently, you won’t be able to see the results over the long term.

So here I’d like to share 22 things you can do daily to improve your life. Of course, you may not be able to do them all at once. Just start with the ones that benefit you most. Or, if you have done many of them, consider doing the ones that you haven’t done yet.

Here they are:

  1. Be observant of what is going on around you. Open your eyes and ears. This way a lot of fresh ideas will come to you.
  2. Take notes of every idea that comes to your mind. Never let any idea goes uncaptured.
  3. Try to learn something from the people you meet. Find something you can learn in their words, their attitude, or even their mistakes.
  4. Bring a book or magazine wherever you go. This way you can use any gap time for reading.
  5. Allocate a minimum of 30 minutes to read a book.
  6. Meditate. It improves your clarity which in turn improves your effectiveness.
  7. Take time to reflect on your day. What have you done right? What have you done wrong? What can you do to improve yourself?
  8. Drink water a lot.
  9. Exercise.
  10. Read a collection of quotes. I like to use Random Quotations.
  11. Choose a quote of the day to ponder and apply. Preferably, it should come from your personal list of quotes which contains the quotes that resonate most with you.
  12. Take notes of every expense you make. This is an effective way to keep your finance under control.
  13. Do something for the first time. Either find something new you have never done before, or find a new way to do something (e.g. taking a different route to work). This is to increase your mental capacity.
  14. Effectively read online articles.
  15. Use timer to help you actually do what you need to do. Actually doing is the key to productivity.
  16. Learn to use a tool, either to improve your skill with a familiar tool or to learn a new tool. A good start is to learn the keyboard shortcuts of the software you usually use.
  17. Take time to review your life purpose and goals, preferably before doing the main activities of the day.
  18. Rise early.
  19. Listen to educational or motivational audio program when you are doing activities which do not need full concentration. Examples of such activities are exercising, driving, and queuing.
  20. Be grateful for your day. Being grateful helps you develop a positive attitude toward life.
  21. Read a random article from Wikipedia to expose you to new things you may never know before.
  22. Have fun. Having fun helps you be passionate about life.

18 Comments

  1. Thank you for this nice summary of things to do to better yourself in every way imaginable!

    I only want to comment on point 18: Rise Early.

    If you really want to boost your waking hours, see if you can fit a polyphasic sleeping pla into your day. This would mean, that you sleep many times a day for a set amount of time, such as 20-30 minutes. I currently use the Uberman plan, which calls for 6 naps a day, every 4 hours for 20 minutes. That means I am awake for 22 hours a day, without sacrificing mental capacity and/or awareness. Typical Monophasic sleepers spend 6-10 hours in bed – which costs you 4-8 hours in comparison with Uberman. Try it! It just might work for you. Even if you take a day off (such as Sundays) and sleep for 10-12 hours, this will save you atleast a whole day every week!

    Of course, this is only for those who enjoy experimenting – as the conditioning for this sleeping plan might be tough!

    On a side note, even if one does get up early and your circadian rhythm strays from the times you force yourself to wake/sleep, you will not enjoy the ability to work at your full potential. Find the times you are most attentive in a 24 hour cycle and work your sleep times around these.

    Keep up the great work!

  2. Great compilation, Donald!

    Regarding #19 – I’m all for audiobooks and podcasts, but I would not recommend any listening while driving. Driving requires 100% of the drivers attention.

  3. ak5,
    Great ideas! I’ve never experimented with polyphasic sleeping plan, but it does sound interesting. Thanks for all the details you provided. I also agree with what you said about circadian rhythm.

    Fareed,
    I know some people who listen to audio program while driving, but I agree that it’s not for everybody. Generally it is safer not to listen to audio program while driving unless you know what you are doing.

  4. Hi Donald,

    I’ve added you to my list of tags to join in Alex Shalman’s “Caring Compassion Charity”.

    The idea is for you to write about something you’re passionate about. You would link to me and I would link back to the originator. It’s a good way to build networking. You can find my article post here:
    A Purpose Driven Life

  5. Thanks for tagging me, Lawrence! I will check it out.

  6. I love number 3. I just wrote a post on it!

    Learning from others is something that not many people would admit to doing, but it’s a great tool: to see what works, and is positive for others, and integrating it into your life.

  7. Taylor,
    Yes, it’s a great tool. And I like the advice in your post: “Be an active observer”. That’s exactly how we can effectively learn from others.

  8. Thanks for your post, there are a lot of interesting tips here!

    Especially the ‘Taking Notes’ does appeal to me because I like to write and taking notes is an important ingredient for writing. Also the idea to read a collection of quotes does appeal to me aswell, that is why you can find
    a lot of Quotes on my blog.

    Sometime ago I had a post – written from the perspective of a writer – about the (article) ‘Idea Generating Procedure’ (BTW you can also find some interesting quotes about ‘captivating ideas’ at that post as well.)

    You can find the post at:

    All the Best,
    HP

  9. HP,
    Looks like we have similar idea about taking notes and reading quotes! I like the way you apply it to writing, since I’m a writer myself.

  10. […] 22 choses que vous pouvez faire tout les jours pour améliorer votre vie […]

  11. Hi Donald

    Great Post , the third point is really good which most people overlook but the fact is that there is always too much to learn from others but the only thing is that we have keep our eyes and ears open

    In addition to the 33 points ,
    One should pratice Meditatition daily for minimum 15 minutes

    Write a dairy of all the things which you seen , done or thought no matter how sillly or small it may be

  12. (19.) Driving DOES and SHOULD require your full concentration, or at least to your full ability. I understand that listening to the radio is arguably the same thing. However I don’t think that an article to “improve your life” should encourage it… Or rather you should of worded it differently. Otherwise great tips. I will try to try some of them..thanks.

  13. Hey I’m a 25 man who is married to a wonderfull husband. I have a problem because I find some times life boring coz I don’t attracted to anything new and once I do that I get not to attract good things. For instant I have a lousy job that is not apealing and not challeging and I spent most of my time there so it has impact to the fact that I sometime feel downgraded. I find everything boring to the fact that I don’t get challeng to improve my life same goes with my dreams and goals so honestly I would be lying if I say I don’t want to quit my job I do coz I’m stuck at the same place where I’m not able to move. Any help guys

  14. Its Really working!

  15. Good one!.Thanks for your post.

  16. very very good

  17. boring as fuck

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