Micro Habits: Achieve your goals in small steps

Micro Habits: Achieve your goals in small steps
Photo: CC0 / unsplash / Tyler Nix

Micro habits are small habits that should bring us a little bit closer to our goals every day – without pressure to perform. We will tell you how to use the concept successfully here.

Statistics show what many of us have already experienced ourselves: we usually only implement the good resolutions made at the turn of the year for a few weeks or months. It’s often because we’re just trying to do too much. But the good news is: You can also achieve your goals if you keep doing just a little bit.

Micro habits are tiny steps that we can integrate into our everyday lives to move forward. One of the biggest mistakes with good intentions is the high standards we set for ourselves. Suddenly our good intentions seem like an insurmountable mountain and we give up. How about climbing one small hill at a time instead?

What are Micro Habits?

Stairs instead of elevators: That can be a micro-habit.
Stairs instead of elevators: That can be a micro-habit.
(Photo: CC0 / Pixabay / StockSnap)

With the micro-habits approach, you should be able to achieve the desired result (more balanced diet, more sport, zero waste, etc.) with as little effort as possible. Micro habits represent small but regular patterns of behavior in everyday life that gradually bring you to your goal. In this way, they differ from an approach that aims to achieve goals through drastic immediate measures.

An example:

Your goal is to finally do more sport. Jogging, cycling, gym, weight training, would you like to lift 150 kilograms and run ten kilometers? That can’t work. Start small and start with Micro Habits: For example, do ten push-ups a day, take the stairs instead of the elevator every time, walk instead of driving. Over time, you’ll be able to do more and more push-ups, and soon you’ll be able to jog for ten kilometers.

The Micro Habits method is not about achieving a specific goal at a specific time or getting the most out of your everyday life. Micro Habits guide you in tiny steps towards a change or the introduction of new habits. Micro Habits are designed to increase your awareness of change and make it easier for you to integrate small changes into your day.

Not only can you build new habits, but you can also drop those that aren’t good for your environment or your wallet. You can find out which habits make you poorer here: 10 unsustainable habits that cost you money unnecessarily.

A concept similar to Micro Habits is the 1% Method approach, also known as the Atomic Habits approach. In doing so, however, you link getting used to new habits with a specific trigger, for example with a fixed time or a previous activity.

It can look like this:

  • I will read in the bedroom for half an hour every night at eight o’clock.
  • I will do ten push-ups every morning after brushing my teeth.

In another Utopia article you will learn more about the 1% method and how it can help you live better.

Less is more: This is how you implement the approach correctly

A micro habit can be reading ten pages of a book every day.
A micro habit can be reading ten pages of a book every day.
(Photo: CC0 / unsplash / Gift Habeshaw)

With Micro Habits you draw your attention to small daily rituals that are good for you and motivate you to change your lifestyle, your diet or your consumption in the long term. The primary aim is to define the steps as small as possible so that they do not appear as insurmountable obstacles.

For example, you can make a conscious effort to take deep breaths in and out twice a day. You can do this at any time, preferably when you feel tension in your body. With this little habit, you can already integrate more mindfulness and deceleration into your everyday life without having to do much for it.

Basically, it is advisable to become aware of your current habits. Based on this, you can then think about what changes you want to make and how Micro Habits can help.

  • Do you notice, for example, that you are generally rather dissatisfied? Then you can make positive affirmations a micro habit. These activate the reward center and the area for self-reflection in our brain. As you repeat them, they solidify and become more and more real to you. Don’t you feel attractive? Smile at yourself in the mirror every morning and remind yourself that you are beautiful. You can read here which positive affirmations work and how you can integrate them into your everyday life: Positive affirmations: How to help yourself to motivation and self-confidence.
  • A different micro habit could help you with your media consumption. Too much time on the smartphone affects the brain. However, strict digital detox can be scary. First of all, try to spend ten fewer minutes a day in front of the screen. Not only your head, but also your eyes will thank you. You can find out which digital habits are making us dumber here: These 8 habits are making us dumber.

Read more on Techzle.com:

  • Multitasking: can it even be efficient?
  • Leave your comfort zone: 8 tips to help you
  • Perfectionism – so high demands do not become a problem

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