Micro habits are small habits that are intended to bring us a little closer to our goals every day – without pressure to perform. We’ll tell you here how you can successfully apply the concept.
Statistics prove what many of us have already experienced ourselves: We usually only implement the good resolutions we make at the turn of the year for a few weeks or months. Often this is because we simply take on too much. But the good news is: You can achieve your goals if you keep doing just a little.
Micro Habits are tiny steps that we can integrate into our everyday lives to move forward. One of the biggest mistakes when making 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?
With the micro-habits approach, you should be able to achieve the desired result (e.g. more balanced diet, more exercise, zero waste) with as little effort as possible.
- Micro habits represent small but regular behavioral patterns in everyday life that gradually bring you to your goal.
- This is how they differ from an approach that seeks to achieve goals through drastic, immediate measures.
An example:
Your goal is to finally do more sport. Jogging, cycling, gym, strength training, would you like to lift 150 kilograms and run ten kilometers? This 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 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 introduce you to a change or the introduction of new habits in tiny steps. With the help of micro habits, your awareness of changes should increase and it should be easier for you to integrate small changes into your day.
Not only can you build new habits, but you can also ditch the ones that aren’t good for your environment and your wallet. You can find out which habits make you poorer here: 10 unsustainable habits that cost money unnecessarily.
Similar to Micro Habits: The One Percent Method
A similar concept to Micro Habits is the one percent method approach, also known as the Atomic Habits approach. However, you associate the formation of 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 evening at eight o’clock.
- I will do ten push-ups every morning after brushing my teeth.
In another Utopia article you can learn more about the one percent method and how it can help you live better.
Less is more: This is how you implement the approach correctly
With Micro Habits you focus your attention on small daily rituals that are good for you and motivate you to make long-term changes to your lifestyle, diet or consumption. The main aim is to define the steps as small as possible so that they do not appear to be insurmountable obstacles.
For example, you can resolve to consciously breathe deeply in and out several times twice a day. You can do this at any time, ideally when you notice tension in your body. With this small habit you can integrate more mindfulness and deceleration into your everyday life without having to do much.
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.
- For example, do you notice that you are generally dissatisfied? Then you can turn positive affirmations into a micro habit. They 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 about which positive affirmations work and how you can integrate them into your everyday life here: Positive affirmations: How to help yourself gain motivation and self-confidence.
- Another micro habit could help you with your media consumption. Too much time on your smartphone affects the brain. However, strict digital detox can be scary. First of all, try to spend ten minutes less on the screen every day. Not only your head, but also your eyes will thank you. By the way, you can find out which digital habits are making us dumber here: These 8 habits are making us dumber.
Edited by Jennifer Watzek
Read more on Techzle\.com:
- Multitasking: Can it even be efficient?
- Leaving your comfort zone: 8 tips to help you
- 3-minute rule: More efficient in everyday life – without spending a lot of time
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