Respondents in a recent Quora thread offer their best hand-me-down strategies for living healthier and more productively.
Psychologists have long observed that will power is overrated.
The most successful people build habits that eliminate the need for decision-making. Over time, the routines they establish help them accomplish far more than white-knuckling ever could.
Respondents in a recent Quora thread offered the best habits they've picked up from others.
Here's a sampling of their time-tested strategies.
Don't give yourself too many choices.
Nela Canovic says she filled her life with choices thinking it made her happier, until a friend pointed out how much time she was wasting not making a decision.
Now she limits her number of options in restaurants, furniture, clothes, and basically everything to just two or three options.
"It makes my life easier," she says. "It makes me actually enjoy the day."
Exercise judicious patience.
Elizabeth Simmons recalls a senior colleague impressing on her the value of cultivating heaping doses of patience to make important decisions or solve tough problems.
"Often, a period of reflection and consultation will either produce a new solution to the original problem or reveal the presence of a complementary problem such that the two problems may end up being one another's solutions," Simmons writes.
Celebrate your wins.
Matt Sandrini and his friend Phil are accountability partners. Whenever one accomplishes his goals, the other asks how he'll celebrate. It's an important ritual, Sandrini says.
Planning to celebrate keeps him focused on the task, helps him associate goal-setting with pleasure, and gives him a much-needed break when he hits his goal, before moving on to the next one.
Keep high standards, but low expectations.
Dean Yeong has learned from people like Tony Robbins and Paul Jarvis to differentiate between holding himself to a high standard and expecting certain outcomes.
While high expectations are set to meet external goals, high standards satisfy much stronger internal goals.
"It's easy for us to fall into the trap to set higher expectation when our standard gets higher," he says. "The best solution is to keep reminding ourselves — the result is never in our circle of control."
Cultivate good sleep.
Jamie Moyer outlines five criteria for establishing good sleep habits: schedule your sleep, don't sabotage it with caffeine too late, treat your bedroom as a "sleep sanctuary," get enough exercise to be tired, and ease into bedtime with soft lights or reading.
"I used to think sleeping a lot was a sign of laziness, boredom, or weakness," Moyer says. "A good friend taught me that, quite the opposite, one of the best ways to have a healthy, happy life is to get quality sleep each night."
Prepare for the next day tonight.
Tirena Schue borrows her father's habit of preparing for the following day the night before. She picks out her outfit and jewelry, prepares her lunch, and sets the coffee mug right by the coffee maker, all to avoid the hassle when she's groggy.
"The extra time saved means I get to enjoy my latte while I stroll down the street to my job and gather my thoughts before diving in for the day," she says. "Bliss."
Determine what your "One Thing" is.
Alexander Schultz took a page from Gary Keller's book " target="_blank"The One Thing" and began spending the first half of each day figuring out which single task he could knock out that would make others easier to accomplish.
The investment of time early helps minimize how much needless backtracking plagues the later, sleepier hours.
Reflect on the day for 10 minutes each night.
Abhineet Tyagi says he's learned to pause for a bit each night to replay the prior day's events in his head.
"Sometimes I remember the entire day," he says, while "sometimes only a snap of the day. But the thing is I learn from it. I learn about people, I learn about situations and scenarios; how to deal with them better and most importantly I learn about myself."
Avoid looking at your phone to be more present.
Calista Tee began putting her phone away in social situations when she observed a date deciding to put his phone away to focus on the conversation at hand. She says it has become a vital habit for connecting with others.
"Jokes are funnier, people smile brighter, foods taste better, weather seems nicer, passers-by look friendlier," she says. "He taught me to be fully present. I learned to take quick burst of pictures if I wanted to document them, and put it away right after."
Stretch often.
Richard Muller's knees would ache on long ski trips, he says. So on the advice of a friend, he began stretching regularly.
Suddenly, the tight muscles that would pull on his joints were no longer tight, so they no longer pulled. The pain subsided.
"Stretching has become a regular part of my life now," Muller says.
Help whenever possible.
Kranti Pujari has seen her boss repeatedly help people at the drop of a hat, and she's observed a number of benefits.
In line with the research on giving and happiness, Pujari has noticed that helping others has allowed her boss form stronger relationships, learn new things, create a happier environment, receive more help from others, and create more joy for himself.
Respondents in a recent Quora thread offer their best hand-me-down strategies for living healthier and more productively. Read Full Story
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