Creating "Mini-Habits"

Something I’ve stumbled upon recently, in an effort to (once again) set a morning routine, is the concept of mini-habits. It’s truly revolutionized the way I think about and interact with new habits I’m trying to set and maintain.

Because often times when we’re trying to develop a new routine or habit, it’s easy to take on too much or simply get overwhelmed and end up not doing it at all.

In other words, it’s easy to fall into an all or nothing mindset.

Mini-habits, as I’m calling them, are a way to circumvent this. Basically, a mini habit is the short, quick, five-minute, version of your “main” habit.

Let me explain by using my own morning routine as an example.

Morning routine:

-brush my teeth

-wash my face

-drink water

-stretch

-eat breakfast

-take my vitamins

It seems pretty basic, which it is. (Every habit should be simple and basic when you start it). And yet, in the morning, I know for a fact that it’s difficult for me to get up and do my stretches.

And failing to do the stretches might (and will) throw me off doing the routine entirely. So I looked at what were my main objectives with the routine, what am I adding that’s important to me?

Ultimately, I decided that my top three were:

-drinking water

-stretching

-taking my vitamins.

And since I already know that the stretches are what hang me up, I divided up the more palatable parts of my routine and made them into my mini-habit.

Notice that all three items that make up my mini-habit are short, quick and overall only take around five minutes to accomplish.

This has allowed me almost a 100% success rate with my mini habit and allows me to stay motivated about the rest of my routine too. Because if I accomplish half of it, doing the other half isn’t as dauting.

Conversely, on the days where I’m not able to stretch or take vitamins, I know that at least I conquered half the battle.

It’s much nicer to see a line (which indicates I accomplished the mini-habit) than an X on my habit tracker. And I do recommend keeping a tracker for at least the first three weeks when trying to develop a new habit to keep you on track and get you used to it.

I’ve also applied this mini-habit concept to another habit I’ve been trying to develop. This one is less rigid than my last one, but I’ve found this concept still applies.

My goal is to be relatively active for fifteen minutes a day outside of my normal activity. (Well, my goal is actually thirty minutes, but I’m starting off at fifteen first).

Now “relatively active” is a vague term, but it’s really just something to force me to get up and move around since I sit in front of a screen most of the day. In this instance, keeping it vague is actually helpful. Active could be going on a walk, pacing in my room during a phone call, a random dace sesh to Taylor Swift, the possibilities are endless.

But even with all the options, on really cold days especially, going on a walk outside is far from appealing, or just leaving the warmth of my blankets so it can be hard to add an extra fifteen minutes of activity.

So my mini-habit is five minutes. Sounds stupidly small right? But if I can get myself moving for five, I can (and will) likely do the fifteen.

Alternatively, if I only have five minutes, I can squeeze it in before a meeting, time I would otherwise have not considered enough to be productive.

Mini-habits make use of the odd five-ten minutes we have during our day when we’re waiting for something.

When you’re creating your mini habits there are two things to keep in mind:

1. include a core piece of the habit you’re trying to cultivate

2. make sure it only takes five-ten minutes to accomplish

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So to recap, creating mini-habits of the main habit you’re trying to develop helps to:

-make use of time you might otherwise consider useless

-break out of that all or nothing mindset

-motivate you towards actually working on your bigger habit.

This concept has really worked for me, and I’d love to hear your thoughts and experiences as well! So, if you try it out, or have anything else to add, please let me know by commenting!

Thanks for reading! (It feels good to be back!) And I’ll see you in the next one!