Daily Habits to Change Your Life

Do you ever feel like you’re constantly juggling life, trying to stay healthy, get organised, and still make time for yourself?

It’s easy to fall into the trap of trying to do everything, from morning workouts and mindfulness to daily journaling and productivity hacks, only to end up exhausted and overwhelmed.

If your “good habits” are feeling like a chore, it might be time to slow down and rethink what’s really supporting you.

This guide shares quick, easy ways to build daily habits that genuinely improve your wellbeing, energy, and focus, without taking over your day.

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How Daily Habits Help

Habits are the small actions that you repeat automatically, like brushing your teeth or making your morning coffee. They might seem like ordinary actions, but they’re the foundations of your wellbeing and productivity.

Introducing new daily habits isn’t always easy, but once they're established they can help you:

• Feel calmer and more grounded
• Stay focused and consistent in work and life
• Create balance between work, rest, and personal time

Choosing one or two simple habits to begin with will help you create the foundations for change. I talked about this and habit formation in my last blog, where I gave an example of walking a new path.

It's important to not over-do it, especially in the beginning. Begin by focusing on one new daily habit, or a couple of small ones that you know are easy wins for you. As they become more solid, you can think about introducing new daily habits, or expanding the ones you started with.

Habits teach you how to develop consistency, understand the motives behind your behaviour, and help you develop better ways to approach your goals.

By introducing new daily habits, you're building the foundations to create the changes that you're looking for. Once habits become ingrained it's harder to change them. So by focusing on ones that will benefit you, you're giving yourself the best chance of seeing your plans through and achieving those goals.

Morning Routines That Work For You

Morning routines don't need to be big or complicated, they just need to be intentional. Even 5 or 10 minutes a day can make a difference to your focus and mindset.

Supportive Morning routines can set the tone for your day, whether it's a personal or professional goal you're focusing on.

Remember, you already have routines in place in the mornings, from brushing your teeth, getting dressed, eating breakfast and leaving the house! Building on the foundations of what you already do will help you develop daily habits that feel easy and natural.

Quick Morning Routine Ideas:

Here are a few examples of what your morning routine could look like. Take what feels good for you and start with small changes, especially if you've found introducing habits difficult in the past.

No time? Already short on time? Try waking up just ten minutes earlier and stack these mini-habits onto what you already do, like during your coffee, brushing your teeth or walking the dog.

A 5-Minute Morning Reset

• Minute 1: Deep breathing to centre yourself.
• Minute 2: Gentle stretches or movement.
• Minute 3: Drink water and think of three things you’re grateful for.
• Minutes 4-5: Write a few Journal Prompts, or set your intentions for the day.

10–15 Minutes

• Morning journaling – use these reflection prompts: How do I feel this morning? What's my energy like? What am I looking forward to today? How do I want to feel today? What are my main goals for today (max 3) What am I grateful for today?
• Mindfulness – You don't need to use a meditation app or sit in a meditation pose to do this (although if you want to then great – there are lots of short guided meditations you can find online). Mindfulness is about taking a moment to release thoughts, worries inside your head, allowing you to come back to the present moment. You can do this as you're cleaning your teeth or as you walk to work. If you can sit for a few minutes, it's about paying attention to being in the moment. Noticing, without forcing, sounds, sensations and feelings.
• Daily Goal Planning – Use the 5 or 10 minutes to write down your daily goals. Prioritise them and spend a couple of minutes thinking about how you're going to tackle them and what you need to prepare.
• Drink Water – Drinking water first thing has tonnes of health benefits for you. After a night of no water, it helps to quickly rehydrate your body. As 50-70% of our bodies are made up of water, it's crucial for helping your organs function properly, and for keeping your heart healthy.
• Gentle Exercise – You may not get much out of a few minutes, but some quick movements, or gentle stretches while you're still in your pyjamas can be a great way to wake your body and mind up!

15-30 Minutes To Spare?

If you have 30 minutes to spare, you may be able to fit in a few short activities, or spend longer on one or two. For example:

• 5-10 Minutes for mindfulness / meditation.
• 5-10 Minutes for gentle movement (stretches, a mini yoga routine, walking on the spot, or dancing!).
• 5-10 Minutes to journal. This is a great amount of time to journal. Whether you use a guided journal, or prefer to write freely, a quiet 10 minutes can help set the tone for your day, declutter your mind and gain clarity.

If the mornings are just too hectic, think of ways you can attach to other activities you're doing, and if possible, walk to the bus / shop / work. You can use this time for mindfulness & gratitude as well!

The important thing with introducing daily habits, is that it's something you want to do, something that will support the changes you're making, but that are also sustainable.

There are some things you can do to make this easier, for example you can prepare things the night before to help future you get ahead!

Evening Routine Ideas

Evening routines are just as valuable as mornings, as they help you switch off, rest, and prepare for tomorrow.

As with morning routines, we all have some sort of evening routine, whether it's a ‘good' one is a different matter, but we all generally do the same kind of thing each night before bed. The key is to not make things complicated. Usually when you're going to bed you're tired and just want to get comfy in bed.

Here's a few ideas you could try:

• Phone boundaries: Stop checking work messages after a set time. and choose a time to switch off completely before bed.
• Daily review: Mentally run through what went well today and what can wait for tomorrow. Give gratitude, and praise yourself for the things you've done. It's a great way to help you mind gently unwind.
• Gratitude: Write or think of three things you appreciated today.
• Prepare for tomorrow: Set out your clothes, fill your water bottle, or leave your journal ready.
• Unwind: Read, stretch, or use a short guided meditation to ease your mind.

Where possible, work with what you already have. Use stacking to help you establish the new daily habits as quickly and as easily as possible.

Find what works for you. It's often trial and error with these changes, but the important thing is that you keep doing it! You repeat the new habit over and over until it becomes as automatic as cleaning your teeth before bed!

Tools, Resources & Support

Take a look at these tools & resources that will help you with your productivity, business, and personal growth goals:

90-Day Planner – This printable 90-Day planner is the perfect companion for you as you set your focus for the next 3 months. Use it every 90 days to help build consistent habits and achieve your goals with ease. With a focus on intentional planning and moving forward at your own space, it's the perfect companion to see you through to the end of the year.

Canva Pro – Upgrade your content design with Canva Pro. Explore the enhanced features available in Pro. Grab your free trial here.

Impact Stationery – Have you ever dreamed of creating your own high-end stationery products? The brilliant Laura has an amazing course & community designed to help you create premium printed products (planners, journals, decks etc.), that you can market on Amazon, or your own website. It's not KDP, these are not print on demand. The quality of the products produced within the community are incredible, with many seeing incredible returns already.

Notion Navigators – If you want to learn how to use Notion and grab some AMAZING dashboards, I highly recommend joining Jakolien. As someone who was scared of Notion and found it too complicated, I now use it daily thanks to the best daily planner system I've ever used. I cannot recommend it enough – my ND brain feels settled, goals are clear, tasks are right there for me to see – so no more decision fatigue, and a much calmer mind.

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Final Thoughts

Introducing new daily habits doesn't mean you have to overhaul your entire routine. It may feel exciting at the beginning, but often they taper off after a couple of weeks as the dopamine hit disappears and the repetitive actions lose their shine.

It's about creating small, intentional actions that support your energy, focus and wellbeing, without adding stress to your day.

The use of habit stacking, and where possible getting up a little earlier can help to make the settling in phase a lot easier.

I also think it's good to remember that perfection is not what the goal is. Trial and error – experimenting with how you want your days to look is normal. Sometime you may try something that you thought sounded good, but in practice didn't quite hit. Don't be afraid to change your mind if it doesn't feel right for you!

I'd love to hear how you manage the mornings and evenings, and what you find most helpful when introducing new daily habits!

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Meet Lynsey

Hey there! I'm Lynsey, a counsellor, coach and mentor for women who want to create change, but are feeling lost, uncertain and exhausted. With over 7 years’ experience of training, running businesses, and over a decade as a tutor and adult trainer, I've learned the value of a gentle and intentional approach to work and life that energises you without draining all of your energy.

I've lived with ME/CFS since 2011, and since then re-trained as a counsellor, and achieved a distinction for my Masters in Counselling and Psychotherapy Practice; all while running 4 businesses!

How? Improving your mindset, finding acceptance in yourself, and developing a gentle, but solution-focused approach to achieving goals is key. Knowing that it's not about how fast you move, but finding your own pace and trusting that you can achieve your goals in your own way, one step at a time.

If you'd like to know more about working with me, you can email [email protected] or find me on socials (links in the menu)

Have you seen my online store Quietly Conquer – Find DFY templates, downloads and more!