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time out of your day, they simply require attention and intention. In fact, some of these will actually even save you time.</p><p id="98ed">To organize these, I’ve grouped them into three categories: improvements by removal, by replacement, and by focusing on your intentions.</p><h1 id="2272">Improvement by Removal</h1><h2 id="dba3">Reducing Phone Usage</h2><p id="5d3c">Check your usage stats and set limits on the apps you waste too much time on. This is an easy way to build awareness about how you actually spend your time and hold yourself accountable for cutting back on things that don’t serve you in any way. While that 3rd hour of scrolling social media may feel like a stress reliever, that time could be better spent on more fulfilling forms of relaxation</p><h2 id="cba5">Purchase Wisely</h2><p id="955a">To create a clutter-free, peaceful home, aim to be more thoughtful about your purchases. Rather than buying things impulsively as a form of entertainment or to keep up with the latest trends, think before you buy to avoid acquiring things that don’t add much to your life. Being more conscious in our shopping allows us to create a space that’s simplified, calm, and refreshing. Our physical space reflects — and also impacts — our mental state, so a peaceful environment can improve your life in more ways than one.</p><h2 id="47cc">Use the one-touch rule to reduce time spent tidying your house</h2><p id="86c9">This means once you touch something, immediately act on it. If you take your coat off when you walk in the door, immediately hang it up rather than throwing it on the couch and having to put it away later. If you get a bill in the mail, decide the action needed to address it as soon as you open it rather than setting it on the counter and ignoring it for a week. These small efficiencies add up to save you loads of time and prevent clutter and small tasks from piling up.</p><h2 id="bcc6">Stop talking negatively about other people behind their backs</h2><p id="868c">If you talk negatively about others when hanging out with friends, they eventually come to the realization that you must also talk about them behind their backs. This sounds like a middle school issue, but it’s just as common in adult relationships, it just looks different. Instead of hating on each others’ outfits and hair, we absentmindedly criticize each others’ partners, career choice, or lifestyle. Catch yourself the next time you’re tempted to engage in shallow gossip and it’ll make you a more pleasant and trustworthy friend to be around.</p><h1 id="ef0e">Improvement by Replacement</h1><h2 id="4d6b">Change your phone usage</h2><p id="d2fe">Replace some of the time you spend on mindless games or social media with reading an e-book on your phone or switch to a game that’s educational in some way like a lan

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guage learning app. Even just 10 minutes a day doing something enriching can add up to meaningful self-improvement over time.</p><h2 id="8e9b">Change your self-talk</h2><p id="6d03">Our internal monologues are often so harsh that we say things we’d never dream of saying to a friend. Practice self-compassion. Learning to genuinely love and respect ourselves is an important component of being able to love others well too, and is something we can incrementally work toward by replacing negative self-talk with more positive affirmations.</p><h2 id="32c2">Make mini improvements to your diet</h2><p id="cd1c">If nutrition is something you’d like to improve but a complete dietary overhaul feels daunting right now, take one specific food or drink you consume often and replace it with a better alternative. Even just one small change at a time can serve as a springboard to motivate and encourage you to keep improving. Examples of small starting points might be cutting back from 2 caffeinated coffees a day to one, or switching both to half-caffeine. The key is making this replacement small and so easy you know you’ll be able to stick with it.</p><h1 id="bbea">Improvement by Focusing on Intentions</h1><h2 id="4492">Be more present with your loved ones</h2><p id="ef7d">Practice keeping your mind on the present moment rather than dwelling on the past or the future. It’s so easy to get lost in thought (or on our phones) planning for what’s next or obsessing over something that already happened, but developing the skill of remaining present in the moment increases our happiness and our ability to meaningfully connect with those around us.</p><h2 id="4197">Notice — and absorb — small joys</h2><p id="5a5b">Make a point to really soak in the good things in life, no matter how small. A lot of us have a narrative running in the back of our mind that we are unlucky, or that things just don’t work out for us, or that people are against us. But we can instead build the skill of recognizing and assigning more weight to the good things in life. This helps to counteract the negative, untrue narratives and in turn, opens us up to receive more of the good in life. It’s human nature to focus more on the negative, so we have to make an effort to give at least as much, if not more attention and focus, to the positives.</p><p id="a462">The next time you’re feeling like there’s no time for self-improvement, consider trying one of these ideas to keep yourself moving forward. Growth does not just happen in big, noticeable leaps but more often it’s in small, unexciting daily efforts that add up over time.</p><p id="b013"><i>Originally published at <a href="https://partmomfullhuman.com/9-self-improvement-practices-that-require-no-extra-time/">https://partmomfullhuman.com</a> on May 30, 2021.</i></p></article></body>

9 Self-Improvement Practices That Require No Extra Time

Being busy is no excuse

Continual self-improvement is appealing but can get lost in the chaos of everyday life. Not having enough time is the primary barrier standing in the way of us learning, experiencing, and accomplishing everything we’d like.

If we all had infinite amounts of free time, we could do all sorts of things to develop our physical and mental health and pursue our biggest dreams.

When I let myself daydream about this, I imagine all the languages I could learn and the musical instruments I could learn to play. I could expand my perspective with an in-depth study of various philosophies. I’d learn about other cultures, become a better cook, start a business, and read a book a week. I’d teach myself to sew my own clothes and bake fancy desserts with a mirror glaze like I’m always inspired to do every time I watch the Great British Baking Show.

But the reality is there’s an unavoidable limit to how much we can do. This can feel discouraging, especially for those of us with young kids and/or demanding jobs since the vast majority of our waking hours are filled with responsibilities and commitments to others that must get done.

While I think it’s important to figure out how to carve out space and time to invest in ourselves despite the chaos of life, the truth is that we all go through seasons where adding even one thing, no matter how small, to our to-do list just doesn’t feel possible.

Seasons like the one I find myself in now — with a 2-month old, a 3-year old, and in the middle of a postdoc — feel particularly constrained. I’m feeding a tiny human around the clock, my brain is mush from running on about 3 hours of non-continuous sleep a night, and the moment the little guy falls asleep my toddler seems to suddenly need help or be breaking something. Even minimal time commitments are hard to maintain daily right now.

So if we’re being realistic, there are just some periods of life where we feel we don’t even have a minute to spare.

But luckily, self-improvement doesn’t just include the adoption of new habits or commitments, but also the elimination or replacement of bad habits and unhelpful behaviors.

There are plenty of ways to improve your life that don’t take additional time out of your day, they simply require attention and intention. In fact, some of these will actually even save you time.

To organize these, I’ve grouped them into three categories: improvements by removal, by replacement, and by focusing on your intentions.

Improvement by Removal

Reducing Phone Usage

Check your usage stats and set limits on the apps you waste too much time on. This is an easy way to build awareness about how you actually spend your time and hold yourself accountable for cutting back on things that don’t serve you in any way. While that 3rd hour of scrolling social media may feel like a stress reliever, that time could be better spent on more fulfilling forms of relaxation

Purchase Wisely

To create a clutter-free, peaceful home, aim to be more thoughtful about your purchases. Rather than buying things impulsively as a form of entertainment or to keep up with the latest trends, think before you buy to avoid acquiring things that don’t add much to your life. Being more conscious in our shopping allows us to create a space that’s simplified, calm, and refreshing. Our physical space reflects — and also impacts — our mental state, so a peaceful environment can improve your life in more ways than one.

Use the one-touch rule to reduce time spent tidying your house

This means once you touch something, immediately act on it. If you take your coat off when you walk in the door, immediately hang it up rather than throwing it on the couch and having to put it away later. If you get a bill in the mail, decide the action needed to address it as soon as you open it rather than setting it on the counter and ignoring it for a week. These small efficiencies add up to save you loads of time and prevent clutter and small tasks from piling up.

Stop talking negatively about other people behind their backs

If you talk negatively about others when hanging out with friends, they eventually come to the realization that you must also talk about them behind their backs. This sounds like a middle school issue, but it’s just as common in adult relationships, it just looks different. Instead of hating on each others’ outfits and hair, we absentmindedly criticize each others’ partners, career choice, or lifestyle. Catch yourself the next time you’re tempted to engage in shallow gossip and it’ll make you a more pleasant and trustworthy friend to be around.

Improvement by Replacement

Change your phone usage

Replace some of the time you spend on mindless games or social media with reading an e-book on your phone or switch to a game that’s educational in some way like a language learning app. Even just 10 minutes a day doing something enriching can add up to meaningful self-improvement over time.

Change your self-talk

Our internal monologues are often so harsh that we say things we’d never dream of saying to a friend. Practice self-compassion. Learning to genuinely love and respect ourselves is an important component of being able to love others well too, and is something we can incrementally work toward by replacing negative self-talk with more positive affirmations.

Make mini improvements to your diet

If nutrition is something you’d like to improve but a complete dietary overhaul feels daunting right now, take one specific food or drink you consume often and replace it with a better alternative. Even just one small change at a time can serve as a springboard to motivate and encourage you to keep improving. Examples of small starting points might be cutting back from 2 caffeinated coffees a day to one, or switching both to half-caffeine. The key is making this replacement small and so easy you know you’ll be able to stick with it.

Improvement by Focusing on Intentions

Be more present with your loved ones

Practice keeping your mind on the present moment rather than dwelling on the past or the future. It’s so easy to get lost in thought (or on our phones) planning for what’s next or obsessing over something that already happened, but developing the skill of remaining present in the moment increases our happiness and our ability to meaningfully connect with those around us.

Notice — and absorb — small joys

Make a point to really soak in the good things in life, no matter how small. A lot of us have a narrative running in the back of our mind that we are unlucky, or that things just don’t work out for us, or that people are against us. But we can instead build the skill of recognizing and assigning more weight to the good things in life. This helps to counteract the negative, untrue narratives and in turn, opens us up to receive more of the good in life. It’s human nature to focus more on the negative, so we have to make an effort to give at least as much, if not more attention and focus, to the positives.

The next time you’re feeling like there’s no time for self-improvement, consider trying one of these ideas to keep yourself moving forward. Growth does not just happen in big, noticeable leaps but more often it’s in small, unexciting daily efforts that add up over time.

Originally published at https://partmomfullhuman.com on May 30, 2021.