11 Mini Moments to Enhance Your Everyday

On the second Sunday of March, those who observed daylight savings set their clocks forward by one hour, effectively making darkness fall at a later time.

I welcomed this change. It was a signifier that days would be longer, nights would start to get warmer, and spring was just around the corner. As a fan of fresh starts, I wanted to use this change as a chance to recenter myself amidst the busyness of life.

So below are 11 small habits I’m incorporating into my days in order to reset for the new season—and yes, I said small. With all that we’ve collectively gone through in the past 52 weeks, it wouldn’t hurt to find the spring in our steps again, one step at a time. Let’s call these next 11 habits our “mini moments.” I hope they serve to improve your days rather than give you yet another list of tasks you need to force yourself to complete. None of these mini moments are meant to drastically change your life, but they do serve to enhance it, day by day. Start with 3, 2, or 1 at a time, and go from there. Get yourself used to implementing these so habitually that you no longer have to come back to take a look at them again.

#1. Take one minute just to focus on your breath.

Close your eyes for one minute and concentrate on breathing in and out. We never focus on our breath because it’s involuntary and unconscious, so we often forget that we have the power to make it conscious and controllable. When we voluntarily pace ourselves in our breathing, we create a host of physiological benefits. Slow and deep belly breathing promotes feelings of tranquility. I like to breathe in for 4 counts and breathe out for 5.

#2. Drink a full glass of water before you start your day.

Our bodies are dehydrated after a night of rest, and we often forget to drink enough water before going about our day. Take ten big gulps of water before you do anything else. Put it on your bedside table the night before if you think you might forget. Leave a cup out on your counter. Place it next to the coffee maker. Do whatever it takes to make sure you start the day hydrated.

#3. Eat some fruit.

Fruits are packed with vitamins and minerals that are essential for maintaining our health. In addition, there’s usually at least one out there that we enjoy eating. Make it a habit to eat a bowl of your favorite cherries every day. If you get tired of cherries, eat a kiwi. If you don’t like the way kiwis make the roof of your mouth feel, get some oranges. The more colorful your fruit palate is, the more diverse the nutrients. Make it fun and pick a new color palette each week to base your fruit purchases off of. Get adventurous and try new fruits. Pink and orange? Grapefruit and pomegranate. Yellow and green? Carambola and pomelo!

#4. Leave your phone on the other side of the room before you go to bed.

It’s so easy to grab our phones when we’re feeling restless at night. It’s become second-nature to reach for our devices the moment we hear it vibrate a few feet away. We don’t need our phones right next to us when we sleep. We can reinvent our nights and mornings by cutting off our ability to feed into this digital addiction. Set your alarm for the next day and then leave your phone on the desk, the windowsill, or better yet, outside your room.

#5. Pick out the clothes you want to wear for the next day.

This mini moment might not apply to everyone, since some who are still at home or working from home prefer to stay in their pajamas from the night before. But I’ve found myself appreciating the ability to “dress up” despite having nowhere to go. It makes me feel more productive and put together, so if you’re like me, then before going to bed, scan your closet and settle on an outfit idea for the next day.

#6. Bask in your nightly skincare routine.

Whether your skincare routine is two steps or ten, spend those minutes applying your moisturizer mindfully and intentionally. Smooth your serum over your cheeks with gentle fingers. Dot your moisturizer over different portions of your face and neck before deliberately patting it in. Give yourself a quick facial massage and appreciate every part of your face, the one that has weathered all those sunny days when you forgot to put on sunscreen.

#7. Mindfully meditate for 1-5 minutes a day.

Meditation is a subject that has received mixed opinions across many of the conversations I’ve shared. There is a slight perception that meditation is based on supernatural woo-woo and not backed by scientific evidence. However, in the past decade, more and more studies have shown both mental and physical benefits that can arise if we incorporate meditation into our daily practice. 1-5 minutes of meditation may seem like a bold endeavor to those who are completely foreign to it, but the one thing you can start focusing on circles back to Mini Moment #1: your breath. A million thoughts will inevitably pop into your head, but that’s okay. Notice them, then let them pass.

#8. Get up to stand every hour you are awake.

We can be such sedentary beings, with papers to write, meetings to attend, or tasks to complete. So write down a post-it reminder to stand up and stretch your legs every ten minutes into the hour. Or set a little timer on your watch or phone. Write it down on the index finger of your left hand—anything to remind yourself to get up! Your glutes (and the rest of your body, really) will thank you.

#9. Do some sort of physical activity at least 10 minutes a day.

Standing up every hour is an admirable accomplishment, but we also might not be leaving our house to walk, skip, or jog to another location anymore. What can we do about this? We can follow an at-home workout playlist and commit to a one-week challenge. We can get our roommates, partners, or parents involved and exercise together to create accountability. We can avoid any shortcuts that will limit our movement—whether it’s letting go of the need to carry all the groceries from the car to the doorway in one go, or taking the elevator instead of the stairs. Whatever the case, build a few more minutes of movement into your day and gradually work up to more.

#10. Delete social media for a day.

We live in an age that is dominated by social media of all forms. We conclude there’s not enough time in the day, but inevitably allow ourselves to lose a significant portion of it glued to our screens. This year, I told myself I’d delete some of my social media for a day, just to see whether it would improve my mental health like so many articles seem to say. It did, and I stayed off of it for months before I allowed myself to ease back in. There’s no need to delete any of your social media if you feel comfortable with your current relationship with and consumption of it. But if you think a social media cleanse could do you some good, start off with deleting one for a day. Then, see if you can let that turn into 2 days, 3 days, 4 more.

#11. Take two minutes to journal.

When we look back at our year, we rarely remember the twenty best and worst moments of it. Our memory storage is limited and we are continually subject to recall bias. So I encourage you to take a few moments just to write about the events of the day—what happened and how did you feel? How are your relationships doing lately? How are you doing emotionally? Create a list of questions to answer each day, or engage in a stream-of-consciousness monologue. Let your pen or pencil flow, or your fingers tap away.

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It takes as little as 18 days to make something a habit. That’s less than a month before you finally start to notice a change. These 11 mini moments are meant to be carried out and incorporated easily into your current routine. Adopt and mold them to your own liking as you explore more ways to optimize your day-to-day.

Good luck on this continuous journey! It is one that can be informed by others, but created and shaped into actionable change only by you.