Best 5 Daily Productive Habits To Help Balance It All

Life is beautifully chaotic with each day presenting new challenges that test our limits and humble us at the end of the day. But I’ve found a couple of daily productive habits for my own life that help navigate that chaos just a bit better.

Wake Up Early

I know, I know. You’re probably tempted to click away right now. You’ve heard it so many times before. “The 5AM Club!” they say. “It’ll change your life!” they say. But, if there is just one thing on this list you try to implement in your own life, it’s this. I used to wake up when my first born woke up, so my morning alarm was her crying. You can just imagine how this used to set my day.

I’m a big reader and balancing my full-time job and motherhood slowed down my reading. By the end of each day, I would fall asleep as soon as my eyes hit the page. Sound familiar? No matter what I did, I couldn’t read more than two pages at night and my reading rapidly diminished. I used to finish between 50 and 80 books a year. But I’d be lucky if I managed to finish 5 at this rate. So I knew something had to change to make time for reading in my life again. That’s when I started waking up earlier. I fell asleep early, but that allowed me to also set my alarm and wake up with a fresh morning cup of coffee and my book.

It immediately changed my life. From going to starting my day with chaos and cries, I now started it with a cozy coffee and a book to escape into. It was time just for me. And now I can never go back to not waking up before my kids do.

So if you’re not used to waking up early, start with waking up to do something you’re passionate about. For me, it was reading. For you, it might be journaling, morning walks, working out, baking, whatever it is, this time is for you! And I won’t tell you what time you have to wake up. Start with just 20 mins before your kids wake up. Then move it back to 30, then 40. Gradually work your way to whatever time allows you to fill your cup before the day even starts.

Get Sunshine

I’ve been listening to a lot of health and wellness podcasts and reading a lot of these books and every single one of them agree on the importance of sunshine and what it does for your body and mood. It can be as little as 20 minutes a day, but go outside during lunch, take that morning walk, do whatever you have to do to try and get just 20 minutes of sunshine a day and it will work wonders for your physical and mental wellbeing.

Gratitude Journal

Write down 3 things you’re grateful for at the end of every day. I heard this piece of advice about a year ago and started implementing it around 6 months ago and I can’t emphasize enough what this has done for my happiness every day. These 3 things can be something as simple as the taste of your morning coffee or something as large as the health of your family, but by having to write down 3 things each day, you will start to seek those out and find yourself becoming grateful for more and more. What previously may have just been a moment of keeping your kids entertained with legos becomes a moment that you’ll end up thankful for and that brings a smile to your face as you cherish the toys you were able to provide for your child and the smiles and imagination it brings.

“Close” the Kitchen

I started doing this years ago and it’s now one of my favorite habits of the day. Every night after my kids go down, I’ll spend time “closing up” the kitchen (think wiping down counters, setting coffee for next morning, washing any leftover dishes, starting the dishwasher, feed the sourdough starter). Sometimes while I do this I listen to a favorite podcast or use the time to have a catch-up with my husband and hear about his day, or even sometimes I’ll just enjoy the quiet.

By doing this, I get to wake up every morning to a clean and tidy kitchen. So instead of stressing immediately upon waking because I have to clean up a mess, I get to fully focus on what I enjoy instead without distraction. Nothing feels better than getting greeted each morning by a clean counter and fresh pot of coffee already made.

Leave the Phone Outside the Bedroom

This one I’ve started doing more recently. I’ve heard all the advice, all the studies, all the warnings about using your phone too close to bedtime or too soon after waking up.

So I knew a while ago I had to cut down on screen time an hour before bed and an hour after waking. But I used to try to do this while having the phone still sitting on my nightstand. What I found was while reading in bed, I was constantly getting interrupted by quick thoughts about something I need to quickly look up or a message I needed to check or a post I just quickly wanted to see. Did you see how many times I used the word “quick” there? Well, all those checks ended up being anything but quick. What would start as just a “quick” 10 second check of my phone ended up being 10 minutes, then 20, then 30, and soon I was using my phone until past my bedtime, completely defeating my own resolve to reduce my screentime.

So now, I leave it charging in my kitchen overnight. I thought I’d still feel that temptation to use it regardless of it not being near me, but wow was I wrong. All of those urges to pick it up and quickly check something went away completely. Falling asleep became so much easier and I wake up feeling more at peace.

What are some daily productive habits you’ve implemented in your own life that have helped you bring calm and peace amidst all the chaos?

Let me know if you try any of these daily productive habits and how they work for you!

Happy simplifying!