Tiny habits may seem small and insignificant at first glance, but they can also create amazing results and help you to achieve huge goals in both your business and your life.
Trying to make big changes or multiple changes all at once, can quickly lead to overwhelm, burn out and/or failure.
Instead, when we take small steps, consistency becomes easier, changes become sustainable and our big goals are suddenly more achievable.
New Years Resolutions are a prime example of this. How often do we set them with the best intentions, only to find that by the time February arrives, our determination has gone and they are fast-becoming a distant memory?
Tiny habits can make a massive difference in reaching your goals
The beauty of the tiny habit method is that each step you take, creates and builds momentum that will carry you forward, boost your motivation and ensure you are making progress.
Before you know you it, you can be well on your way to achieving, what previously seemed like a huge (or sometimes unachievable) goal.
If you ever find yourself thinking that you don’t have enough hours in a day to get everything done, then this could be exactly what you need!
Try this simple approach and create tiny habits that will help you to create amazing results.
What is a Tiny Habit?
Tiny habits are the small actions we take every day, sometimes automatically, without even thinking about it. For example brushing your teeth. They are usually so quick and/or simple that we either don’t notice the time they take, or can easily find the time to fit them into our day.
All habits, both the good and bad, have compounding effects. So, the more often you do them over a period of time, the better your results will be.
For example, If you were to save £1 a day, it’s a tiny amount that you are unlikely to miss, but over the period of a month you would have saved £30.
Likewise, if you were to buy a morning coffee every day that costs £3. Again, it’s a small amount that you may hardly notice spending on a daily basis, but over the month it adds up to a grand total of £90. That’s much more noticeable!
How Do Tiny Habits Work?
Tiny habits work because they are based on building the process of the change itself.
To make big changes following the traditional method, we have to rely on our motivation. However, motivation isn’t consistent, it has peaks and troughs and can be effected by other factors.
Using tiny habits often works better for us because the focus is on making really small and gradual changes.
Tiny habits build the processes that are required to achieve your goals.
Making Time For Tiny Habits
As business owners, we usually have a lot on our plate and finding the time to add yet another task into the day, can sometimes feel impossible.
However, finding a spare 5 minutes to fit a tiny habit into the day, can prove much more do-able. Although, 5 minutes on its own isn’t a lot of time, like the saving habit above, it soon adds up when completed every day.
As a result, those daily 5 minutes will add up to 35 minutes in just one week. Over the course of a month, the same 5 minutes, once a day, would total 2 and 1/2 hours or 150 minutes.
Imagine how much you could achieve in that time?
Tony habits, when completed regularly, lead to big achievements
You can improve any area of you life, both personal and business, by creating tiny habits and building on them. Here’s some examples:
Tiny Habits To Improve Health & Fitness
A healthy body means a healthy mind and when you’re running a business, it’s extremely important to look after yourself both physically and mentally.
Create a tiny habit to drink more water by keeping a bottle of water on your desk, or drinking a glass of water with every meal.
Improve your fitness with a tiny habit to do 5 push-ups or 5 sit-ups a day and build upon that basis to a full body work out, if that’s your big goal.
Tiny Habits for Well-Being
Another really important and often over-looked area is personal well-being. Our mindset can alter our perception of a situation and developing a success mindset can help us to find solutions when unexpected problems arise.
One tiny habit is to practise gratitude by thinking of 1 thing that you are grateful for each day. Gratitude helps us to focus on the good things we have in our life and can instantly increase your positivity and lift your mood.
If you are working on making a mindset change, another tiny habit, is to repeat a positive affirmation every day. Over time, just 1 simple phrase can create a massive mindset shift.
Tiny Habits To Increase Productivity
With so many things that need our attention, productivity is on the mind of every business owner.
Perhaps, you could start every day by spending 2 minutes planning your Most Important Tasks for the day ahead. You can also increase the impact of this tiny habit by doing it the night before.
Another tiny habit that can be really impactful is turning off your phone, or at least putting it on silent mode, when you sit down to work. Check your phone on your breaks instead of switching your focus every time it bleeps, rings or pings.
Tiny Habits to Beat Procrastination
Studies show that we usually we procrastinate over the tasks we don’t like to do, or don’t feel confident in our ability to do. This makes it a great place to get started with tiny habits.
If you’ve got a big goal that feels overwhelming and you don’t know where to start, creating a tiny habit of spending just 5 – 10 minutes every day, working on this goal can be surprisingly effective!
This includes goals such as
- starting a business
- building a website
- creating a marketing strategy
Often getting started is the hardest step to take. Committing to only 2, 5 or even 10 minutes on these tiny habits we can often find ourself in the flow and making massive progress.
Other Tiny Habits for Business Success
Take a moment and think about what you could accomplish in a week, a month, or even a year if you created tiny habits today and kept building them up over time.
To write a book – commit to writing 2 pages every day, no editing, no pressure, simply get started with those few pages and soon you’ll be wondering why you put it off for so long.
To master a new skill – devote 5 minutes every day practising your technique. The more you practise, the more improvements you will see.
To connect with more people in your industry – dedicate a few minutes every day to engaging with people in a relevant Facebook group, or an industry forum, etc.
To improve your business marketing – spend a couple of minutes every day improving your understanding of your customers, their struggles, wants and needs. You can then use what you learn to refine your marketing message.
The smaller the habit (or change), the easier it is to sustain over a longer period of time
In this post, I’ve shared a few ideas of how you can use tiny habits to achieve your big goals.
Now it’s down to you. Consider what aspect of your life/business you need to focus on and what you want to improve. Your only limitations are your creativity.
Do You Need More Tiny Habits In Your Life?
Figure out what current tiny habits you have and how they can help you to reach your goals with this FREE self-assessment.
