Great practices define you. What you do consistently determines what’s possible and available. This list of 25 tiny habits (practices) by Kim Quindlen in Thought Catalog is a great accumulation of little things which make a big difference over time. Practice some or all, most are a short time investment, with big returns. All 25 appear in blogs 242, 243, 244. Please share with others if helpful.
12. Listen more than you talk. And then forgive yourself when you fail at this. And then try again.
13. Look at anything other than a screen in the minutes before you fall asleep. A book, the window, your partner, a pet, the ceiling. Anything that is not going to instantaneously bring you back into a world you are trying to take a break from for eight hours.
14. Treat sleep as an absolute necessity and an incredibly important priority, instead of being proud of how little of it you are getting.
15. Pay attention to the factors you need in which to do good work. Do you need music? Do you need silence? Do you need a window? Do you need white noise? Do you need to turn your phone face-down? Do you need scheduled breaks every 45 minutes to read a few pages in a book? Do you need to take a walk first or right in the middle of it all? Pay attention to the moments in which you’ve done your best work, notice the factors that were present in that experience, and then do everything in your power to replicate it every single time.
16. Talk to strangers sometimes. Talk to your Uber driver when they seem to be in a chatty mood. Talk to your server about anything other than today’s happy hour specials. Talk to the person ringing up your dry cleaning and see how their day is going. Sometimes the interaction will be nice but forgettable. But sometimes you will still remember it several years from now. People have the most interesting things to say, when you’re listening.
17. When you come up with a new goal and you feel that familiar thrill every time you think about it, tell someone about it. The effect of how much more real and tangible it becomes when you do this is incredible.