My Non-Negotiable Daily Tasks
March 26, 2021This post contains affiliate links.
I recently read this book here about elastic habits (habits that ebb & flow according to your mood/free time/motivation) and I don’t mean to be dramatic but it kinda changed my life! There’s something about creating a set of daily habits that are flexible & fluid that’s pretty amazing. Well I guess I always did something like this on a subconscious level, but once I brought it a conscious level, everything changed.
Today I’m going to share with you all some of my tasks that I try to accomplish every single day without fail. I will go into how I have made them elastic – and how that helps me give myself grace on off-days.
Yoga
As I mentioned previously in this post, yoga is fairly new to me but I absolutely love the effects of stretching and intentional breathing and mindfulness. I feel more flexible than ever and surprisingly, I also feel stronger.
Here’s how the elastic habit of yoga fits into my day. When I have plenty of time and a ton of motivation, I’ll do about 25 minutes of yoga per day, but honestly I don’t often do that much. When I have almost no time and don’t feel like doing any of it, I’ll do about 5 minutes of yoga per day – that’s my non-negotiable version of this task. Most days, I do about 10 minutes of yoga. By creating the full and mini version of this task explicitly, this habit becomes flexible & elastic and allows me to feel successful whether I do the full 25 or a mere 5 minutes.
Meditation
Again, this is new to me. I’m not an expert at this yet by any means. In fact, I have a long way to go to get more in tune with my mindful self. However, I’ve enjoyed the results so far and plan on continuing. How do I fit meditation into my day? It’s a similar deal as the yoga task. I do between 5 minutes and 15 minutes per day, depending on circumstances.
Workout
Regular exercise is something I’ve been very committed to over the past few days. I find that it’s a great way to burn off adrenaline / stress that may accumulate during the day.
How do I make it elastic habit? Well, my general target is 30 minutes per day and that includes both cardio and any bodyweight exercises. However, some days I’m just not there whether my schedule is too full or I just don’t feel up to it physically. So on those days, my non-negotiable version of this task is just 1 minute on the treadmill. And as long as I accomplish that, I can feel that it was a successful day. There’s no feeling of disappointment or failure as long as I get that done- and there’s always time for 1 minute. AND GUESS WHAT? I’ve never done the bare minimum for more than one day in a row so the system works. It keeps me going forward without feeling frustrated or losing motivation in the big picture of my exercise routine.
Reading
I’ve been reading every single day. Whether I read for an hour or just 5 minutes depends on my free time that day. However, it’s something that fills my soul so I usually look forward to sitting down with a book at some point each day.
Creativity
I actually started a bullet journal recently (maybe I’ll talk about my journey with bullet journaling in an upcoming post) and while I don’t put a lot of time into it, it’s totally fun to doodle on the pages, plan out my days, and keep track of various habits. So I try to devote a little time to my bullet journal each day – we’re talking between 5 minutes to 45 minutes. It’s usually around 15 minutes. It allows me to take out my prettiest pens & markers and just express myself creatively on a page.
I hope this post inspires you to think about your daily habits and how you can create non-negotiable habits that are flexible & stress-free.
