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A new month arrives, and like clockwork, you find yourself filling your planner with ambitious health goals–hitting the gym five times a week, meditating twice a day, or taking a digital detox. Before you know it, these aspirations fade away because they’re simply too difficult to maintain alongside your busy schedule.
The truth is, wellness doesn’t always require dramatic lifestyle overhauls. Sometimes, the most powerful changes come from small, consistent habits that seamlessly integrate into your daily rhythm.
Instead of setting yourself up for disappointment with unsustainable goals, consider starting with a practice you’ll actually keep.
Here are some simple and doable wellness habits that can create meaningful change when maintained over time:
1. Take an outdoor daily break
Spending too much time indoors–whether at home or in an office–takes a surprising toll on your mental well-being. Without regular outdoor exposure, you miss out on natural light, your thoughts can spiral, and your body adapts to minimal movement.
Make it a non-negotiable to step outside daily, even for just 10 minutes. Don’t wait until you “feel like it”. Remind yourself of the proven mood boost that follows even a brief dose of sunshine. Pair this time with something you enjoy listening to or simply use it as a moment to notice the world around you (I personally make grocery shopping an excuse to take a break from work and get outside).
2. Vegetable preparation
Vegetables are good for you. Simply said. They have been consistently linked with longevity and improved health markers.
Instead of vaguely promising to “eat healthier”, try this practical approach: prepare a large container of prepped vegetables at the beginning of each week, and there are so many ways to cook vegetables that you can choose from.
Having ready-to-eat vegetables eliminates decision fatigue and makes health choices effortless when you’re hungry. If traditional salads don’t excite you, experiment with roasting vegetables to bring out their natural sweetness or even blend them into satisfying smoothies with a blender (I use the Nutribullet and love it so far!).
The goal isn’t perfection, it’s progress. Even adding vegetables to one additional meal per day is a meaningful change.
3. Create hydration triggers throughout your day
While “drink more water” might seem like the most basic wellness advice, proper hydration affects everything from cognitive function to skin health to energy levels.
Instead of arbitrarily trying to remember to drink water, connect hydration to existing habits. For example, drink a full glass before each meal, after every bathroom break, or whenever you switch tasks at work.
These environmental triggers help make hydration automatic rather than requiring constant willpower.
Consider investing in a water bottle that brings you joy to use–whether it’s aesthetically pleasing, keeps water perfectly cold, or has measurement markers for tracking. Keep it visible and refill it before bed so it’s ready first thing in the morning.
4. Schedule intentional digital boundaries
Our dependency on screens has intensified dramatically in recent years. Rather than attempting a dramatic digital detox, create small pockets for tech-free time throughout your day.
Try implementing a “sunset rule” for certain apps or devices, perhaps no work email after 7 PM, or social media only after you’ve completed your morning routine. Use your phone’s built-in screen time limits or create automatic boundaries around apps that tend to consume your attention.
During these tech-free windows, rediscover simple hobbies that you can do: flip through a physical magazine, practice a manual skill like sketching or knitting, color in adult coloring books (my personal favorite), or simply allow yourself the rare luxury of unstructured thought.
5. Optimize your sleep environment, not just your sleep hours
Quality sleep isn’t simply about duration–it’s about creating conditions that allow your body to fully rest and regenerate. Instead of focusing solely on hitting a target number of hours, make sure your sleep environment allows you to make the most of the hours you’ve slept.
Here are some tips to have better quality sleep:
- Invest in blackout curtains to eliminate disruptive ambient light
- Remove electronics that emit blue light or subtle notifications
- Consider temperature optimization
If racing thoughts disrupt your sleep, keep a dedicated “worry journal” by your bed to transfer racing thoughts from your mind to paper before closing your eyes.
6. Embrace “tiny creativity” practices
Creative expression is so important for our mental wellbeing, but many of us abandon creative pursuits because we set unrealistic expectations for the outcome.
Instead of pressuring yourself to create masterpieces, embrace “tiny creativity”, small moments of creating throughout the day without judgment or specific goals. I personally am really focusing on creative practices this year, since us women, creativity is part of us, we create life, and exploring this part of me is a huge focus for me this year.
These tiny creativity practices can look like keeping a pocket-sized sketchbook for five-minute doodles, coloring in an adult coloring book, or taking artistic photographs of ordinary objects in your home.
The goal isn’t to produce impressive work but to maintain a channel for self-expression that exists outside of productivity metrics and evaluations.
7. Building “habit stacking” for easier implementation
Habit stacking is such an easy way to add new habits to your routine and turn them into something you automatically do that doesn’t require any decision-making effort. Habit stacking is basically the act of attaching new habits to existing ones.
For example, if you already brush your teeth twice daily (an established habit), use that as an anchor to add a new habit immediately after, like a few stretches or deep breaths. Since the first habit is automatic, the second one piggybacks on that established neural pathway.
8. Create “wellness waypoints” throughout your home
Create less resistance towards the choices you want to make by arranging your environment to easily maintain your wellness habits.
This could be like placing a yoga mat unrolled in a space you frequently use and pass by, keep your bottle of water near you, have your workout clothes in a drawer that is not hard to reach, have the journal open on your desk with a pen in the morning, or position a beautiful fruit bowl at eye level in your refrigerator.
These visual cues serve as “wellness waypoints” that trigger healthy behaviors without requiring a lot of willpower or planning, which makes it harder to keep up.
What easy and sustainable wellness practices have made the biggest difference in your life? I’d love to hear from you!