If you’re looking for a good habits to list to make sure you add some great things to your daily routine or attitude, look no further than this list of good habits meant to inspire you to be the best person you can be.
You can also check out our list of bad habits if you’re wanting to make sure you’re taking all of those off of your list or changing your ways, but for now, let’s get into some of the best habits that you can develop whether you’re trying to work towards success or just want to feel better about yourself.
They range from the small practical things to the larger attitude shifts you can make throughout the day, but challenge yourself to implement as many as possible.
I love this printable and downloadable habit tracker to help you on this new journey!
1. Make Your Bed Every Day
This is such an easy one that anyone can do it, and everyone should.
As soon as you get up for the day, make your bed.
It doesn’t have to be fancy with 26 throw pillows, but make it look neat and clean.
Genuinely, an unmade bed can make you feel worse all day and less productive without you even realizing it.
It takes all of 1 minute, is a great habit to get into to keep your bedroom looking clean and your spirits up.
This is a great one for people who are struggling with depression or other illnesses as well.
This can be your only goal for the day – just make your bed.
It will make a big difference if you keep doing it.
2. Get Up and Do Something Productive Right Away
I’m not saying to go and conquer your hardest task for the day in the 30 seconds after you get up, but I always like to do something productive as soon as I get up to start my day off right.
This can be as simple as making your bed, as mentioned previously, or it could be something productive at home like making your lunch for the day or sending an e-mail that was on your mind all night.
On days that you’re taking off, of course, you can be more lax than this, but if you want to set up the day for getting stuff done, start it as soon as you put your feet on the floor (or before! I write these articles in bed before I get up!).
3. Let Other People Speak
One thing that we all need to get better at and one of the most important good habits on this list is to let other people speak.
Don’t just talk about yourself or think about yourself all day.
Really, truly, make it a habit to listen to other people and what they’re saying and how they’re feeling.
This will make you a more empathetic person and keep you in tune with those around you, making you a better person, friend, and leader.
4. Drink a Lot of Water
If there’s only one thing you remember from this good habits list, remember to drink a lot of water throughout the day.
We are so used to drinking everything but water, but your body uses water for its essential functions and keeping hydrated means better overall health and better wellness.
Try starting your day by drinking a full glass of water in a reusable water bottle like this one before you get up and see how you feel.
Staying hydrated also helps your skin, it can help your mood, and also help you get through your workouts.
5. Get Your Body Moving
Every single day, you should get your body moving somehow.
It doesn’t have to be dedicated time in the gym if that’s not your thing, but going for a run outdoors, playing a sport with friends, walking to work or even just doing a few laps up and down the stairs in your apartment building is great for getting your heart rate up and strengthening your heart and lungs.
This is something that it’s particularly important to do as a habit, as the more you do it, the more benefit you’ll get.
6. Plan Your Day
Planning your day and making intentioned choices is almost always the right choice for being able to get things done and manage your life.
If you plan your day each day, at the start of the day, you’ll find that you’ll have better time management skills, you accomplish more, and you feel good once you’ve accomplished those things.
It can be as specific as what you do each hour, or it can be a list of things in the order you do them, but however you plan it, jot some sort of plan down to get done so you have something to work towards as you go about your day.
These are the best daily planning sheets I’ve EVER found.
7. Spend Time Doing Things Away from Screens
Screens are great.
We watch them for entertainment, we use them for work, it’s the whole reason you’re able to read this right now.
But an overuse of screens can be bad for your physical and mental health, so make it a habit each day to quit social media and get away from screens and do something else.
Relax by reading a book, sit at your kitchen table with the newspaper, do a puzzle, do some yoga, or just spend some time wandering around your house on the phone to a friend while you aren’t staring at a screen.
8. Tidy Up After Yourself
Many people find it hard to keep up with the cleaning in their house and sometimes it gets to be such a big mess that you have to spend the better part of a day picking it back up.
Instead of this, make it a daily habit to tidy up after yourself as you go about your day.
This means no dishes go unwashed right after you use them, no surface goes unwiped, organize your backpack, and you can’t walk past the folded laundry 36 times before you put it away.
It feels like an annoyance at the time, but when it only takes you 30 seconds to get your environment back into shape rather than 30 hours, you’ll thank yourself for it.
9. Reach Out to Someone You Care About
Sometimes, we get so wrapped up in ourselves that we forget to make time to reach out to people around us.
One of the best habits on this good habits list is to make time every day to reach out to a friend or family member to talk and let them know you care.
It can be a text message, a phone call, an in-person meet up or however else you communicate, but staying in constant contact with the people we care about will both help us feel happy and remind other people that we’re there for them.
10. Complete the Hardest Thing First
This is a general habit that you should use when you go to achieve something – complete the hardest thing first.
Let’s say you’re sitting down to get things done for your small business and you have the accounts to do, which you hate and take the most mental energy.
If you leave them until last like most of us are prone to do, you risk making mistakes and you won’t be able to give your full attention to your other tasks because the weight of that harder task will still be on your shoulders.
Do the hardest thing first when your mental energy is at its highest, and then tackle other things that you’re more excited about or are easier to do.
The best book about this habit is called “Eat the Frog” and anyone who struggles with procrastination should read it.
11. Eat a Healthy Meal
This isn’t a weight loss blog so I’m not going to preach at you about eating healthy all the time, but a great habit to get into is to eat at least one healthy meal per day.
This is a great way of easing yourself into a more healthy lifestyle.
Sure, you had pizza for lunch, but you’re having a healthy salad for dinner and thus balancing out the poorer food choices.
Eventually, you’ll find healthy meals that you love to eat and start to incorporate more of them into your routine.
12. Get Up Without Pressing Snooze
It’s not natural for all of us to jump right out of bed when our alarm goes off, but it should be.
Pressing the snooze button or falling asleep for a few more minutes really doesn’t give us the benefits in terms of sleep time, and all it does is delay us starting our day and possibly making us groggy.
Try to get up right as your alarm goes off, even if it takes all of the willpower in you to will yourself out of bed and into the shower or to the table for breakfast.
It starts your day off with a good habit and makes you feel less lazy and able to tackle your day.
If you need help with this, use an ambient alarm clock like this one which uses light rather than sound.
13. Meditate
We all lead such busy lives, and meditation is one of the ways that experts recommend we slow down a little.
It can feel weird at first, but know that meditation doesn’t mean you need to sit on the floor cross legged singing kumbaya.
You can download an app to listen to on your daily commute, spend the first few minutes of the day doing it, or doing it in another quiet part of your day.
Just take 10 minutes to pause, breathe, and reset for the rest of your day.
14. Journal
Journaling is a great habit to get into, not just for the benefits of being able to reflect and meditate with words on the page, but also because keeping track of what is going on in your life is great to look back on years later.
I love this printable on journaling here to help guide you.
15. Make a Shopping List
When you’re going shopping for groceries or other practicalities and aren’t going on a fun shopping excursion, always head out with a shopping list.
If you make a list ahead of time to keep yourself focused, you’ll navigate the store easier, find yourself with fewer extras in your cart, and cut down the time it takes to get through the store.
We find ordering groceries online a lot easier than going in person because we can avoid the temptations and make sure that we only have food that we want coming into the house, not what we saw on the shelf as we were starving.
16. Challenge Your Mind
A fantastic good habit to get into daily is to challenge your mind in some ways.
You may already be doing this in how you work or what you do during the day like studying, but if you don’t, do some brain teasers or puzzles daily to keep your mind strong and don’t let it go to mush just watching reality television all day.
17. Get Outside
Getting fresh air is super important to help us feel good and get the Vitamin D our bodies need.
Especially if you work from home, getting outside each day might not come naturally, but you need to force yourself to get outside to go for a walk or just sit in your backyard.
If the weather is bad outside, at least open a window for a little bit and try and breathe in the fresh air on days where you can’t get out.
We weren’t meant to sit inside all day in our houses, we were meant to be out and about in nature!
