5 Life-Changing Habits That Improved My Mental Health and Productivity

Looking for simple but powerful habits to improve your daily life, mental clarity, and happiness? These 5 habits changed everything for me — and they might do the same for you.

Habits that changed my life

Habits are life-changing. They are those little behaviors that don’t take much time and sometimes even seem to be irrelevant. But when you practice them every day, they make a change. Sometimes a huge change.

I’m someone who hates repeating tasks every day. I enjoy much more spending whole day on one activity, to spend another one on something else. Seemingly I have known for a long time that baby steps are the power but somehow implementing them in my life was challenging. Sure, it’s still not perfect, but now at least I try!

When deciding to change something in my life, I chose a few habits that I wanted to implement. I wrote them down and set a time of day for each of them. Then I set an alarm to remind me to do them and a tracker to track progress. I used the Loop Habit Builder app to help me with this. It’s simple and super easy to use.

It may sound like an exaggeration, but really these particular habits have changed the way I think, feel and go through my day. Take a peek and you may be inspired!

Reading before bedtime

To begin with something that I used to do as a kid but stopped doing as an adult. Reading a book in bed, just before falling asleep, is nowadays one of my favourite elements of the day. It helps me close topics from the day and start a new chapter. Sometimes literally. Books draw me into another world, making it easier to fall asleep and sleep more peacefully.

But they must not be any books. The first rule is the format. The book must be in paper or on a reader that imitates paper, like Kindle. Reading from the screen is not an option here. Secondly, to make the effect stronger I choose appropriate themes. In the evenings, I only read fiction books. Preferably, not crime stories or thrillers, but more like novels. Great even if the book is a bit dull as it makes me sleepy faster.

There are days when I am too tired to read anything. But if I'm able to, I dedicate even 5 minutes to this activity. If I have more energy or the book is interesting, I read until I fall asleep and I get a lot of pleasure out of it.

I found out that this habit helps me feel calmer in the evening and sleep better. I fall asleep in a minute and my dreams are more pleasant. Spending even a few minutes a day reading, every now and then I tick off another book which doesn’t give me anything but pleasure. If it wasn't for this evening habit, I would probably hardly ever read fiction books. And so, I'm doing something I love and I have time for it almost every day no matter how busy I am.

Meditation and mindful breathing

How boring it sounded to me a few years ago! Back then, meditation was just about sitting and trying to stop thinking. But one day it changed. I felt ready and decided to give it another try. I was spending those winter days in a warm and sunny place, surrounded by nature. I started to work out and needed something good for my mind too.

I found some guided meditation practices on Spotify and played them on my headphones. Looking out at the ocean, I listened to the sounds and breathed deeply. I had no expectations. And I loved it! Since then meditation or mindful breathing is a part of most of my days. They give me good vibes for a day, help me relax and work on difficult thoughts. I feel really bad when I can't find the time for that. Every time I rejoin meditation after a break, I'm always amazed at how wonderful this is.

To be clear, I am not treating this in any particularly spiritual way. I don't spend hours on it. A few minutes a day is enough to change the way I feel and think. And I see this change as very beneficial for me.

If you want to try easy and short meditations, I can recommend two that I really like and use often: Meditation Mountain and Purely Being Guided Meditation.

Regular physical activity: exercising or at least walking

No one probably needs to be told how important physical activity is. Like many of you I’ve been strugling with implementing exercise into my schedule. In this area, I still have constant ups and downs but I have developed some helpful methods.

I try to treat physical activity as an essential part of every day; there is no room for debate. It is in my habit tracker and alarm reminds me about moving my ass. At least for 15 minutes. Surely it would be better to move more, but 15 is better than none.

For those 15 minutes I can do whatever activity I want. Usually I choose fitness exercises. Sometimes skateboarding. My total minimum is a walk. I normally treat walking as an independent activity, but if I really don't want to do anything else then I accept walking as sufficient physical activity.

I believe this will pay off. Besides, I really like to move. It is a pity that there is so little of it in a sedentary lifestyle. Fortunately, travelling usually involves an above-average amount of activity. So even if it demolishes my other habits, this one it strongly supports.

Positive thinking and appreciation

I used to focus on negative things in my life. Maybe it was because of my polish background. Poles have a tendency to complain and find all not working aspects of anything. I also didn’t enjoy many element of my life and didn’t know how to change them. On top of that I used to be a very stressed person - surely it didn’t help.

One day, after making a big step in my life that made me feel relieved, I decided to change my mindset. I wanted to be happy with my life. I started to look at all I had and couldn’t believe that it was all my life. The life I could only dream of a few years back. Now it was my reality. Sure, not everything was perfect. But lots of things were more than perfect!

I made a conscious decision to focus on what I like about my life, what I appreciate and what makes me happy. To make it more real, I started journaling. Almost every evening I write down a few things that I appreciated that day. That can be something huge like a big step in career or something tiny like possibility to drink morning coffee in a sunny garden.

It turned out that every day brings me some reasons to be cheerful. And those things are the ones I want to think of at the end of a day. Naturally, there are days when I'm upset. I don’t deny it then but let myself feel those emotions. I know they mean something and will pass soon. I just can’t give them too much space in my mind, there always needs to be a place for good things that happen.

Morning coffee routine

This one is my oldest habit. How does it work? After waking up, before beginning my day, I make in my coffeepot a fresh, scented coffee. I sit on a bed or couch with a warm mug in my hands and sniff the aroma. I drink my coffee in peace and quiet. Or use this time to talk with my significant other. Every minute I feel more awake and ready to live.

Only after this routine is over I can let the outside world in. Now there is space for sounds, important matters, job, social media. I am ready to deal with all of that. Before my morning coffee you'd better not try to talk to me!

This routine is a kind of transition between night and day, or between sleep and daily life. It makes me want to get up and start the day because once the alarm goes off, I can't wait to have my morning coffee. I promise, every day is better if you start it this way.

These habits didn’t just make my days better — they helped me become a calmer, more grounded, and more productive version of myself.

Which habit would you like to try first? Share your thoughts in the comments or let me know your go-to routines!