8 Habits That Improved My Lifestyle – personal development, productivity, habits, & more

A few of my favorite life-changing things!

If you have been reading my blog for a while, or even if you’ve just read my start here page, you would know that the main topics I write about are:

• Personal Development
• Productivity
• Self-Care
• Habits
• Routines
• Self-Love
• Self-Dates/Solo Dates
• Main Character Life

For this blog post, I decided to share my favorite habits from each topic. The reason why they would be my favorite habit is that they were lifechanging and improved my life significantly. These are what had helped me in my life, and that’s why I want to share it.

1: Favorite Personal Development Habit – Consuming Self-Growth Content

I have been consuming self-growth content intentionally for the past five years. I consume self-growth content through books, podcasts, YouTube videos, blog posts, and even in-person conferences & workshops.

Consuming self-growth content through reading and podcasts has changed my life because it has helped with my mindset and lifestyle, and led me to other helpful areas such as productivity, self-care, and habits. I learned so much about productivity, habits, self-care, routines, and everything else in between because of the self-growth content I have consumed.

A very powerful mindset I learned early on is that your diet is not just the food you eat, it’s also everything you feed your mind. Now, I can’t imagine a day passing by without consuming at least one piece of self-growth content.

---

RELATED: Top 15 Favorite Personal Development Books

---

2: Favorite Productivity Habit – Planning My Schedule

I have been planning my schedule on Google Calendar for five years, and organizing my life on Notion for four. I cannot imagine going through my week without having a schedule planned out, and an overview of what my week will look like.

Planning my schedule changed my life because it helped me manage my time better and most importantly make sure that I was using my time wisely. It was a lifesaver when I was balancing studies, work, and content creation, and it’s still a lifesaver now. I cannot imagine not planning my schedule.

To be honest, planning my schedule is the only way I can get tasks completed and ensure that all my priorities are met.

3 – Favorite Habits Habit – Tracking My Habits

For me, tracking my habits involves using my Notion template to tick off when I’ve done my daily, weekly, and monthly habits.

I’ll be honest, I wasn’t a fan of habit tracking in the beginning. I wrote a whole blog post on why I didn’t like Habit Tracking LOL. However, I ended up finding habit tracking useful in determining how to integrate new habits into my lifestyle. Habit tracking also helps me identify patterns on why I’m doing/not doing a habit, and strategize how to improve from there.

Now, every month I refresh my list of daily, weekly, and monthly habits that I track and see my progress at the end of the month.

---

RELATED: Essential list of Non-Negotiable Habits to Implement

---

4 – Favorite Self-Care Habit – Self-Care Menu

Self-care menus are like restaurant menus, except they are filled with self-care activities.

Creating a self-care menu has been a fun way to make self-care more fun and enjoyable, and fill my life with a variety of activities, instead of just the typical Netflix and takeout.

I say it’s a life-changing habit because it motivates me to prioritize self-care more. After all, I get excited about what activity I get to do next.

5 – Favorite Routine Habit – Routine Checklists

I create checklists on Notion for my morning routine and night routine. The checklist includes habits that help me in my morning and evenings and are non-negotiable.

Checklists are so helpful because, for me, I get a huge dopamine hit whenever I check something off my to-do list. When I do this in the morning, I get my first dose of “dopamine hits” whenever I start completing various habits. It’s the same in the evenings.

Plus, it helps me stay on track with each of my routines and ensures that I complete the non-negotiable habits.

---

RELATED: Easy Ways to Improve Your Current Routines

---

6 – Favorite Self-Love Habit – Me-List

A me-list is where you list down everything about yourself such as:

• Your Life story
• What you do (like study/work)
• Hobbies & What You Do for Fun
• Fun Facts
• Anything else you find unique about yourself

Then, what you do is whenever you have a moment of comparison or you feel down about yourself, you look at your me-list to remind yourself of how unique and cool you are.

I use a me-list for whenever I catch myself comparing myself to someone else or someone makes me question my worth in some way. I get reminded of all my unique life experiences, travels, and also the fact that I am a lawyer! Hehe. But it helps me remember who I am and why I’m special, even if other people don’t see it.

So, me-lists are life-changing for my self-love because it reminds me about how cool I am.

7 – Favorite self-date Habit – Solo Date Jars

Solo date jars are where you put in a bunch of solo date activities, and you pick your solo date based on the one you randomly pick out.

I started doing solo date jars almost two years ago and I still haven’t gotten through all the activities. But I found that it is such a great way for me to look forward to my solo dates, have more variety, and even enjoy my own company.

I’ve been doing solo dates for the past 4 years, and I do them so easily now. But it’s still great to mix things up and choose a solo date activity from the jar.

---

RELATED: 100+ Solo Date Ideas

---

8 – Favorite Main Character Life Habit – Romanticizing Life

Romanticizing life involves being more mindful of your everyday activities, which include the usual, basic, and not-so-basic. You pretty much imagine that you’re in your TV show or movie.

Romanticizing my life, changed my life. I turn every mundane or basic task into something exciting, simply because I imagine myself in my TV show or movie, or I vlog. I have learned that you can turn anything that seems boring, into something exciting just by changing how you view it.

I romanticize everything from my morning routines to my 9 to 5 work days, and even when I read a book. Sometimes, it helps to have something extra like a coffee to add to the “romanticizing”.

Whoever came up with this concept is a genius.

Take a SMALL STEP

Here are some small steps that can you start on each of these habits if you want to start them:

1. Consume self-growth content – Pick up a new book, listen to a podcast, or even watch a YouTube video on a self-growth topic of your choice.
2. Planning your schedule – If you don’t already do so, plan your day for tomorrow so you can just get started on your day.
3. Tracking Your Habits – Start by listing 1-2 habits you would like to integrate into your life.
4. Self-Care Menu – Start creating a self-care menu of even just 5 activities. You can always add to it as you go.
5. Routine Checklists – Create a checklist for your morning or night routine. Keep in mind that you don’t have to have too many items.
6. Me List – Create your me-list, whether on your phone or a journal, so you have something to look at whenever you have those moments where you need a confidence booster.
7. Solo Date Jar – Create a list (or even a jar) of solo date activities you would like to try out.
8. Romanticize life – This is something you can immediately start today! A good starting point is to pretend you’re the star of your own movie or TV show.

To Wrap Up

Hopefully, you got some ideas or inspiration for what habits you can integrate into your lifestyle. Whether you choose personal development, productivity, self-care, habits, routines, self-love, or solo date habits, they would improve your life in some way.

I’ve got plenty of practical resources to help you with your self-growth in the Free Resources Library. You can check them out if you want to take this self-growth journey forward.

In the meantime, here’s to growth x

-Lauren 🙂

P.S I suggest you read these blog posts next:

• The Top Habits to Master All Your Life Domains
• Beginner Guide: Hacking Your Happy Hormones (key to being happy)
• Become the Ultimate Main Character of Your Life in 28 Days

Share This Blog Post Here:

---

---

CONNECT with ME!! 🗯

Instagram:

@laurenlbarri (blog Instagram)

---