Congratulations and welcome to a brand new year! If you’re like me, you’re ready to start establishing some healthy daily habits and routines.

There are numerous benefits to having a healthy daily routine because making simple changes are an effective way to improve your overall health and wellness.

How to start simple healthy daily habits

Did you know that your daily routine impacts not just your overall health, but also your level of stress, sleep habits, and even what you eat?

Every action you take from the time you wake up in the morning to what you do right before you go to bed (and everything in between) plays a role in your overall physical, emotional and mental health.

Perhaps you may be tempted to make a lot of changes at once.

Don’t!

It takes time to make long-term changes and integrating new habits. So focus on changing one habit at a time.

Do it daily since it’s the best way to make healthy daily habits last for the long haul.

How do healthy habits improve your life?

Perhaps you’re not fully on board with changing your daily routine. You’re thinking, why bother, this is working for me.

In short, healthy habits improve the quality of your life with small simple changes.

If you want to feel less stressed, have more work-life balance, increased wellness, and a healthier lifestyle, now is the time to change your daily routine.

Though we’re all different, these 10 healthy daily habits are ones that everyone can implement for improved physical, emotional and mental health.

To get started, just pick one. If you’re ambitious, pick all 10.

Just remember, you don’t need to do all of them all the time. Sometimes I skip some of them when life gets in the way, but I return to them as soon as I can.

You can do this too.

1. Drink more water

You’ve probably heard that you should drink more water and swap it out for your caffeinated beverages. Staying hydrated is critical for your overall health and wellness because you’re made up of 70% water.

In fact, low levels of dehydration are linked to fatigue, headaches, and increased cravings. Maybe you’re not aware but try this experiment for a week and you’ll notice a difference.

In the morning right when you wake up, drink a glass of room temperature water. Make it easy on yourself, and leave a glass on your nightstand and immediately drink it when you wake up.

“Without hydration, your body can’t run efficiently. Drinking water helps regulate your body temperature, aids in digestion, and rids the body of toxins. Staying hydrated also helps lower stress, keeps your weight in check, and allows your muscles and organs, including your heart, to work properly.”

Lisa Payne Ways Stay Smart About How You Stay Hydrated

Throughout the day, carry a large water bottle and refill it at least once.

Drinking more water as part of your daily healthy habits will give you more enegy and focus.

2. Make time for movement

Your body was never designed to sit for 8+ hours a day.

In fact, your body was designed to move, stretch, and be physically active. Integrating movement is vital for your health.

What’s amazing is that exercise is like a drug in that the benefits for your brain are equivalent to taking a low dose of antidepressant. Exercise promotes all kinds of positive changes, including reducing inflammation and promoting feelings of calm and well-being.

Whether you love biking, yoga, swimming, dancing, or just walking, integrate some form of movement as part of your healthy daily habits. Do something that you enjoy and make time for it on a daily basis.

3. Get 8 hours of sleep

Getting adequate 8 hours of sleep every night is a no-brainer right?

Wrong.

So often people skimp on sleep because there’s a common misconception that you can learn to get by on less than 6 hours a night.

I’ve read a lot about sleep hygiene and all the research indicates that adults need at least 7-8 hours of sleep each night to be well-rested.

So don’t sacrifice your sleep.

If you are in a chronic state of sleep deprivation, your brain is flooded with stress hormones like cortisol which cause inflammation in your mind and body. Over time, you put yourself at risk of becoming physically ill, depressed, and anxious.

Adequate sleep, on the other hand, helps stabilize your mood, appetite, memory, energy, and boosts your immune system.

So start setting a regular wake-up and bedtime as part of your daily healthy habits and you’ll notice a marked improvement in your energy and well-being.

4. Meditate for 10 minutes a day

Do you find yourself lost in thought, worrying about this, or thinking about that? It’s probably rare that you are actually in the present moment right?

Mindfulness practice encourages non-judgmental awareness, seeing things exactly as they are, with openness and curiosity.

Is this easy to do?

No.

Can you learn how to do it?

Yes!

Practicing mindfulness meditation as part of your daily healthy habits will dramatically improve your quality of life. You will notice how remarkably better you feel once you begin a daily practice. Find out how to get started on the best meditation tips for beginners.

5. Write three things you’re grateful for

Want to feel happy no matter what is happening? It’s easy, start practicing gratitude.

Did you know that there are numerous benefits of having a regular gratitude practice?

Research shows that gratitude creates chemical changes in your brain, which causes a positivity chain reaction by increasing dopamine, the feel-good chemical in your brain. Dopamine increases your level of happiness and even makes you smarter!

Want to start a gratitude practice as part of your daily healthy habits and routine? Learn more on how to start a gratitude practice and change your life.

6. Manage your money

Are you fed up with being stressed out about money?

You’re not alone.

If you want to stop living in chronic financial stress, learn to manage your money. The best way to do this is to read Total Money Makeover, outline a budget, and focus on getting control over your finances.

After you make a budget, download the Every Dollar app.

First, you enter your regular income and create categories for expenses. Next, spend a few minutes as part of your daily healthy habits itemizing your expenses.

Soon enough, you’ll know where you spend your money and set goals for saving money.

My husband and I have been using the app for 2 years and have saved thousands of dollars.

Yes, you read that correctly. We have saved thousands of dollars by budgeting and using Every Dollar.

7. Turn off notifications

Do you want to be more productive, and focused? I know I do.

The best way to accomplish this is to turn off notifications.

To begin, just turn off your notifications on your phone/computer for an hour a day. This isn’t as hard as you think it is. The only reason you’re not doing it is that “being reachable” has become a habit. That’s one you need to change.

It takes about 25 minutes to regain your focus, even if you only look at a notification for a second. Erase those for an hour and you’ll be able to accomplish a lot more. It’s made such a significant difference for me when I’m writing and I now do it for hours at a time.

8. Watch the news less

Even though you may be eager to keep up to date with all the news and information, it is better to reduce your intake of news and social media.

Why?

You’ll feel less stressed and find more time for yourself.

Remember, you don’t need to obsessively check the news throughout the day. Remember that bit about notifications?

One of your daily health habits can be to come up with a plan for frequency of watching/reading the news. Perhaps you set an alarm and allow yourself 15 minutes to read trusted media sources in the morning. After your 15 minutes end, you stop and move along with your day.

9. Make your bed

Another daily healthy habit to start with in the morning is to make your bed. Taking the 2 minutes to do this is a big step towards your overall well-being.

Did you know that there are several benefits to making your bed? For example, increased productivity, and decreased stress?

By making this small change, you’ll notice an improvement in your mood because your room will look instantly cleaner.

10. Tidy up & get rid of clutter

Do you sometimes open a drawer and find it stuffed and then immediately close it because you don’t want to “deal with it.” Yeah, I know the feeling.

One habit you can start doing daily is to spend a few minutes tidying up and getting rid of clutter.

There are numerous benefits to tidying up and decluttering. Start this habit now.

You will feel more energized, less stressed, and more relaxed throughout your day.

Wrap-up

I know it’s not easy to make changes in your life, however, the benefits of daily healthy habits are that they are simple so it’s easy to add them to your life.

What you may not know is that these habits are life-changing in the long term. You may not notice it in the beginning, but I promise you that integrating these daily healthy habits will improve your quality of life over time.

Do you want to feel happier, have more balance, feel less stressed, and improved wellness? Then start today!

Go ahead, make your bed, and tidy up. Don’t you feel better already?

I’d love to hear about some of your daily healthy habits that have improved your quality of life and reduced your stress.