What are 5 habits that can improve my life?

These are 5 things that had instant effects on improving my life which I still stick to.

Waking up at 4 am

I have written this in another post and received quite a lot of comments asking how I do it and how I manage my sleep. So here is how I do it.

Firstly, waking up this early can be the most difficult thing in the world. I mean early morning is when we are in our deepest sleep. The world is quiet, the air is fresher, the atmosphere is cold. If its too cold, your body temperature under the blanket must have produced the coziest temperature for you to sleep.

Before I started waking up at 4 am, I tried 7 am, then 6 am, then 5 am, and then 4 am. Waking up at 7 am and 6 am is no different. The sun is already up (in my country) by 6 am. I didn’t feel I was up early. Then I tried 5 am. I noticed that for me to have the highest motivation, energy and drive, I had to be at my computer by 5 am. I then tried 4 am. Was the most difficult thing on the first day but by the third day, waking up at 4 am was the thing I was looking forward the most when I slept the day before. Ok ok so this is how I do it.

Firstly, I go to sleep the night before, wanting to wake up the next day at 4 am. I also started deleting the word ‘alarm’ from my dictionary and replaced with the word ‘opportunity’. This trick works by the way. When my opportunity clock goes off at 4 am, I decide the longest I can be on bed is 5 seconds. I count to five and get up on my feet. Yes you have to stand on your feet. I then drink some water, go to the bathroom and brush my teeth. There is something magical about the toothpaste that makes me wake up. I then go out to my terrace and meditate there for 10 to 20 minutes. This is my favorite part of the morning. The world is quiet, the air is fresh, in a tropical hot country, the outside temperature at this time is just comfortable. You can do this on your balcony or even in your apartment. I would advise you to step out of your house or building and breath some fresh air at this time. Just 5 minutes will do. I then do the ‘Seven Minute Workout’ (the scientific one). For 7 minutes this is quite effective. Then hit the bathroom and watch a TED Talk while I’m on throne. I take a shower, grab a coffee and start my work at 5 am or before.

When you are up this early you know you are up for a reason and it motivates the hell out of you. You know you are up before any one else because your tasks are so important. It drives you to focus and work the most productive hours of the day.

The 5 x 5 x 5 rule

I read this on internet and somewhere on Quora too. This is an emotional skill that will make you take good decisions. It works like this. When something happens, ask your self these three questions. Will it matter in 5 minutes? Will it matter in 5 days? Will it matter in 5 years? You see, a lot of our decisions are based on the five minutes. We tend to forget that there is something called time and future. Lets say that some drunk vomits on you in the train. Firstly, understand that s/he is not in the right mindset. Then ask the questions. Will it matter in 5 minutes? Hell yeah!! You will stink. Will it matter in 5 days? Probably if you missed a dentist’s appointment and you cant get your teeth cleaned for another week. Will it matter in 5 years? You will probably be laughing at the incident with your friends in 5 years. Making wise decisions is one of the best perks of being emotionally intelligent.

The 5 minute rule

Lets say something happens or you do a mistake and there is nothing you can do about it. Well there is always something you can do if it is a mistake by you. You can always avoid repeating it. Anyways how this works is, you understand and believe that there is no need stressing on things that won’t change what has happened. Stress can be the essence of all diseases. What you do is you decide that you will think of the matter only for the next five minutes. Set your stop watch and think whatever you want to think within the 5 minutes and repeat in your mind that you have to move on when the 5 minutes are over. When the time is over you put the matter away and move on. I’ve tried this countess times. It works like a charm. Remember, the point is to minimize stress which is the cause of many diseases.

The 10 minute call

We all have people who love us dearly in our lives. Love which we take for granted. I try to dedicate 10 minutes of my life every day to connect with these people. In general a person won’t even understand how happy s/he will make her parents (especially mom) happy by giving a call every day and checking on them. Our parents have gone through and continue to go through a great deal of effort to make sure we get the best. They don’t ask us anything in return. This is in general by the way - I know a lot us have a difficult time with the parents too. In my case, my wife and my parents are the best things in the world. When I quit my job and dedicated my full time to developing what I am doing, I lost my connection with a lot of people. My visiting intervals to my parents started getting longer. Call intervals got longer too, until one day I realized that I might not get the opportunity to call them tomorrow. The thought of regrets I would have if I ever feel I didn’t give them the love they deserve was overwhelming. I’ve been calling them every day ever since, and it does make my life better in a very special way. I dedicate this time not only to call them but just to say hi to some friends I’ve lost keeping in touch too. It feels good to talk to these people.

Quora

I’ve mentioned this in another post too. This is something I noticed that has really changed my life. This is actually about reading and sharing. You learn so much every day even if you visit Quora just once daily. The amount of knowledge you gain from subjects you want to know about and the responses you get from experts in every field is just priceless. I will say that Quora is even better than books because it gets to the point and avoid the unnecessary parts you get in books. Start first by reading on Quora, then commenting, and then writing answers. It will improve your life in many ways.

Oh and while doing this I would advise to quit other social media platforms too, unless you filter your contents to only news and information that is relevant to your goals. Believe me following social media sites with ‘look what I’m eating’ and ‘look at my shoes’ and ‘look what the cute cat is doing’ is a total waste of time which you can use to invest in productive work that will actually improve your life.

Hope this helps.