5 Low Energy Habits That Calm My Mind

My favorite habits of all time aren’t the big impressive ones. They are...

My favorite habits of all time aren’t the big impressive ones. They are the little habits that bring joy to my life and help me stay balanced. Big habits are great, such as

Going to the gym

Dieting

Meditating or reading for long periods of time

But everyone talks about those. Let’s talk about my 5 favorite low-energy habits.

Tomorrow Prep

If you peered into my windows around 10 pm (which would be super creepy, please don’t) you might be confused by a few things. It might almost look like I’m starting my morning, in the evening. Well, you’re not that far off, because this first little habit I’ve developed does just that.

Every evening before my brain completely runs out of gas, I take 3 minutes and prep for my habits in the morning. For example, I drink a fiber supplement each morning (because health) so the night before, I fill a glass with water and put it in the fridge. I also drink tea in the morning, so I fill the pitcher, get my mug out, add sugar and a tea bag, and leave it on the counter. I also get dressed in the morning (we hope), so I lay out my clothes for the next day. Can’t forget that one.

Maybe you think I’m lazy, like really? You can’t fill a cup with water in the morning?

Despite what you may think, it’s not about efficiency or laziness. It’s about friction. After all, we aren’t usually banging on all cylinders when we wake up, at least I’m not, which means when I stumble into the kitchen the less I have to think about the better. This way, all the prep has been done, I just wake up and go through the motions. Best of all, it helps me get up on time because there’s almost no friction to starting my day.

I have to do the same process either way, I’d rather make it easier for my slightly zombie-ish future self. Wouldn’t you?

Front side with date and short description

Flashcard journaling system

One of the coolest habits I’ve built, in my humble opinion, is a flash card journaling system. Journaling has always been hard for me, despite knowing how beneficial it is. I struggle to feel its effects and see its purpose at times, not to mention it’s a bit hard to structure.

So instead, I do this.

Each night, I take a 3x5 card and turn it into a memory flash card. On one side I describe in detail, a moment for that day that I really want to remember. Some include a meaningful interaction, others simply a fact that I really liked and don’t want to forget. There’s no theme, but usually, it revolves around gratitude. Even if it’s gratitude for learning a painful lesson.

Back side, describing the memory.

After I’ve written down the memory, I flip the card over and write the date, and below that, I write a few words or a sentence to jog my memory about what I wrote. Now, I’ve essentially created a flash card. On one side, I see the date and a little description, and with that, I try to recall what that memory was. If I can’t remember I flip it over and refresh my memory. This uses something called active recall, which I cover in this video.

After I write it down, I review about 5 other memory flash cards from before. Since I’ve been doing this every day since January 1st, I have a solid stack. Reviewing 5 cards a day means I’ll cover each memory multiple times a month, easily enough to remember it without the card.

I like this because it takes all the benefits of journaling, simplifies it, and adds purpose and structure to it. Now these memories aren’t folded up in a book somewhere collecting dust. Now I can separate them by month and have a snapshot of all the best moments I want to remember.

Pinned in front of my desk.

I take this one step further. Each month I review that month’s cards and select the top 3 that are most important. I copy them and pin them on my bulletin board in front of my desk. These are the key moments from each month that matter the most.

Best part?

It only takes a few minutes.

Slow mornings

I’ve tried some pretty elaborate morning routines with varying levels of success, such as polar plunges and 4:30 am wake times. But the one I’ve settled on might not be what you’d expect.

I call this my incredibly therapeutic morning routine, and it goes as follows.

After waking, I make a cup of tea, read, and watch the sunrise.

That’s it.

Now, that might surprise you, since I’m someone who deeply values productivity, after all, lots of people say that they get their best work done in the first hour, and I’m no exception.

So why a slow morning?

Building the habit of a slow morning has helped me in numerous ways, but the main way is it stabilizes me for the rest of the day. Life already feels like a rat race, so allowing myself to wake up in a nonstimulating manner is almost mandatory. I find I’m much less reactive because I specifically took control of the first hour of my day. That’s the abbreviated version, for my full rundown read this newsletter.

I’m sure you know what the next one will be.

Ambient evenings

Just as it’s important to start slowly in the morning, it’s also important for me to wind down in the evening.

I’ve built the habit of turning off all my lights except for lamps at around 7-8 pm. When I do that, I cut way back on what I allow into my attentional space, usually only simple things and just one at a time. I’ll do tomorrow’s prep, talk to friends, read, fill out my memory flash card for the day, and overall take it a lot slower.

There are a few reasons for this. One would be, that my quality of work isn’t anything that impressive at 8 pm. I’m more liable to make mistakes, get distracted, and waste time. Not to mention I have a harder time sleeping, which affects my productivity the next day.

Also, productivity and efficiency are good and all, but I’m not really interested in running myself ragged. I’d rather be strategic with my time so that I can enjoy my work and my rest time. To do that I need balance.

Slow productivity

This last one is more overarching and might sound a bit weird, but I’ve developed a habit of something I call slow productivity. Slow productivity is intentionally adding behaviors that I can’t rush. I’m not sure about you, but I tend to make everything a competition with myself, to see if I can make it as productive and efficient as possible.

There’s a place for that, but when every task is that way, life is exhausting. I had to implement behaviors that don’t allow for that. They create these little pockets of time when I’m not pushing for something; I’m simply enjoying the process for what it is.

For example, think of the process of making tea or coffee. Try as hard as you want, you can’t really rush that. Even something like my house plants that need to be watered. Sure, I could rush and maybe save myself 2 whole minutes each time, or, I could just chill, how crazy would that be?

These pockets of time are quite helpful in facilitating the energy ups and downs throughout the day. There are so many ways to implement this practice, but I won’t go into them now. For reference, here are 5 ways I intentionally slow down.

The key with all of this is balance. As someone who pushes himself and is very competitive, these are essential. Without them, I slowly speed up, and a month or two later I crash and wonder why I can’t get anything done. In the long run, these save me a lot more than time. They save me energy and stress, which is more than worth the tradeoff.

I’m guessing some of you are thinking, you could handle one or two of those habits in your life as well. But let me tell you, cracking the habit-building code is no easy feat. It took me a very long time, but I managed to condense it down into a single newsletter. From start to finish, build a habit as effortlessly as possible.