I wake up at 5:30am every day. After I wake up, I go through my morning routine. This routine was inspired by Sebastian Marshal and James Altucher and is paired with my Daily Practice.

My Morning Routine

Here’s what my morning routine looks like:

On Monday, I woke up to a messy house. I thought ‘What if I added ‘Pick up 2 things’ to my routine?’ Just as a small experiment.

So I added it to my routine. Then I picked up 2 things and put them away. That was easy.

So I did it again.

In the end, I added to my routine in 6 different places.

After A Week

After a week, my apartment is approaching spotless. When ‘Pick up 2 things’ pops up in Omnifocus, I’m searching in drawers and closets for something to straighten up.

I’m more mindful of putting things away when I’m done using them. When I finish a project, I take a moment and put everything away.

Why This Worked For Me

I think there are two reasons this works:

Small Tasks vs Large Task

Ever been blocked by large single-item projects on your todo list like ‘Clean the house’?

These types of projects are too big. There is no obvious place to get started and any small barrier becomes a reason to abandon the project.

I know this because I’ve lived this.

‘Pick up 2 things’ is easy. I can glance around right now and see two thigs I need to put away or I can organize better. This never takes more than 60 seconds and it’s small enough that I don’t feel a block doing it.

Hijacking Existing Habits

I built this into an existing habit – my trusted morning routine. I wouldn’t have had the same success if I started the habit cold. By hijacking an existing habit that I go through every morning, its been easy to keep this new habit going.

Key Takeaways

1. Break larger, overwhelming tasks (Clean the house!) into smaller, micro-sized chunks (Pick up 2 things!)
2. Attach the mico-tasks to an existing habit
3. Repeat

After 5 days, my apartment is 90% spotless.

Mom would be proud.

Thanks for reading. Love you.