Happy New Year! We made it to an even year - 2026. Is it just me or does an even year always feel better. Just me? … moving on…
On New Year’s Eve, I asked one of my girlfriends if she had any resolutions. She said she wasn’t doing resolutions this year. Instead, she was focusing on small things she could do every day.
Well, this continuous improvement girl absolutely loved her answer and as such I have put together a very small, every day habit for January, Unfortunately, my ‘getting outside every morning’ does not work well with the crushingly dark delay of sunrise, so instead, I’m doing 8 minutes of yoga every day using the Down Dog app on my phone.
When I told my husband this, he thought I meant going to a yoga studio.
As in: drive 30 minutes, do 8 minutes of yoga, pack up, drive 30 minutes home. Which, frankly, sounds unhinged, but also like something I would do.
The whole point is that it’s studio-agnostic, and something I can do everyday no matter what. Case in point: me, on a shower towel on the floor, in a Toronto airport hotel, squeezing in my 8 minutes before bed.
That’s the commitment. And because it’s so small, it doesn’t require negotiations with myself. I don’t need motivation. I don’t need a perfect setup. I just do it.
I track everything in my super-high tech app called - you guessed it - “Habits”
Small Enough to Stick
You might think 8 minutes isn’t enough. Or that focusing on one tiny habit isn’t productive.
But in my experience, the smaller the habit, the less headspace it takes. And the less headspace it takes, the more likely it is to quietly become part of your day instead of something you constantly have to remember or force.
The trick, of course, is making space for these small things. Which brings me to how I spent part of the holiday break.
Making Time (Without Overhauling Your Life)
Over the holidays, I did something deeply satisfying:
I unsubscribed from a truly alarming number of emails.
If you haven’t done this yet, I highly recommend it as a gentle way to ease into the new year. Yes, I am an inbox zero proponent and I have about 15 inboxes to manage, so those unread emails were taking up quite a bit of headspace.
The next level of this, which I’m now experimenting with, is how I handle emails I do want to read. For anything interesting but not urgent, I’m marking it as read and filing it into a specific Gmail label. Instead of letting those emails steal two or three minutes here and there throughout my day, I’m batching them. I’ll spend a focused 20 minutes going through them all at once.
Fewer interruptions. More intention.
I’m also starting an audiobook called Make Time: How to Focus on What Matters Every Day. I have no idea yet if it’s amazing or just fine, but I’ll report back once I’ve had a chance to listen.
A Few Daily Nudges
If you’re feeling the pressure to “optimize your life” this year, here are a few low-key ideas you can do in batches or everyday:
Pick one micro habit that takes under 10 minutes and do it daily. That’s it.
Unsubscribe aggressively (emails, notifications, delete apps). You will not miss most of it.
Batch things you enjoy but don’t need to see immediately. Newsletters. Articles. Updates.
Time-block small windows for reading or learning and stick to it. 10 minutes listening to an audiobook while folding laundry counts!
Choose habits that work anywhere. Hotel rooms count. Towels count. Airports count.
You don’t need more discipline. You need fewer decisions.
I know I have a lot of space and time to try out new habits, hobbies, and optimization. That isn’t true for everyone, and we all have different day-to-day demands on our time and are in different phases of our lives.
That being said, if there is something you’re looking to start, stop or learn, I’m happy to be an accountability buddy!
Let me know what you’re working on - I’m rooting for you!
