Hi friends,

Happy New Year’s Eve! The New Year is a time when many of us take inventory of the habits we have and the ones we’d like to adopt. If you are looking for habits to improve your mind, body, and productivity, I’ve made a list of ideas that you can try in 2024.

Read at least one page per day

This habit has transformed my life since I started doing it 5 years ago. I’ve gone from someone who used to despise reading, to reading a book per week. An entire book can be intimidating, but if you tell yourself to just read one page it makes picking up a book much easier.

Take a cold shower

Taking a cold shower increases the production of dopamine, adrenaline, and noradrenaline for hours even after the shower which helps to improve mood, alertness, and focus. It is also a great tool for building resilience to stress and increasing discipline. Getting into the cold shower doesn’t get easier with practice, but if you show up daily, your tolerance to stress in other domains of your life will be higher. Read more on deliberate cold exposure here.

Meditate for 5-10 minutes each day

I’ve talked endlessly about the benefits of meditation before. But the effects it can have if you consistently sit down for a few minutes each day can be profound. The extinction of boredom is a new phenomenon to humans, but it can be reprogrammed into our lives. If you are always looking for stimulation, your mind will not have time to think and relax. I prefer to meditate either right after waking or before bed to get ready for the day or to calm my mind before sleep.

Increase your protein intake

The Standard American Diet is simply inadequate in terms of daily protein consumption. The average American adult eats 91 grams of protein per day. Based on the general research consensus, we should be striving to get 0.7-1.0 grams per pound of body weight to maintain and grow muscle mass. You can try implementing a protein shake in your diet, or look for ways to increase protein in the meals you regularly have.

Perform resistance training 2-4x per week

Muscle mass decreases after the 3rd decade, but you can stave off the rate of muscle mass decline with resistance training. This means lifting weights or using resistance bands. If you don’t workout currently, start with bodyweight exercises—pushups, pullups, squats, lunges. There are numerous free workout videos and templates on the internet that walk you through a workout regimen. You can see my exercise routine here.

Increase your step-count

Increasing your step count is a simple way to get more physical activity in your daily life. If you have a watch that tracks your steps, look at the average steps you’ve taken in the past few months and try to increase it by 500-1000 steps. Studies have even shown that getting 10,000 steps in a day can improve sleep quantity and quality.

Keep a journal

Anne Frank said, “Paper has more patience than people.” Writing your thoughts down can give you insight into what’s going on in your head. Start small. Try writing down one sentence each day and build from there. Write down your ideas. The human mind is incredibly good at generating ideas, but it lacks the memory to hold them for long.

We are what we repeatedly do. So our habits make up who we are. Try to pick at least one new habit to take into 2024. Consistency is everything when it comes to building new habits, so do whatever you have to do to make sure you show up each day. I’ve found that setting reminders on my calendar every month to assess how a new habit is forming is a great way to keep myself accountable and consistent. Let me know what habits you’re going to adopt in the New Year.

Until next week,

Kevin