Over the years, I’ve learned that self-improvement isn’t so much about making huge, Earth-shattering changes to your life; instead, it’s more about making small tweaks, step-by-step, until they lead to huge growth over time.

“We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.”

—Will Durant

The little things in your life turn into big things quickly. And to seriously boost the quality of your life—for better health, finances, mental health, and much more—try these ten small things to create a big impact:

1. Airplane Mode

More time spent on phones is associated with more depression, sleep problems, stress levels, anxiety, fatigue, and even things like lower self-esteem and less conscientiousness.

Use airplane mode throughout the day to create a distraction-free environment. Rather than being constantly bombarded with notifications or feeling compelled to check your messages or emails, you can deeply focus and be present with yourself, with your friends and family, or with whatever you’re doing.

I often use airplane mode when I’m working, with friends, and sleeping; that way, I control when I get notifications, which helps me focus and feel at ease.

2. Better Posture

We spend a lot of hours sitting and using devices, which causes physical issues like a tight chest, tight hip flexors, and forward head posture (to name a few). The result? Poor posture hurts your health, mood, and confidence.

Good posture, however, relieves those issues and improves your mood and stress resilience. But to fix your posture, don’t just force yourself to “stand up straight” (because you’ll just fall back into your old habit); instead, use specific exercises each day to reset your body. Here are my favorites:

3. Breathing Correctly

We all breathe, but few breathe correctly. On average, we breathe over 20,000 times a day — if they’re off, the problems will compound quickly, leading to more pain, fatigue, and stress.

Try a few exercises to not only reset your breath, but also your diaphragm and ribcage alignment (for better breathing). The key is to do a complete exhale (think: exhaling for 15 straight seconds) when you do these drills so you can truly reset and start breathing better:

“Once you take yourself out of a chronic, hyperventilated [chest-breathing] fight-or-flight state, many aspects of health improve,” says Dr. [Louis] Libby. “Your blood pressure goes down, you sleep better, your risk of stroke and heart attack decreases — even people who suffer from fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue syndrome find that they’re less symptomatic.”

4. Stop Watching the News

I generally avoid all news because it’s a huge source of stress: Over half of Americans actually say the news causes stress, and many report anxiety, fatigue, and sleep loss. In fact, constantly seeing negative stories can even make you feel more negative.

Yet most stories don’t even affect you; if you watched it or didn’t, the result would still be the same — so why stress yourself? Worse, the news doesn’t even match reality: The overwhelming (and underreported) truth is the world is better now than at any other time in human history.

Stop looking at the news. Understand that a lot of it is just sensationalism to grab your attention so you can see their ads and boost their revenue. You’ll quickly feel a lot better once you quit.

5. Walking

Walking is powerful: It can improve your physical health, mental health, creativity, mood, and much more. But chances are you could probably walk a lot more in your daily life. (When I lived in Downtown Denver, I thought I walked a lot—then I moved to Europe and started walking more in a day than I used to in a week.)

Find ways to walk more every day. Take a stroll around your neighborhood after big meals, walk instead of driving or biking, or walk while doing meetings or phone calls. (For added health benefits, breathe only through your nose during your walks.)

6. Timers

I set timers for everything. Instead of constantly checking the clock to see when I need to do something—and being in two places at once—I just outsource that checking to my external environment so I don’t have to think about it anymore.

If I want to read something quickly, I’ll set a timer for 15 minutes. If I need to leave in 10 minutes, I set a timer so I don’t have to keep wondering when it’s time to go. This will free up your mental space and helps things run like clockwork (pun intended).

7. Gratitude

Finding ways to express gratitude can improve sleep, lower inflammation, and improve mental health issues by reducing depression and anxiety and boosting optimism and life satisfaction. It even trains your brain to see more positive things in the world.

I recommend taking a simple gratitude journal and writing 3 to 5 things you’re thankful for each day. Try to choose specific things that happened that day and, just as importantly, explain why you’re grateful for them.

8. Reducing Social Media

One of the most common complaints I hear from people is that they “don’t have enough time” to do what they want — exercise, read, learn, spend time with friends, etc. Yet the average person spends 2 hours and 25 minutes on social media every day.

What would you do if you had up to 17 extra hours each week? You could do more things you love, with the people you love, and enhance the quality of your life. (Excessive social media use, on the other hand, is actually associated with mental health issues like depression, anxiety, and stress.) To dial back on social media, try scheduling only a few minutes a day for it or use it only on certain days of the week.

Trust me, once you cut down, you’ll realize you’ll miss absolutely nothing.

9. Learning to Cook

Most Americans don’t cook regularly and a whopping 28% don’t know how to cook. Yet learning how to whip up some dishes can make a huge impact.

First, cooking nutritious meals can help you lose weight and boost your health. Second, it can actually boost your mental health. Baking and cooking help relieve stress—it’s a therapeutic way to take your mind off the day and it can even reduce mental health issues like anxiety, depression, and addiction.

I recommend you start by taking a “knife skills” class, which is the most fundamental skill in the kitchen. Then, take other classes or watch videos to learn a few simple, tasty recipes that will go a long way.

10. Automatic Bank Transfers

Saving and investing are some of the best things you can do to transform your life. But here’s the tricky thing:

You know that. And I know that. Yet few people actually do it.

Don’t “force” yourself to save and don’t “try” to put money away each month. “Willpower,” as Dr. Benjamin Hardy wrote, “doesn’t work.” Instead, use an automatic savings plan so you can stop worrying, thinking, or making excuses. Many accounts offer automatic transfers—just pick an amount of money you’re comfortable with, set it up, and you’re done.

(For more info, check this guide from Ramit Sethi, New York Times bestselling author and founder of I Will Teach You To Be Rich.)

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