There are tons of cliche habit articles floating around the internet. This is not one of them.

I’ll share with you 3 habits, just three — the only ones I’ve consistently stuck to for years and reaped tremendous returns.

Like most other articles, I could throw in 7 or 12 more, but I’d be lying through my teeth if I did that — neither have I found it possible to stick to tens of daily habits consistently nor are the rest of them as impactful.

Not only will I state these habits, but will also detail the rationale, go over my experience, and cite relevant research. With no further ado, let’s dive right in.

The “3-T Planning” Every Night Before Bed

After repeatedly trying and failing, I’ve realized that I suck balls at following a strict daily routine. In fact, most of us do — because we humans evolved as hunter-gatherers and not routine followers.

So I shifted my focus from routines to the tasks I needed to get done. And this gave rise to a game-changing nightly habit:

Every night, before bed, decide 3 things that you’ll get done the next day at any cost.

Again, not 5, not 10, just 3. Now, before you think I love the number 3 (I actually do), let me explain.

I’ve found that by committing to over 3 tasks, say 5 or 7, I end up getting only 1 or 2 done properly. And the rest either skipped or done in a slipshod manner. In fact, overcommitment is a rampant problem and according to surveys — 3 out of 5 people say they don’t complete their To-Do lists.

On the flip side, anything less than 3 would be an under-commitment. The bottom line is that 3 is a number that works exceedingly well for me.

It could be different for you. It could be 2. It could be 4. But I’d suggest you start with 3 and tweak along the way.

Once you plan and go to bed, your subconscious mind gets to work and you’ll wake up with clarity and direction. The subconscious is extremely powerful and a testament to this is that over 95% of our brain activity is unconscious.

“You cannot entirely control your subconscious mind, but you can voluntarily hand over to it any plan, desire, or purpose which you wish transformed into concrete form.”

— Napoleon Hill

The best part is that there’s no set-in-stoneroutine for these 3 things — you just have to get those tasks done, when is totally up to you.

Make Your Bed Every Morning

I first stumbled across this habit in a viral US navy seal admiral’s speech — one of the best speeches I’ve ever watched.

Stoked by the admiral’s words, I tried it. And since then, I haven’t missed a single day. It’s natural to wonder what it is about this trivial habit that’s so powerful?

Turns out, a lot of things. Firstly and majorly, it gives you the sense of a task successfully completed. This sets a productive tone for the rest of the day and motivates you to achieve more tasks.

Add James Clear’s habit stacking technique to the mix and you can get a whole gamut of things done — in my case, making my bed sets off a chain of meditation, brushing, flossing, and washing my face.

There have been tons of occasions where I woke up groggy but by completing my habit “stack”, ended up brimming with energy and vigor.

Secondly, every time you walk into the room, the sight of the made bed will improve your mood and motivation.

Just as much as a messy bed can derail your work drive, a cleanly made bed can pump it up.

And finally, at the end of a productive day, there’s nothing more satisfying than a made bed inviting a good night of sleep — which is again one of the most crucial things for productivity.

Commit to At Least a Minute of Daily Work

Be it writing at least a few lines of code or a few paragraphs of an article, committing to doing at least a minute of a certain task every single day can work wonders.

The rationale is that it forces you to show up every day, and consistency is arguably the single biggest factor for success. And what makes this truly powerful is the fact that:

More often than not, you won’t stop with one minute and will instead keep going.

Breaking the inertia of rest and gathering that initial momentum is the hardest part. But once that’s done, it’s a downhill snowball.

Moreover, I’ve noticed that when you least feel like doing something, you actually end up doing it best. I’ve had most of my viral articles and best workouts by dragging myself to finish my one minute of daily writing and just showing up at the gym.

A crucial thing that most miss when advising this is that—once your minute is up, if you don't feel like going on, stop.

There are some days when we just aren’t meant to work, and that’s completely okay — pushing yourself on such days results in begrudged and low-quality work.

So, commit to at least a minute of work every single day. If it gets you in the mojo, keep going and if it doesn’t — you still got the one minute in and that’s what counts.

Final Words

At face value, these habits might not seem like much, but over the long term, they add up to unbelievable results. I am living evidence of this.

Planning and achieving 3 tasks in a day might not seem like much. But that’s 90 in a month and 10,950 in a year! By over-committing or not planning, the number is going to be much lower.

So start laying those one-minute seeds today — before long, you’ll be able to reap their thousand-hour trees.

“Habits are the compound interest of self-improvement. The same way money multiplies through compound interest, the effects of your habits multiply as you repeat them.”

— James Clear