What is a small thing to do that will immediately improve your life?

1. List what you *should* be proud of, even if you aren't. I suffer from depression, and feeling proud of myself doesn't come naturally. When I take a couple of minutes to list things I should be proud of, I want to do more things like that.
   — somepeoplewait


2. Learn to regulate self-criticism. Dropping some pizza on your rug isn't the same as crashing a car 'cause you're texting. *How badly did I screw up on a scale of 1 to 10? Is my self-criticism fair or over done?* Accept fair consequences and move on.
   — WokeUp2


3. Start exercising- Running really helped me lose weight and build up confidence.
   — Greatanser






4. Sleep earlier
   — milessprower


5. Don't put little things off until later. Just do it now- as soon as you think of it. Doing the dishes right after you cook or after a meal, picking up the dog, cat, or kid toys before going to bed, vacuuming the rug when you see a mess, sweeping up the little swirl of leaves that came in, returning the item that didn't work to the store, calling the pharmacy about refilling a prescription, etc. It seems like they aren't a big deal so you can "just take care of them later." But then they pile up. And they weigh on you. And suddenly the list of chores is so long it's daunting and it's causing anxiety. Just keeping on top of those little things has made such a huge difference in my life, it's amazing.
   — hometowngypsy


6. Be nice to people. Having empathy for other people allows you to relax and not be so judgemental and angry.
   — NoBSforGma






7. Enjoy your free time. Don't think you need to be productive 100% of the time and don't chastize yourself for taking days to yourself. We only have one life so if every once in a while you want to dedicate your day off to 20 hours of video games don't feel guilty about it.
   — georgejeff666


8. Break your goals down into manageable chunks. I'm a big believer that there are three different types of goals: short-term (the kind of thing that you expect to pay off somewhere between a day and a week from now); medium-term (goals that you expect to complete within a couple of weeks or so to about six months), and long-term (six months through to about five years or more). I think it's a good idea to make sure you're working towards at least one thing in each category. Once you've got that, you can break them down into little goals -- and then shift them into the earlier categories. Say you want to write a novel. Well, that's no good: it's not an actionable goal. It's in the long-term goal category... but that's very vague. You can only measure that in terms of large-scale success or failure. When you do want to write a novel by? How long does your novel need to be? And so you break it down. You can write a thousand words in about two hours pretty easily, if you're on top of things and you don't have any distractions. That means that a 90,000 word novel -- or the first draft, at least -- represents about 180 hours of focused writing work, at most. Do an hour a night, and you can have that done in six months. That's not so scary, is it? So now your goal has gone from 'Write a novel' to 'Write 500 words tonight'. If you beat that, great! If you don't, make a conscious effort to do better tomorrow. You can do that with everything. Is your house a mess? Well, you don't need to tidy the whole thing. You're going to go and spend ten minutes doing your dishes. Then you're going to hoover your living room. Then you're going to change that lightbulb in the spare room that's been blown for three weeks. Little things add up. We are what we repeatedly do; excellence, then, is not an act but a habit.
   — Portarossa


9. Stop worrying about things you have no control over
   — Noob_DM






10. Learning how to breathe. Just a few mindful inhalation in the morning, when you're getting stressed or feeling down, helps the brain focus on the moment and takes you away from any worries you might have. Follow this 4 steps pattern: inhale, hold, exhale, hold. Try to do it slower and slower, you'll be surprised how much it helps!
    — BleuDePrusse


11. Stretch
    — existentialmentalist


12. Meditate for 10 minutes in your morning to get your brain in a calming and positive mindset to carry you throughout the day.
    — Nolan-






13. Constantly remind yourself that it isn't your responsibility to entertain the person you're talking to or make them feel comfortable. I'm not saying we should be unpleasant, but being too eager to please often just hinders our social abilities.
    — sixtyfourteen


14. Make water your only drink. I'm not a healthy person, I barely exercise and I love food, but I've stopped drinking juice, soda, coffee, etc. and now all I drink is water. I never put on weight even when I eat a lot in the holidays and stuff.
    — hygsi


15. Take 5 minutes a day to tidy something up, or just do the dishes after you have dinner. Something as simple is that will make you feel more at ease in your environment and helps prevent the overwhelming feeling from when your place becomes a huge mess and takes hours to clean.
    — mkhorn






16. Delete Facebook permanently
    — public_instigator