10 habits to set in your 20s to live better in your 30s

In my 20s, while I was in Uni, studying was a major part of my life (as it should be). The best thing I ever did was install some keystone habits. I didnt realize that at the time but they have helped me so much in my 30s. Over these years, I have had many seasons in my life and I know there will be many more. These habits have stayed with me along the way. Even if I didnt do them every single day I always came back to them comfortably and saw the difference in my days straight away. I hope to carry all of these habits forward into my life.

Here are 10 keystone habits that I worked on setting up in my 20s, these have made a world of difference in my 30s –

1. Running – Running has been a huge part of my 20s. I am not an athlete by any means and dont strive to get a Boston qualifier (for those interested, its 3 hours 30 mins 18-34 YO). I run to be healthy, active, and justify eating chips. I have always hit 12000 steps almost everyday. Even on rest days. Some days are hard, but try to keep at it. The best way Jay and I have found is to sign up for races for the year and plan our year around it. Training for them keeps us on our toes.
2. Healthy eating habits – With being active comes healthy food. I am a vego. That helps a little bit. But I still plan my meals to be quite well balanced. I don’t eat out much. May be once a week.
3. Prioritize sleep – I am a sleeper. I need 8 hours of sleep to function properly. My bedtime has been 9.30 and wake up 6 am for more than 10 years now. This past year, our wake up time has been brought forward to 5.30 by our puppy. I am hoping to bring it 5am slowly. The time in the morning is just so peaceful, and productive, it is unreal and unmatched.
4. Planning my day the night before – It takes 5 mins just before bedtime to think through the events for the next day. I plan things like packing my lunch (every weekday), clothes, and even plan dinner for the next day. I hate having to make decisions early in the morning, that could’ve been made earlier. Just gives me the mind space for more important things. Decision fatigue is a real thing people. Read more about it in a previous blog post here.
5. Tracking my goals – I have a vision board, with a 5 year plan. Then I have monthly and daily goals. They are for my professional life, health, Handmade business, and personal life. My current 5- year goal is on the homepage of my website. You can access it here.
6. Tracked my finances – I have excel sheets dating back to 2010. I am a numbers girl. Just seeing them laid out in front of me gives me such clarity and allows me to plan for big things in life. I continue to do it with jay. We update it monthly. The main things we track are income and expenses for the month, savings rate and plans for investing.
7. Doing groceries weekly– doing groceries just the one time in the week with a list is a game changer. I think that going to the shops to pick up one or two things is a time and money sink.
8. Cleaning – Living on your own teaches you to clean regularly. Clean up the kitchen, set up the dishwasher every night. I try to declutter every month.
9. Plan a trip every few months– every time we go on a vacation we try to make sure we plan the next one right after we come back to have something exciting to look forward to. Life will always be busy but it’s important to take time to do the things you want to do.
10. Time blocking– I learnt the Pomodoro technique in my 20s and it was the best thing that ever happened to me. It has made all the difference to my productivity. I usually do 25 focussed minutes followed by a 5 min break. (dont know what I am talking about – here are the details about pomodoro technique)

Its never too late to add habits to your life. The 1% increments are what make all the difference in the long run.