Welcome to another edition of the 1% Habits Newsletter!

This is where you’ll get up-to-date information on small wins to improve your habits, productivity, and life satisfaction. 

Let’s get to it…

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You can take action on the concepts covered in today’s newsletter by setting goals and tracking your habits.

Here are a five printable worksheet bundles that can help:

● Monthly Habit Tracker Printable Worksheets Package

● 12 Goal Setting Planner Printable Worksheets Bundle

● Daily Planner Printable Worksheets and Templates Bundle

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● Time Audit Printable Worksheets and Templates Bundle

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📈 How to Build the 1% Improvement Habit

Imagine waking up each day knowing that you are just a little bit better than you were yesterday. Picture the cumulative effect of small, consistent improvements in every aspect of your life—your health, your career, your relationships, and your personal growth.

This is the essence of Kaizen, a Japanese philosophy that focuses on creating a habit of making continuous, incremental 1% improvements.

Kaizen, which translates to "change for the better," is not about making drastic changes overnight.

Instead, it's about taking small, manageable steps that lead to significant, lasting progress over time. By embracing the 1% improvement habit, you can harness the power of Kaizen to transform your life, one tiny step at a time.

In this email, we’ll explore how you can start implementing the 1% improvement habit in your daily routine, and how these small changes can lead to extraordinary results.

Whether you want to boost your productivity, enhance your well-being, or achieve your personal goals, the principles of Kaizen can guide you on your journey to continuous improvement.

Let’s dive in and discover how you can start building the 1% improvement habit today.

Why Does Consistent Small Improvement Work?

You might be wondering what’s so special about making these small improvements.

After all - it’s possible to make large sweeping changes that greatly enhance your life.

Unfortunately, with the rigors of day-to-day life, these changes are often not sustainable.

Small. improvements over time add up to immense results, and you can sustain these small improvements MUCH easier while using significantly less willpower and discipline.

A common example that is opposite to the Kaizen approach is crash dieting.

Game shows and fitness boot camps take great pride in taking people who are overweight and then putting them through torturous programs that often lead to shocking transformations - but what happens when the cameras turn off?

These people immediately gain the weight back (plus a little extra) and come away with chronic injuries from unsustainable fitness programs

Contrast this with the Kaizen way of doing things - small additions of daily activity to your life, finding ways to make the food you like healthier, and gradually improving things from there.

The results of this are sustainable weight loss and improved fitness, and it boosts your health instead of tearing it down.

So let’s talk about how to turn this concept into action.

Step 1: Shift Your Mindset

We often approach significant changes like trying to move a mountain - requiring enormous effort and dramatic actions - but this method is ineffective for achieving sustainable lifestyle transformations.

For example:

● Want to build muscle? You need to be consistent

● Want to get better at your job? You need to be consistent

Most people burn out before they even get anywhere.

Kaizen demands a different perspective.

Instead of focusing on the goal, focus on the process, and then look at the things you do each day to help you make the process better. (You can use our weekly planner to create an action plan.)

For example, if you want to build muscle:

● Day 1: Learn what effective strength training is

● Day 2: Study some suitable exercises (calisthenics, barbell, dumbells, etc)

● Day 3: Go to the gym and practice some exercises you’ve learned

● Day 4: Put together a program for yourself with a few of your favorite exercises

● Day 5: Figure out the best days of the week you can train

In just 5 days you will have got further than most people do in a month of just throwing themselves in the gym and getting nowhere.

You have built a fantastic foundation for lasting progress.

Step 2: Start Small

Make the first step improvements as small as possible - do less than you think you should.

This is to create forward momentum and build motivation.

For example:

● If you were beginning a meditation habit you would start with just 1 minute a day, and then the next week you would do 2 minutes a day.

● This is the opposite of somebody eager to experience the benefits of meditation, signing themselves up for a 10-hour retreat in June and attempting to meditate for an hour every day. What’s the likelihood that this person is even going to attend that meditation retreat?

● Instead of launching into an ambitious fitness program, simply add an extra thousand steps (or less) to your day and build up from there.

● If you want to improve any skill, become more productive, or anything else you can think of, start small and build up - instead of launching yourself into the most ambitious program you can find.

This approach crushes momentum before it even has a chance to build and drains your motivation.

To build consistent changes and improvements, it’s nearly always better to start small and build from there.

This mimics the natural world, as massive, ancient oaks start from tiny acorns.

Step 3: Make Small Improvements

It’s important to remember that the cornerstone of Kaizen is change.

The core idea here is to not get stuck in a rut.

Kaizen means that you’re looking for ways that you can do something slightly better, every time you do it.

The emphasis is on slight increases. So if you could jog a mile with no problem, then you would not add another mile to your training (that’s an increase in training volume of 100 percent). You would add a quarter of a mile, maybe even less.

One way you can look for improvements is by journaling your experiences.

● You can write down what you experience at the moment and then come back to that experience with a more analytical mind later.

● If you’re improving a skill, journal what practice you did that week, and then gather your thoughts about anything that you think needs improvement.

● If you’re trying to be more productive, write down any small steps you can add or remove that would help you finish your work a bit more efficiently.

Journaling gives you the ability to write this all down in detail and helps your analytical mind find answers to problems or small ways you can improve. (You can also use our Project Planner to map out the entire process.)

Step 4: Ask Questions

One of the best ways to look for improvements is to ask questions.

For example, let’s say you’re trying to improve your productivity.

You’ve set yourself the task of doing an hour of uninterrupted pure focused work, but you find that you’re not achieving this.

You can ask yourself questions like:

● Why am I struggling to do an hour of uninterrupted work?

● What can I do to make it easier to do an hour of uninterrupted work?

● Should I change the 1 hour to 30 minutes?

● Are there any alternate methods I can try?

Take anything that you are consistently trying to improve and just ask questions like this (you can also write them down in your journal and use these questions as a sort of brainstorming exercise).

Step 5: Review

Once you’ve been applying the Kaizen principle regularly for a month or so, take a little time to review what you’ve accomplished.

This does not have to be overly long or complicated.

The purpose of reviewing is just to confirm that you are actively improving on the thing you have consistently chosen to improve.

Journaling down your week-to-week changes makes this progress nearly automatic.

For example, if your Kaizen-inspired fitness program was to add extra activity to your daily life you can measure improvement easily:

● Week 1: 8,000 steps total

● Week 2: 10,000 steps total

● Week 3: 14,000 steps total

For other things that are harder to measure (like skill improvements) you can simply note down your accomplishments or look where you have plateaued and where you have excelled.

This keeps your conscious mind in the process and provides evidence to your subconscious that this process is effective.

In many cases the review might be obvious - you may immediately see that you’ve been more effective and improved a lot more than you thought at whatever you applied Kaizen to.

Final Thoughts on Kaizen

The Kaizen principle is a wonderful way to make time and momentum work for you instead of against you. Taking small steps and making gradual improvements adds compounds in the long term to staggeringly successful results.

The Kaizen principle stands in stark contrast to the approach of having a goal and desiring to complete it quickly but instead encourages you to look for small changes that make it so that you can’t help but complete your goal over time.

Try the Kaizen principle today and experience the benefits yourself - you’ll be shocked at how much you can improve in just a month.

⚙️1% Habit Idea

One app that can help you build habits is Beeminder.

Instead of relying on self-reporting to track your habits, Beeminder syncs with dozens of apps (like Garmin, Gmail, Fitbit, Duolingo, Slack and RescueTime) to make sure you follow through with your commitments.

If you fail to achieve a target goal, then Beeminder will charge you money.

Sounds hardcore, right?

As you can imagine, there are many uses for Beeminder. In fact, you can use it to build pretty much any habit.

In my opinion, the best use of Beeminder is to use the location app on your cell phone when you’re at the gym and then create a “commitment contract” with Beeminder where you promise to go to this location a specific amount of time each week.

If you don’t follow through, you’ll have to pay money to Beeminder.

How to Get Started

It’s simple to sync Beeminder with your phone.

First, set up a Beeminder account.

Next, use an IFTTT recipe for your phone.

Finally, turn on the notification the next time you’re at the gym and create a commitment contract with Beeminder for that location. This means you’ll agree to go to that location for a specific amount of time each week, otherwise you’ll get fined.

I recommend using this app for any important habit that you’re trying hard to build.

🗂️ The Resource Roundup

😞 Daily Loneliness Afflicts One in Five in U.S. – Are you lonely? The Gallup poll reveals that about 20% of Americans experience daily loneliness, with 56% reporting feeling lonely at least once a week. Factors contributing to this feeling include poor social connections and the lasting impact of the pandemic. The article emphasizes the importance of addressing loneliness, as it has significant implications for mental health and overall well-being.

💲 5 Timeless Tips to Build Wealth – Jade Bonacolta shares five timeless principles for building long-term wealth. Key insights include the importance of longevity in investing, using money to buy free time, and recognizing that getting rich versus staying rich require different skills. Additionally, embracing market volatility as a norm and ignoring others’ financial choices can help you stay focused on your own wealth-building journey.

💤 4 Reasons Why You Wake Up Feeling Tired – Waking up tired? This article breaks down four common reasons behind lingering morning fatigue and shares simple tips to help you start the day feeling more refreshed.

📱 My home screen + favorite app – In this article, Mitchell Cohen shares his favorite app, Screen Zen, which helps manage phone usage by setting time limits and gamifying screen time reduction. He also discusses using a screen time widget to track phone activity and highlights the impact of passive expenses versus income.

⚙️ Tap into the “Hemingway effect” to finish what you start – Wonder how leaving tasks unfinished can boost your creativity? Discover how the “Hemingway Effect” helps you maintain momentum and enhance your productivity in this insightful article.

That’s it for today.

Hope you’re having a great week! 

Cheers,

Steve Scott 

SPONSORED

Again, if you want to take action on the concepts that were covered in this newsletter, then these five printable worksheet bundles can help:

● Monthly Habit Tracker Printable Worksheets Package

● 12 Goal Setting Planner Printable Worksheets Bundle

● Daily Planner Printable Worksheets and Templates Bundle

● Energy Audit Printable Worksheet to Track Daily Energy Levels

● Time Audit Printable Worksheets and Templates Bundle