Why You Need An “Every Damn Day” List + How To Create One

It’s a perfect world and I awake to songbirds, cooing me into consciousness. I eat a surprisingly delicious, kale-filled breakfast and then walk the dog while simultaneously meditating.



I settle into a lovely day of writing, phone calls, and catching up with friends. I am wearing a cute outfit, my hair looks amazing, and my home is miraculously spotless. I AM A PARAGON OF POSITIVITY AND PRODUCTIVITY!!!

But, sadly, this isn’t a perfect world.



On any given day, it’s entirely possible that I will sleep late, work myself into a headache, avoid phone calls, and/or eat popcorn for every meal.



Life happens! Deadlines change, priorities shift, and sometimes I just don’t want to put on real pants, okay?



So how do we keep our lives from derailing when things get busy? How do we keep making tiny, incremental steps towards the life we want when we’re nearly too frazzled to function?



We make and use an Every Damn Day List.

An Every Damn Day List is a list of small, suuuuuper doable things we do every blessed day – things that will make our lives just slighty better and easier. These are tiny things we can do regardless of deadlines, laundry piles, or sick partners.

The items on our lists are things that give us a tiny boost, a little spark of health or happiness regardless of how the rest of the day goes. They’re small effort, big(ish) impact things that help us feel like Proper Functioning Adults rather than Human Tornados Fueled By Pizza Rolls And Coffee.

Why you need an Every Damn Day List

One of the tools I will never shut up about is the Bookmark Habit. (If you’ve taken my free workshop 5 Reasons Your Good Habits Don’t Stick, you know what I’m talking about!)

Bookmark Habits – and to a lesser extent this Every Damn Day List – keep us from throwing in the towel in every blessed area of our lives. They dramatically reduce the number of days that we toss up our hands, declare the entire day a write off, and settle into a funk of bad decisions.

If you have an Every Damn Day List, no day will ever be a complete write off. No matter what professional, social, financial, or dietary decisions you make, if you follow your Every Damn Day List, there will be at least a few choices that point you in the right direction.

Stayed in your sweats all day, binge watching Queer Eye, and eating pudding cups? At least you walked the dog and made your bed!



Flicked someone off in traffic, ignored your mom’s text, and missed the due date on your library book? At least you complimented your barista’s shirt and ate an apple!

In case you’re wondering, here’s my Every Damn Day List

Drink three glasses of water Get outside for at least 10 minutes (regardless of the weather) Read something that’s not on a screen for at least 20 minutes Say something nice to someone Eat at least one fruit or vegetable Make the bed

That’s it! That’s all! None of this is ground-breaking or even particularly hard. If I wanted to, I could bang all this out in an hour.

I could eat, think, and do rubbishy nonsense all day but if I spent the hour before bed doing these things, I’d still end the day on a (slightly) up-note.

How to create your own Every Damn Day List

Of course (of course!) everyone’s Every Damn Day List will be different. I need to be reminded to drink water, but maybe you’re an ace hydrator! ‘Reply to 3 emails’ would never, ever need to be on my list, but maybe it should be on yours?



These four questions will help you create your own Every Damn Day List.

What’s the smallest possible action that will make your space feel nicer?

Examples:

Spend five minutes cleaning the kitchen

Make the bed

Run the Roomba (no, I will never stop proselytizing about Roombas !!!)

Swoosh a lintroller over your upholstered furniture

Open the window for five minutes to air out your space

What’s the smallest possible action that will make you feel healthier?

Examples:

Go outside for 20 minutes

Drink two glasses of water

Eat at least one fruit or vegetable

Stretch for five minutes before you go to bed

Drink a cup of green tea

Put your legs up the wall

What’s the smallest possible action that will make you feel better emotionally?

Examples:

Say something nice to someone

Look at old photos on Facebook

Send a funny text to a friend or family member

Tag someone in a funny meme

Close your eyes and take five deep breaths

Listen to a song you loved in high school

What’s the smallest possible action that will make you feel on top of your life?



Examples:

Wear perfume or cologne

Spend five minutes replying or deleting old emails

Check your bank account balance

Lay out your outfit for tomorrow

Clean off your desk

How to get the most out of your Every Damn Day List

Put it somewhere you’ll see it every day

Next to your desk! The lock screen on your phone! The screensaver on your computer! It doesn’t matter where it goes, it just matters that you’ll see it every damn day.

Don’t put more than five or six items on it and make them small!

Fellow Type-As, I see you over there, making a 22-point list in which every item takes 2o minutes. Stop. This should be a super short list, populated with hilariously doable things. If any given item takes more than 15 minutes – off the list it goes! If you can’t imagine yourself doing this thing after a long hard day, it shouldn’t be on the list.

Every item that goes on your list should be tiny; almost laughably easy! We are what we do every day and tiny, daily actions add up to a life. Click To Tweet

Why not make sure those tiny daily actions are the right ones?

I want to hear from you! Do you have any Every Damn Day List? If you do – what’s on it? Tell us in the comments so we can be inspired by your ideas and try them for ourselves!



P.S. Making an Every Damn Day List is a habit you can develop just like any other habit. If you struggle to make habits stick, this will help!

Photo by rawpixel on Unsplash