10 Ways To Instantly Improve Your Life

Significant improvement comes from long-term action. But there are lots of things you can actively do today that will instantly improve the quality of your life. Welcome to LAX.

First stop, fix your sleep. We're going to start off with probably the lowest hanging fruit, and that is your sleep. Early in our journey, we used to subscribe to the idea that you should wake up as early as possible and make the most of any given day. And while that's still true to an extent, one thing that becomes more important over the years is the quality of sleep.

It doesn't matter if you wake up regularly at 5 a.m., if you wake up tired as hell with a migraine, and absolutely no good mood to get anything done. The 5 a.m. club is largely a myth for the vast majority of people; waking up super early does absolutely nothing besides, well, rob you of good quality sleep.

On top of that, there are so many ways to accurately measure how good your sleep is, which also means you can work to improve it. Think about it like this: You spend one-third of your life sleeping. Statistically, that means about 26 years of your life. Would you invest the minimal effort that will instantly improve 26 years of your life? That's a pretty easy decision, right?

And this is how you do it. Go to bed and wake up within the same hour every day. Make your bedroom quiet, dark, and comfortable. That's pretty much it. For the most part, this is something that pretty much anyone can do.

Stay off grid for as long as possible and buy off grid. By "off grid," we mean not grabbing your phone first thing in the morning, opening up YouTube, checking Instagram, looking at your emails, and all that stuff. Look, here's the reality, okay? Today, the Internet has one primary function: to keep you there for as long as possible so it can show you as many ads as possible. So you'll buy as many things as possible. It's not about connecting people.

That's the reason every platform has an endless scroll. It must trap you there. And that's why Europe is trying to change that. But that's a different topic for another day. The point is, the minute you go online, your mind is flooded with useless information. And we're not built for that. We did not evolve to handle all this crap.

It's fairly recent in our history. As a matter of fact, today logs were all old enough to remember the days when we were young and there was no such thing as the internet. Time seemed to pass away more slowly. The only way we found to deal with this is to just stay off of it for as long as possible in the morning because we get it.

Okay, we're not going to sell everything and move to a cabin in the woods and fish all day long. You still need to be able to exist and function in the modern world. But that doesn't mean you need to be online all the time. Nothing really happens besides endless distraction anyway. Try not to touch technology for at least the first couple of hours in a day.

Do things more slowly. Now, continuing on with the idea of technology, this was supposed to make us faster and more efficient, and we all know how that turned out. You used to physically have to go to meetings, so realistically, you could have one every once in a while. But now, since everything is one click away, you'd think you'd be done quickly.

But according to statistics from 2019, around $300 billion worth of time is wasted in pointless meetings, in the U.S. alone. And that was before the pandemic. But this isn't just about meetings. Everything is done faster, which usually translates to having to do more stuff rather than having more time.

Think about it: You watch videos at one and a half times the speed not to be done more quickly, but to watch even more. And this ultra-fast-paced way of doing things toward infinite growth is not sustainable. That's why everyone is burned out or unmotivated. So whenever you can, try to take things slowly and take your time.

Imagine if starting today, every email needs to be written manually by pen and paper. Your spam inbox will probably go to zero real quick when you actually take the proper time to do something. You get to experience it for what it truly is.

Take care of your health. The oldest marathon runner started running when he was 89, and he continued to run until he hit 108. He is now 109 and finally hung up his sneakers. It's a very inspiring story. It's just it's not you, though. Let's be real.

Statistically speaking, the longer you delay taking care of your health, the harder it will be to get it back. And just because there are some outliers here and there, that doesn't mean it's the norm. They're the exception. Don't fool yourself into thinking you still have time until you do irreversible damage to yourself.

It really shouldn't be a shocker that better health equals a better quality of life. Everyone knows that. The question is, when will be the day where you start to actually do something about it? Will it be too late? Will you still have the strength and the willpower to see it through?

You see, you are forever young until suddenly you're not. Reach out. If you take a broader look, everyone sits in their room waiting for someone else to send a message, and nobody does anything if it's slightly inconvenient. That's not the way to do it, though.

You can be the one that brings people together. You can organize, plan, make phone calls, send messages, make dinner reservations, and you don't do it because nobody else would. You do it because you invest in relationships that are important to you. There's absolutely no gain or superior morale to have for being unreachable or distant.

We are tribal by nature, as many of you like to think of yourself as a lone wolf. You need people around you to share experiences and make memories with, and it's so much easier to do that when you don't always wait for others to send the first message.

Spend some alone time. On the flipside, you also need to spend some time alone. You need introspection and solitude to really know and understand yourself. People have gotten so used to scrolling through feeds and being entertained by every two-second interval that they've forgotten what it's like to just be alone with themselves and their thoughts.

They find it unnatural and awkward by this point. They have this urge to always do something or always click on something, and that robs you of your own personality. There are incredible benefits for spending some time with yourself.

It can be something as simple as a morning walk in the park with just you, the wind, and the birds. It's a time where you dig a bit deeper into what really motivates you and what really matters to you. It keeps you grounded and more calm in a world that forces you to feel high and anxious all the time.

Spend some time in nature. And speaking of a walk in the park, another thing we found to have an immense impact on the quality of our life is how much time you spend surrounded by pure nature. Because, look, nature has this unique way of offering perspective.

It reminds you just how big the world actually is and how little your problems are in comparison. It also reduces stress hormones, making you feel more at peace and relaxed. Think of spending time in nature as a strategic investment of your time toward reaching balance.

Fix easily fixable things. Just think of all the little annoyances you encounter daily: a squeaky door hinge, a leaky faucet, a drawer that sticks, or a light bulb that needs replacing. Each of these things taken alone are minor and of no real importance, and you kind of learn to live with them because you never find the time to fix them; somehow, you always have something better or more important to do.

But you see, all of these things together represent friction in your daily life. They make it slightly more annoying, and they make you get used to things being slightly more annoying every time. So make a list of all the little things that bother you and start eliminating them.

You also get rid of small sources of frustration, and on top of that, you create a really important habit. When you take care of the little things, you're reinforcing the habit of not ignoring problems, no matter how insignificant they might seem on the surface.

Achieve and help others to do the same. From our own personal experience, your life satisfaction greatly improves when you do one of these two things. The first one is when you make something from start to finish, which you're really proud of. The sense of achievement and satisfaction is just unmatched.

When you create, accomplish, or build something you're proud of, it instills a sense of self-efficacy and confidence. It's a profound feeling. It makes you feel powerful and tall, and it gives you the motivation to do more.

Equally, if not more rewarding, is the act of helping others to do the very same. It gives you a sense of purpose and fulfillment that is hard to replicate. It's about sharing the joy and pride of someone else's accomplishment, knowing that you played a part in their journey.

And lastly, commit. Whatever you do, don't half-ass it. Instead, do it like it's your job. You're not always going to be at your best, but you can always commit to a job that's not half-assed. If you take a walk in the park, go enjoy it fully.

If you reach out and hang out with people, leave your phone on silent. If you start a new project, give it your best. If you commit, you'll find that one: things you thought were hard are actually kind of easy, and two: you'll find a new appreciation for the input you can have when you always give it your best.

Hey, you realize that your best keeps on improving, you keep evolving, and that is something that will always improve your life. We hope you learned something valuable here today.

Boxer, we'll see you back here next time. Until then, my friend, take care.