This January, Thrive is celebrating Microstep Month. Instead of setting overly ambitious New Year’s resolutions that make you feel bad when you can’t accomplish them, we want to help you revolutionize your approach to resolutions with Microsteps, Thrive’s science-backed, too-small-to-fail mini habits that you can easily integrate into your life right away.
Research shows that nearly half of New Year’s resolutions fizzle before February. To make sure that doesn’t happen to you, we invite you to join us this month in selecting an easily achievable (totally free!) Microstep that is proven to help you meaningfully form new habits.
We challenged Thrive staffers to test a Microstep for 32 days and write about their progress. The result? Some very honest and encouraging Microstep Diaries, like this one.
Thrive Staffer: Rebecca Lerner, Creative Project Manager
Microstep: Set a daily caffeine cutoff.
Why I chose it
I often use caffeine (coffee specifically) as an afternoon social outing/way to make my afternoon more exciting. However, there’s a definite tradeoff — I don’t sleep nearly as well on days when I have coffee at 4 or 5 p.m. I hope to soon be down to one cup of coffee per day in the morning.
A simple swap
I did my microstep every day — I found it pretty easy to give something up rather than add something new to my routine. I would just switch out my cup of coffee with a cup of decaf tea.
Key word: Micro
Though I haven’t noticed any changes in my stress levels or sleep, I consider my Microstep challenge a success. I would only have one cup of coffee in the afternoon so taking that out of my routine was not a huge shift. I think part of the “micro” steps means not expecting drastic results. I’ll probably keep it up unless I’m feeling very tired in the afternoon.
Lock down some support
My main learning from this challenge was about the concept of Microsteps — that it’s easier to not do something than to do it, and having an accountability buddy is vital. Everyone in my life knew that I wasn’t drinking caffeine after 2 p.m. so no one was inviting me for a coffee after work. A support system is key!
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More Microstep Month Diaries:
I Was Staying Late at the Office Every Night. Here’s How I Put an End to It.
I Made One Meeting Each Day a Walking Meeting for 32 Days and Here’s What Happened
I Put My Phone Away Before Bed For a Month and Here’s What Happened
Arianna Huffington: Give Your New Year’s Resolutions a Boost by Joining Us For Microstep Month