Good personal habits go a long way towards helping you be successful in life. Our habits are composed of the choices that we make on a daily basis until they have become almost involuntary. I have several very common things that support my daily habits that improve my life that I’d like to share with you. (Although, I do have a favorite!) I hope that they will make changes to better habits easier and help them to stick.
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What Types of Good Personal Habits Will These Products Support?
Good personal habits are composed of daily habits to improve life. Just little changes can add up to make big differences. These products span a wide range of good personal habits, but just a few types of habits are:
- Spiritual
- Networking
- Health and Wellness
- Relationship
- Financial
- Productivity
- Career
Related: 10 Simple Daily Habits to Improve Life
Simple Secrets You Need to Know to Be Happy and Content
Best Products for Good Health and Wellness Personal Habits
First, I would like to say that deciding to follow good health and wellness habits is a very good choice. You only get one body for your entire life. It changes and it grows but it also needs to be taken care of. Taking care of you is taking care of your family. Deciding to develop good personal habits around health and wellness is one of the foundations for a more happy and content life. It’s hard to feel happy and positive when you physically do not feel well.
Related: Why You Need to Invest Time in Self-Care
New Balance Walking Shoes
One daily habit to improve life that I enjoy is going out for a walk. I usually try to hit up the walking track right after the kids get on the school bus. It starts my day off right because it gives me a boost of energy and makes me feel accomplished first thing in the morning. You need a good quality pair of walking or running shoes to do this comfortably. I have tried cheaper ones, but they don’t last very long. These last me about 1 year and I wear them daily. (Please note, my definition of “I need new sneakers” is that my current ones have a hole in them, so take that into account with my time estimates of how long they last.)
Ozark Trail Tumbler
We all know that drinking water is a good personal habit. When you get enough water throughout the day, it can boost your mood and brain function, as well as help with weight loss. However, if my water is not cold, I will likely not drink it. I will also not drink enough if a glass is not right beside me. I love the size of my Ozark Trail tumbler, as well as how long it keeps the water cold. The lid is also tightly fitting and has saved me from a massive spill more than once. It’s one of those things I didn’t know I needed but once I got it I wondered how I lived without it!
Sonicare Toothbrush
I don’t know about you, but the dentist chair is not necessarily my favorite place to be. It was worse when I wasn’t always getting good news because my gums were bleeding every time I brushed. Turns out- that’s a sign of gum disease. You do not want to pay for the treatment for that (trust me.) However, if not treated, you can lose your teeth.
No thanks. I think I’d like to keep my chompers – for life. Some “lucky” people just naturally have more bacteria in their mouth which leads to more plaque, and gum disease. So for me, keeping my teeth as clean as possible is pretty important.
I will admit to being quite frugal at times, but when I found this Sonicare toothbrush for $25, I sprang for it. I have not seen bleeding gums in months and am now looking forward to my next checkup. I really like the automatic 2-minute timer on this one and that it helps prevent me from scrubbing on my gums too hard.
SmartWatch to Encourage Exercise as a Good Personal Habit
I LOVE wearing a smartwatch. I have tried several, and to be honest, each has had their quirks.
Apple Watch
My parents both have Apple watches and love them. It’s a bit on the pricy side, but it is swim proof. By swim-proof, I mean that the lifeguard that gave my son swim lessons wore hers in the water every day. Many are water-resistant, but I think the apple watch goes beyond that. It also has a built-in GPS so it can keep track of where you are, even if your phone is not on you. Mom uses hers combined with her phone to track her horseback rides. Don’t even think about using it if you have an android phone. Like most things, Apple does not play well with Android.
Samsung Galaxy Watch
This Samsung Galaxy Watch is currently Amazon’s #1 best seller in women’s smartwatches. It’s easy to see why with its sleek design. It’s also quite a bit cheaper than it’s Apple Watch counterpart. It is built to military standards and is dust and water-resistant. It monitors stress and sleep and automatically detects up to 6 exercises, but can track up to 39 more.
Best Value Smartwatch
What if you want a smartwatch to help you develop good personal habits, but don’t have a lot to spend? I have good news for you… this one is under $50! This is the YAMAY Smartwatch for Android and IOS phones. I bought this one for my birthday, and I am overall pleased with it for the price. It’s waterproof and has sleep tracking on it as well as heartrate monitoring. It also has several different exercise modes: run, walk, bike, hike, climbing, treadmill, spinning, and yoga, and more. My only complaint is that it does not have a good exercise mode for some of my gym classes, and it does not automatically start tracking exercise. Still, for the price, I am quite pleased. The battery lasts for a good week!
Best Products for Productive Personal Habits
Keurig
My husband got me this Keurig for Valentine’s Day 2 years ago. It still works just like the first day I used it. I love being able to instantly get a cup of coffee in the mornings to get me going. It helps me be much more productive. While coffee itself may not be a good personal habit, waking up earlier is. Coffee certainly helps with that. Additionally, I got a little reusable plastic cup to go in it that I use to brew green tea for myself to drink throughout the day. It encourages me to drink more as well as helps boost my metabolism.
Bullet Journal
Up till a few months ago, I had always just used a free-writing journal. However, I have come to enjoy my bullet journal quite a bit. If you enjoy free writing, as I do in a more traditional journal sense, you can do that with a bullet journal too. In fact, you can make your bullet journal work for just about anything that you want it to. One of its strengths is its versatility. Most of them are usually set up with a table of contents so that you can reference back to the sections that you need. I set mine up with a planning section in front, with calendars and weekly spreads for to-do lists and planning. I also include a section for my monthly goals.
The middle is set up for business/blog brainstorming ideas and the last section is free writing. I also recently started adding a few of my favorite Bible verses. Some people put trackers in theirs too for habits and fitness. You can use pens to draw in them too. It can be as simple or as elaborate as you want to make it.
The bad part is… you have number all the pages yourself for most of them, and you will have unused pages when you are done with the journal. It also requires some planning ahead. However, for me, the benefits far outweigh the inconvenience of setting it up.
Related: Find The Perfect Type of Journaling For You
Pens
When I first got my bullet journal, I thought I didn’t need any fancy multi-colored pens. And I was right. I didn’t NEED them, but I did start wanting them within 2 weeks of starting to use my bullet journal. They are useful for color-coding things as well as they just make journalling more fun for me.
Planner
If you don’t like the idea of integrating a planner into your bullet journal, a separate planner can still help you get organized. Getting organized is a good personal habit because it helps you work more effectively. I have been reading Brian Tracey’s “Eat That Frog” and he says that 10 minutes spent in planning can save you up to 90 minutes when you start working. That’s major! Getting organized also helps me feel less stressed, especially when I have a large project.
Alternatively, if you are looking for a planner specifically aimed at goal creating and achieving, I use and recommend the Slay Your Goals Planner. It walks you through finding what goals to set, how to set them and break them down into small manageable chunks. I did a full review of it at the beginning of the year when I set goals to achieve by December 31. I am happy to say that it is now August and I have achieved all but one of them. It is a digital product, so you can download it instantly. I printed it all out, but you can only print the pages that you think you need. Additionally, it’s undated, so you can buy one planner and use it for many years.
Best Products for Good Organizational Personal Habits
Our physical environments have an influence over our mental health. Having a tidy space to work and live is a good personal habit because it enables us to relax and focus better. Here are my favorite organization products to help get your home more orderly.
Closet organizer
Whose closet is not a mess? (Other than Marie Kondo, of course). Having a closet organizer helps you get more use out of your existing space. It also helps you find your clothes easier which will help you get ready and out the door more quickly. You can go basic on this one, like the one above, or you can opt for the more deluxe version below. It just depends on whichever one meets your needs, your space, and your budget better.
Shelf
Shelves are one of my favorite ways to organize things. I love books (and reading is another good personal habit). Having a shelf is a great way to store them along with a variety of other things.
Bins
Bins give a shelf a very organized appearance and they can help you group like things together. They pull the look together much better than any other way I know of to organize a variety of things. If you’re like me, they can also be a great place to hide all those odds and ends that you don’t want to throw away, yet don’t have a good place for either. These come in a variety of colors and they fold up, in case you have some spares.
Best Products for Good Personal Habits that Can Boost Your Career
Continued learning is one of my favorite good personal habits. You are never too old to learn and the day that you think you know it all is the day your skills start growing stagnant. These products will help you to keep moving forward in your career and in your daily life.
Courses
Online courses are part of an up and coming billion dollars a year industry. In an age where you can Google everything, you may be wondering why someone would buy a course for something. Yes, you can get bits and pieces from different places and learn just by googling the information. The problem is that takes time and a lot of frustration during trial and error seeing what works and what doesn’t work. Courses are a shortcut that saves you valuable time and sanity.
For myself, my favorite blogging courses are:
Post by Number
This little mini-course is some of the best money I ever spent. It has taught me how to easily write SEO’d posts that rank on the front page of a Google search. Type ” benefits of being patient or “Self Motivation techniques” on Google and you’ll see my itty bitty little blog on the front page. This course is where I learned how to do that.
Blog by Number
Overwhelm is the biggest killer of blogs by far. I bought this course when I was on the verge of quitting too. I had been trying to figure out how to do everything on my own, but it felt like I was trying to pick a lock with a hairpin. Suddenly, it was like someone tapped me on the shoulder and said: “Here, try this key instead.” Needless to say, my only regret about this course was not buying it sooner. It is a massive time saver and Suzi takes you by the hand step by step and shows you how to set everything up. She is always updating it too, and once you buy it, you get access forever and all of the updates.
The Blog Plan
If you are interested in a blogging course, and want some great information but are not ready to spend any money yet, this one is free! This is the plan that I am currently using to grow my blog. It gives you great guidance on what to do when and is a great tool for helping to eliminate blogging overwhelm.
Questing for Self Motivation Strategies to Achieve Your Personal Goals – Coming Soon!
I will soon be joining the ranks of online course creators with this course that is currently in the works. If you’d like to be the first to know more information as it comes, join my email list below!
Automation
Sometimes we do things the hard way. We don’t mean to, but it happens. It’s a good personal habit to periodically check to see what you can put on automation.
Tailwind
For myself as a blogger, Pinterest was becoming a HUGE time suck. Putting it on automation through Tailwind was a huge relief. It was one of the first and best investments that I have made for my blog and my sanity. The link above will give you a $15 credit to try it out if you are also needing to be saved from pinning your life away.
Audiobooks/Podcasts
Both audiobooks and podcasts fall under the good personal habit of continued learning and of making efficient use of our time. You may not always have time to read, but you can turn your commute into learning time with audiobooks or podcasts. Many podcasts are free. I am currently listening to the Kwick Brain podcast that’s about boosting your memory power, reading speed, and healthy brain habits.
For audiobooks, you can check out Audible, which will give you 2 free audiobooks for trying them out or check your local library.
Best Products for Good Personal Habits to Help Your Relationships
Personal Development books
I’ve already talked about how continued learning is a good personal habit. One of my favorite ways to do that is still through reading books. Here are my favorite books that I have read in the personal development field. You are worth investing in, plus reading is just plain fun and relaxing!
The Pearl Perspective
This is the book that I wish I had when I started my personal development journey. I should know – because I wrote it. Sometimes it hard to know where to start. You just know you want to start some good personal habits and you want to improve your life. If you’d like to read a book that’s like sitting down with a friend over a cup of coffee, getting some great advice, and laughing over funny and totally relatable confessions, this is the book for you.
7 Habits of Highly Effective Families
If you’ve heard of the 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen Covey, this is the same guy. He’s one of the greats in the personal development field. I loved this highly personal look at how the 7 Habits look in his own personal life as well as how to apply them to my own.
The 5 Love Languages: The Secret to a Love that Lasts
The 5 Love Languages by Gary Champman is one of the first relationship books I would recommend to anyone. I have a couple of other posts with more detail on the 5 Love languages, but it teaches you how to show your loved ones how you feel in the ways that mean the most to them.
Related: 45 Ways To Make Your Kids Feel Loved With the 5 Love Languages
Your Cheat Sheet on Speaking the 5 Love Languages
Proper Care and Feeding of Husbands
As the name implies, this book is written to wives wanting to have a better relationship with their husband. It’s written in Dr. Laura’s signature tone of brutal honesty and directness with no beating around the bush. I read large sections of it out loud to my husband while we were on a road trip and it facilitated some great discussions and a better understanding of one another.
Eat That Frog
I picked this up from the library last week and I am loving it to the point that I have started taking notes. The book is a quick read (if you are just reading through and not taking notes). It has already taught me some great strategies for getting more done and beating procrastination. It tells you not only what to do, but how. It talks about how to set priorities and what to concentrate on. I have learned a great deal from this book already, though I think my husband is growing tired of me telling him “Ok, go eat your frog!” When he tells me he needs to go work on something. 😉 If you want to be more effective and can only read one book, make it this one!
Related: How to Overcome Procrastination and Laziness
Hobby Supplies
You may be wondering why I am listing hobby supplies under products that help cultivate good personal habits. Hobbies help to foster your creativity, and they give you productive downtime. Some can even turn into a way to make money. Check out Benefits of Hobbies Happy People Want You to Know for all the ways that hobbies help develop good personal habits as well as a huge list of 161 Hobbies to try.
The Last Thing You Need to Know About Developing Good Habits
All these products can help you develop good personal habits, but none of them are absolutely essential. (I will say, of all the products that I discussed, my favorite two are my smartwatch and Keurig.) The most important thing that you need to develop good personal habits is simply the decision to start. Imperfect action is better than no action. Often starting is the hardest step. So leave me a comment today and let me know what good personal habit that you want to start.
Jennifer, I will get my hands on ” Eat that frog”. I have couple of good habits like daily walking, drinking more water ..I like it warm ? I recently started 20 minutes of Sun exposure as a part of my Self Care routine. I had picked up this habit but it got lost somewhere in the middle of the things..but I am happy to bounce back.
Those are great habits to start, Sheetal. ( I think the drinking water with ice in it is an American thing). I usually get my sun exposure on my walk in the morning, but you bring up a good point – sunlight helps to boost your mood. We ALL fall off the good habit wagon from time to time because life happens. The important thing is that you keep getting back on. 🙂