10 Habits That Have Made My Life Significantly Better This Year
The art of simplifying everything.
I’m a firm believer in keeping it simple.
Sort of.
I spend a lot of time studying the most complicated Jiu-Jitsu techniques, reading challenging books, and learning about other things that are well above my qualifications. I like to learn.
However, when it comes to my daily routine and my habits, I’m interested in simplifying everything.
Simplicity in one area allows for complexity in another.
On the flip side, an overly complex life forces you into simple thoughts. I find this to be true especially when my life is crazy. When life is crazy, the quality of my thoughts decreases exponentially. I get kind of stupid.
I want complex thoughts and ideas to originate from my mind every day, so I focus on simple daily habits.
Here are the 10 habits I use almost daily to induce mindfulness, ease, and quality thoughts into my mind.
Journaling.
I wake up between 8:30 and 9am.
One day, I’ll become a real adult and get up earlier, but for now, the extra sleep is awesome for my training and creativity.
When I get up, I have some electrolytes, make a latte with our espresso machine, and head back upstairs to my office. Our 2 pups follow me up. Despite being overwhelmed by the cuteness and fluffiness of my “coworkers”, I immediately pull up my journal.
I write 5-10 “morning thoughts” in my journal to get the gunk out of my mind, and then I get to work.
Journaling is the warm-up for the deep work to come.
It helps me with anxiety, stress, and any sort of problem that I’m having.
Even your most daunting demons are not so scary when you casually write them out on a page.
2-3 hours of deep work.
At this point, I don’t do much writing at all during the day except for the first few hours, when I hit it hard.
I write newsletters, client work, future book content, and more. I work on creating new words from 9 to 11:30. You’d be surprised how much happens during that time. Ever since I read Deep Work by Cal Newport, starting the day with quality deep work has been a major goal of mine.
I need to get a few hours of good creative work in so that I can allow myself to rest later on.
After the deep work is done, I prepare for Jiu-Jitsu training either by studying match footage or Patreon content, or I plan what I’m going to teach that day.
Jiu-Jitsu training (with a plan).
I train hard 6 days per week, and I try to go in with specific goals for what I’m working on for all of those sessions.
Jiu-Jitsu training is part of my job, so I must approach training with the same discipline that I approach my writing with first thing in the morning.
I do rounds, drills, specific rounds, and more.
There’s a lot of debate in the Jiu-Jitsu world right now about ecological training versus traditional training.
I do both.
No afternoon caffeine.
As someone who has struggled with insomnia for his entire life, I’ve been obsessed with sleep for the last year.
Sleep supplements, improving sleep quality, and improving my ability to fall asleep.
However, the biggest sleep hack I’ve found is a low-stress lifestyle. Part of a low-stress lifestyle for mem means reducing caffeine intake.
I’ve found that as I get older, I need to have a more significant distinction between work time and rest time. I love coffee but I hate not being able to rest more.
I don’t even look at caffeine after noon.
Eating enough protein.
Whether you’re trying to lose weight or gain mass, protein solves most of your dietary problems.
I try to eat around .8 times my body weight in pounds in grams of protein per day.
I also try to cook at home for nearly every meal during the week. My girlfriend and I love to go out to restaurants on the weekends, but this always feels like a treat for us instead of part of our lifestyle.
High-quality food plus a high amount of protein equals happiness.
Reading.
I used to try to read 20 books per year.
One day, I realized how many incredible books I was leaving off the table because I cared more about finishing 20 books than reading the 5 best ones.
Nowadays, I don’t really care about finishing all the books — just reading the best ones that I enjoy and learn something from. I’m currently a few hundred pages into The Count of Monte Cristo and it’s freakin’ awesome.
The book is over 1200 pages and I don’t know when I’ll finish it, but I will finish it eventually. I read a little bit every day.
Strength training.
My word for 2025 is “strength”.
That means mental strength. resilience, and discipline, but it also means physical strength and durability as well. I’ve been hitting the weight room hard these last 2 months and I want to hit it hard all year long.
Strength training makes me feel strong, it makes me healthier, and the pursuit of physical goals outside of just Jiu-Jitsu development and success is really fun to me.
Strength training is the physical embodiment of the pursuit of a stronger mind.
I might never deadlift 600 pounds, but I won’t ever stop trying to improve my overall strength, health, and fitness.
Focusing on quality in everything I do.
When I was younger, I focused a lot on output.
I still do, but I’m more interested in the quality of my work.
Was the newsletter good this week? Was training good today? How did I feel when I woke up that morning?
You need to put out a lot of work to be good at something, but at a certain point, you need to focus on doing good work instead of just doing work. Quantity over quality in the early days, but quality over quantity when it comes to your life’s work.
I aim to do a little good work every day.
Walking.
A long walk with the dogs is the last thing we do every day.
Generally, they get out a few times during the day but the long walk is at night, after dinner.
A walk after dinner is great for digestion, amazing quality time with my lady, and it allows me to kind of think a bit (or not think) as well. As good as walking is for the digestion of food, it’s equally good for the digestion of the experience of the day.
A good walk usually gives you what you need.
It’s also a good segway from all the action of the day to “chill time”. It’s winding down.
You can’t just go from 100 to zero — you need to ease off the gas pedal each night.
Letting the day go.
When I was big in my self-improvement phase, I used to have a checklist of all these habits that I’d do every day to keep “improving”.
Journaling
Reading
Meditating
Studying
Walking
Waking up at a specific time
Cold showers
Sauna
The list would go on and on. It became exhausting. I was a slave to my own “self-improvement”.
Nowadays, the routine is simpler. I do my work, train, read a bit, hang out with my girlfriend, go to the gym, have dinner, and then after that, I try to just let the day go. It’s over.
The day was either good or bad or a little bit of both, but at a certain point, it doesn’t matter. It’s over.
We watch an episode of some relaxing show, clean up a bit, and go to bed. Voila.
For a long time, I was obsessed with squeezing the most out of every single day.
Nowadays, the goal is quality work followed by quality rest. Yin then Yang.
If you take nothing from this article, take this:
The most important part of a hard day’s work is being able to get up and do the same thing the next day.
The Grappler’s Diary is sponsored by BJJ Mental Models, the world’s #1 Jiu-Jitsu podcast!
This week we're joined by Marc Ste-Marie! Marc is a Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu black belt and the father of IBJJF "Queen" Brianna Ste-Marie.
In this episode, Marc explains the concept of "technique zero," or how we can teach Jiu-Jitsu quicker by reverse engineering and mastering the point of entry.
To listen, look up BJJ Mental Models wherever you listen to your podcasts or just hit this link.
Also published this week:
Switching Gears: A BJJ Journey From Intensity To Longevity
Six years ago, at age 30, I walked into a BJJ gym for the first time. Like many 'young' men, I'd always been drawn to martial arts but had never taken the plunge.
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