How to build healthy habits when you’re tired and exhausted

Contrary to popular perception, you don't need to shuffle your whole life and change every present habit. Small, consistent changes are the key to reaping their positive benefits in the long term.

The key is to start small and build up from there. (Photo: Pexels)

Building healthy habits for a healthy lifestyle can feel like a Herculean task when you’re already tired and exhausted. Stress and exhaustion manifest in both mental and physical ways, and it needs determination and practice to stick to new habits or a new schedule, and that can be difficult to achieve when your mind and body is already bogged down by exhaustion. But, contrary to popular perception, you don’t need to shuffle your whole life and change every habit. Small, consistent changes are the key to reaping their positive benefits in the long term.

Harvard Business Review recently shared a post on Instagram concurring the same. “How can you form new habits when you’re exhausted? The key is to start small. Take a gentle, whole-person approach for long-term change,” read the caption. It also stated that “getting enough sleep and eating right will help other habits stick.”

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So, if you identify, and feel like your daily exhaustion is keeping you from a healthy future, start small with these 4 things that will cause a ripple effect in your holistic health for a long time:

Start with sleep

If you’re tired, the key to greater productivity is not to push harder, but to push less. Try to go to bed and wake up at the same time for a week. Once you start getting enough sleep, your body will support you in accomplishing your daily goals instead of dragging you down.

Think about nutrition

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When you’re exhausted or stressed out, it can be easy to skip a meal or forget to stay hydrated. To combat this, keep a glass of water and a quick snack on your desk at all times — especially when you’re most busy. This will improve your energy, aid your concentration, and reduce fatigue and anxiety.

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Get moving

Once you have sleep and nutrition in place, start integrating physical activity. If that seems like too much, begin with gentle stretches and a daily walk. Build up from there.

Pick a new habit

Once you’ve integrated these healthy habits, you’ll have the energy to take on more. Choose just one new habit to work on at a time. For example, you may decide to focus on being on time, planning your weeks in advance, staying on top of your email, or some other new behaviour that you’d like to master.

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