These tips will help you improve, rejuvenate and find inspiration.

1. Come up with morning and evening rituals

When it comes to morning rituals, they usually cite one of the billionaires as an example or say that Barack Obama starts the day with a cardio workout, and Jane Austen played the piano in the morning, cooked breakfast and sat down to write. All this may be inspiring, but let’s be honest: morning exercises or meditation alone will not make you a president or a great writer. But they will help structure the day and make it more organized. If you clearly know what you should do in the morning or in the evening, the temptation to spend an extra 30 minutes in bed or get stuck on the phone will be a little less.

Here are some ideas for your morning ritual:

• exercise or short workout;
• meditation;
• keeping a diary;
• filling out the diary;
• light cleaning (make the bed, put scattered things in their places);
• self-education (foreign languages, popular science literature, courses and webinars);
• creation;
• stroll.

But for the evening:

• analysis of the past day and planning for the next;
• yoga or stretching;
• personal care (skin cleansing, masks, creams);
• taking a bath;
• reading;
• listening to music or podcasts;
• writing practices, such as keeping a gratitude or achievement journal.

This is just an indicative list. You can create your own rituals . It’s good if it includes activities that make you happy, meet your goals and values ​​​​and for which there is not enough time during the day. Just evaluate your capabilities adequately and plan only those tasks that you really have time to complete.

2. Create a motivational notebook for yourself

This is a pocket book that will inspire you, remind you of your goals and help you stay on track. You can turn to it if you are discouraged, confused, or drowned in procrastination.

Choose a compact, sturdy and cute notebook . Write in it:

• basic life values;
• your mission – as you see it;
• long-term and short-term goals and plans to achieve them;
• their main strengths;
• mottos that motivate you;
• mantras that help you calm down and support you;
• positive feedback you received (client reviews, praise from colleagues and managers);
• inspirational quotes.

You can also add pictures that illustrate your goals. Any creativity is welcome. This is your personal pocket motivator, compose and design it however you like. You can, by the way, not have a paper notebook, but a document in the cloud.

3. Look for your “blind spots”

These are shortcomings or features that you do not know about, but which would be worth working on. For example, intolerance towards certain categories of people or a lack of certain skills and competencies.

To identify these blind spots, blogger Celestine Chua suggests paying attention to what pisses you off.

If some phenomenon or event hurts you, you can try to understand the reasons and work on them.

For example, modern bloggers infuriate you to horror: it seems to you that they are engaged in nonsense and they get money too easily. Perhaps you are angry for a reason, but because you yourself would like to earn money by creating content, but do not dare or cannot find a good idea. So, it is worth thinking in this direction.

Another example: corporate parties and any crowded events in general scare you. Yes, the reason may be that you are just an introvert. But what if you’re afraid because you lack the ability to communicate, make friends, and network? This is an occasion to learn more about networking and practice it more actively.

4. Ask for feedback often.

It is difficult for even the most reasonable and sober-minded person to adequately assess himself. A good way to learn about your progress or identify areas for growth is to listen to what others have to say about you.

Constructive and polite criticism is a great space for development.

It’s great if you already get feedback regularly: let’s say you are praised or scolded by customers . But if the specifics of your activity does not imply this, you can ask for feedback from a person whom you consider authoritative enough. This could be a leader, a more experienced colleague, a well-known specialist in your field.

It is important that the person be as competent and unbiased as possible. For example, you draw and want to know the opinion about your work. It is best to show the work not to your mother (she will certainly praise you) and not to random people on the Internet (they most likely do not understand the issue and may turn out to be trolls), but to the artist you like. Or contact an art teacher.

Try to formulate the request as specifically as possible. That is, not just “How do you like my drawings in general?”, But “I have been working on anatomy and proportions lately, please tell me if progress is visible and what else you can pay attention to.”

5. Practice digital hygiene

Analyze what you read in the news feed and on social networks. If this content undermines your self-confidence, makes you bile and envy, it is quite logical to replace it with something that will bring you new knowledge, inspire you to work on yourself and become better, just cheer and relax.

Calculate how much time you generally spend on social media. If you do not get off the phone for several hours a day, use services that limit the time spent in certain applications. And figure out how to replace this bad habit. Maybe it will be books, crafts or podcasts – any simple activity that will allow you to cope with boredom and anxiety.

6. Tidy up

No, this is not about washing dishes and dusting, but rather about getting rid of trash and organizing space. If you devote at least 10-15 minutes to this every day, your things and papers will always be in order. And this is important, because because of the bedlam we lose precious minutes, get angry, upset – although we could be doing something more productive.

A well-organized space is essential for any business. As the saying goes, sharpen the ax first, then cut the wood.

You can do small tasks every day that will help rid the house of unnecessary things . Let’s say, disassemble one shelf in a closet or clear the desktop of everything superfluous. Or maybe delete unnecessary emails and sort files on your computer into folders, because the order in the virtual space is also important.

7. Spend time by yourself

Keep a diary, meditate, meditate, draw, walk alone. Invite yourself to museums, cafes, cinemas and shops. All this helps to take a break from other people, calm down, filter out the views and judgments imposed on you, hear yourself better and understand what you really need.

Try to practice seclusion every day. Svetlana Goncharova, author of books on time management for young mothers , offers an interesting idea called “Spoiled Bag”. The point is to collect in a bag or box items that help you relax and fill you with strength and inspiration, and find time daily to be alone with this set. This technique is suitable not only for mothers and not only for women, but for everyone.

In the “spoiled bag” you can put:

• a book;
• sweetness;
• headphones that you plug into your phone to listen to music or a podcast;
• notepad and pen;
• album and pencils;
• something for needlework ;
• face mask;
• aroma candles;
• kinetic sand or slime.

The list can be anything. The main thing is that these things make you happy.

Creativity expert Julia Cameron talks about another way to spend time alone – creative dates – in her book The Artist’s Way . During such a date, you can go anywhere (or even stay at home) and do whatever you want. But there are a couple of conditions. First, the lesson should not be routine. Very good if you’ve never done this before. And secondly, it should fill you up: give new impressions and emotions, lead to interesting ideas and thoughts, and in the end, just please and soothe. Thirdly, you need to go on creative dates alone.

Here are some ideas for things to do:

• take a walk around the city with a camera, take a dozen or two shots;
• go to a second-hand bookstore, look through books, if you like something, buy it;
• attend a creative master class;
• prepare an unusual dish , serve it beautifully and take a picture;
• take a walk in the forest or park, collect a herbarium;
• get a sketchbook and make a couple of spreads.

Not only people of creative professions need such dates. After all, they help restore resources and find new ideas, and this will not hurt anyone.