Can tiny tweaks beat total makeovers?

Could microdosing long to-do lists and making small, bite-sized changes be the key to fitting more into your day without overhauling your whole routine?

Adele Miner enjoys a cup of coffee and a read at Brew Coffee in Raheny, Dublin. Picture: Gareth Chaney

IS IT possible to have it all? With just 24 hours in a day, it can feel near impossible to fit everything in. When you allocate eight hours for rest, eight hours for work, and try to cram everything else into the eight remaining hours, it’s no surprise many of us feel like a hamster on a wheel, getting nowhere fast.

Squeezing in a solid fitness regimen, a 10-step skincare routine, or reading a book a week is nowhere on the radar for the vast majority of us.

But what if we dropped this all-or-nothing mindset? There are no rules around how to live; if you want to swap a one-hour workout for a 10-minute one instead, you won’t be in trouble. Or if you’d rather get your daily news dose from a 90-second news summary as you make the bed instead of watching the evening news, you’re allowed to do that.

Doing life in small, bite-sized chunks may, in fact, be the key to fitting more into your day without overhauling your whole routine.

A micro-movement is happening in the world of education, with bite-sized teaching (BST) being lauded as a more productive and effective way to teach and learn.

One study showed that students who participated in BST had significantly greater immediate knowledge recall, with teaching via brief, focused learning units reducing cognitive load.

Lifecoach Judith McAdam shares how this method can have the same results in our day-to-day lives too.

“I’m a great believer in taking just one step at a time. I call it ‘tweaking, etching, and shimming’ our way forward rather than overwhelming ourselves with massive changes that become unachievable. Micro-practices create huge shifts over a period of time without the pressure that causes people to abandon their intentions altogether.”

Mini rituals

Keen to see if this approach could be incorporated into my own life, I spent a week trying out mini rituals — from movement to mingling.

By the end of the week, I felt like a new, high-achieving person. I could fit almost everything I wanted to do into my day by simply dropping the pressure to do it perfectly and instead doing it how I could.

Exercise: Microdosing movement was the most successful part of this experiment, and the area I’ll continue to incorporate the most.

Instead of committing myself to a reformer pilates class or a two-hour gym session a couple of times a week, I moved my body in shorter, more frequent spurts, with realistic interludes of exercise.

When it comes to the gym, getting dressed, taking myself there, and then feeling obliged to spend a solid chunk of time exercising to justify the trip was often enough to stop me from going at all. As a result, I would work out maybe once or twice a week. After discovering bite-sized workouts, I now work out at home at least five days a week.

My exercise looks different each day; one day it could be a 10-minute skipping session, and other days it’s following a 20-minute pilates routine on YouTube. By making my workouts achievable, they no longer overwhelm me and have become easier to incorporate into my day, whether it’s during my lunch break or as I wait for dinner to cook in the air fryer.

Socialising: Although I’m a big believer in community and making time for it, sometimes there simply isn’t enough time or funds for three dinner-and-drinks catch-ups per week. Instead, I looked for ways to squeeze in some quality time with friends and family throughout my week.

The lunchtime and after-work walks and talks proved to be the most effective.

In a long-distance relationship with my boyfriend, who lives in Britain, we incorporated a quick 30-minute catch-up and debrief while both on our respective lunchtime strolls.

I also made plans with my cousin, who lives nearby, to grab a coffee and chat as we walked through a local park. I got my dog out for his daily walk, I got my steps in, and I got to socialise — all within an hour.

Reading: I got myself out of a recent reading slump by taking the pressure off reading. It might sound counterintuitive, but instead of only picking up my book when I could sit and read at least a couple of chapters, I grabbed it whenever I had a spare few minutes and blasted out some pages then and there.

Keeping my book with me at all times, I read while I was waiting for the train, in a dermatologist’s reception, while the kettle boiled, for five minutes to wake up my eyes in the morning, instead of grabbing my phone. By the end of each week, I had almost read an entire book.

Culture: Like many, I am addicted to my phone. In a bid to counter some of the miles of scrolling I do on a daily, I turned that time into an opportunity for culture and education.

I did this by swapping out a snoop on Instagram for watching quick TED Talk clips on topics like “how to add more fun to your life” and “the recipe for a great story”. I also started to listen to more podcasts while I showered or did my skincare. By the end of the week, I felt more in the loop of what was happening in the world without feeling stressed or overwhelmed by an influx of bad news, as I would on my usual doomscroll escapades.

Nutrition: If I’m being honest with myself, it’s unlikely I get my five a day every day. While it’s unrealistic and probably unnecessary to overhaul my diet, it’s an area I can certainly improve. To do this, I introduced small amounts of nutritious food and supplements to my daily diet. I tried the social media viral carrot salad as a side to my chicken wrap at lunch, added a handful of rocket to my homemade pizzas, and heaped a spoonful of powdered collagen into my morning green tea.

The changes were small and easy to make. By the end of the week, I was getting in more greens and nutrients than the previous week, and my energy levels felt better for it.