12 Lessons from 30 days of 4 micro-habits

An August of fine-tuning my daily routine, and what I found there.

At the beginning of August, a little over three months into my unanticipated sabbatical from government employment, I decided that it was time to introduce a bit more structure into not just my weeks, but my daily routine as well. And, to be fully transparent, I’m a very reluctant social media poster and thought the exercise might help me generate some content. I settled on four micro-habits:

• Morning pages: I’ve always had a haphazard relationship with journaling. I decided it might be fruitful to formalize it.

• Sun salutations: I’ve had a longstanding commitment to doing 12 sun salutations every morning, but had lost the habit to morning chores and dog-walking. Feeling a chatturanga deficit in my life, I decided to address it.

• Music: As a former band nerd, it seemed unthinkable that I no longer play music regularly. I’d also brought my mother’s (beautiful) old classical guitar back from Iowa in November, and its neglect was starting to be noticeable.

• Meditation: During my yoga teacher tra…