Because I’m so much smaller than I’d like to be, self-improvement is always on my mind.

I would like to be a better writer. I want to be a better husband and father and friend. I want to get better at speaking Spanish and playing the French horn. I want to continue improving my Jiu-Jitsu. In fact, I want to get better at pretty much everything I do.

Except golf. I have thankfully given up on trying to improve my golf game…

Granted, I get a lot done every day. Way more things than I ever imagined I could do before I developed the time management system I now use. But I’m still bound by the damn 24-hour limit for each day.

And so, despite my best efforts, I’ve had to accept the fact that I’ll never have the time I need to get better at everything.

Until recently, that is, when I came up with my “60-second solution” to the problem.

Let me take yoga as an example. Because I spend 4 or 5 hours every week wrestling, my body needs a counter exercise to stretch and open me up. Yoga is the thing. Ideally, I would spend 30 minutes doing yoga for every hour I spend doing Jiu Jitsu. I don’t have time for that. But I have time to spend a minute or two doing yoga every day. So that’s what I’ve done. And while my mini-yoga sessions hardly equal what I could do in half an hour, they are far better—physically and mentally—than doing nothing at all.

Meditation is another example. I know from experience that it is really good for me. It calms me down and puts me in a better, more productive mood. There is no doubt that I would get ideal results if I meditated for 20 or 30 or even 60 minutes a day. But my schedule doesn’t allow it. Instead, I have started meditating for just 3 to 5 minutes. I do it first thing in the morning before I even get out of bed. And I do it when I feel stressed and almost always before I go to sleep.

These micro-meditations are of course less powerful. But they still work! In fact, I was pleased to find that there are several apps out there that allow you to adjust the timing of a guided meditation to your liking. Some days I do 10 minutes. Some days I do 5 or even 3. I know more is better – but some, I’ve found, is better than none. (By the way, I’ve tried a dozen apps. The one I prefer is probably the most well-known: Headspace. I love that guy’s voice!)

I use the same strategy for training. My standard workout is very vigorous and takes about an hour. My current schedule allows me to do it twice a week, which is really (at my age) all my body needs. But when I’m traveling or when I miss a workout, I can do a micro workout. I have two versions. The 1-minute version consists of 25 pushups and 25 Hindu squats. The 2-minute version adds 30 seconds of abs and 30 seconds of back/biceps.

A minute or two of hard training does not compare to my standard training. But when I can’t do that, these micro workouts are very helpful in maintaining my fitness.

My morning routine these days consists of four micro-exercises.

Only after waking up do I sit on the side of my bed and meditate. I do it as long as it feels comfortable. Even if my goal is only a minute or two, I typically do it for at least 5 minutes.

Then, after showering, I do a micro-workout and then a micro-yoga session. And while I’m brushing my hair, I’m doing a micro-smiling session. (Smiling is not something I am very good at. Forcing myself to smile in front of the mirror every morning boosts my mood.)

These micro-exercises take such a ridiculous amount of time that they pose no psychological threat to me. I never feel, as I often do with more ambitious self-improvement exercises, that I have neither the energy nor the time.

I’ve been doing them for a while now, and I can honestly tell you that (a) I’ve never missed a day, and (b) it feels great to know that I’m doing these things as I hoped, but failed to do in the past.

And now I ask myself: What other neglected self-improvement goals can I reduce to micro-exercises?

What about singing? I can definitely find a minute or two each day to practice the scale.

I can do the same with language. There are dozens of apps that I can use to improve my vocabulary or grammar in just a few minutes a day.

I already know this is going to be fun.

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Mark Morgan Ford

Mark Morgan Ford was the creator of Early To Rise. In 2011 Mark retired from ETR and now writes Wealth Builders Club. His advice, in our opinion, continues to get better and better with each essay, especially in the controversial ones we’ve shared today. We encourage you to read everything you can that is written by Mark.