Get fit with a tiny exercise routine
Are you planning drastic, far-reaching new year’s resolutions? Stop! Making tiny (almost stupidly tiny) changes will be more lasting in the long run. Oliver Burkeman tells you how
![Get fit with a tiny exercise routine](https://dev.psychologies.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2014/12/iStock_000010060150_starting_to_run-1.jpg?w=1080)
One big advantage of mini-habits is how they sneak beneath the mind’s radar, evading our inbuilt tendency to resist change.
If you’ve never been running, a goal of a mile a day is too intimidating, and will trigger procrastination; a goal of 30 seconds a day, on the other hand, is laughable – and what’s laughable can’t also be scary.
‘In school, when I was trying to acquire the habit of running, I ran down the street until I’d passed just three houses, then I turned back,’ says Gretchen Rubin, author of The Happiness Project (Harper, £6.99) and a forthcoming book on habits, Better Than Before (Two Roads, £16.99, to be published in March 2015). ‘After a few runs like that, I ran past four houses. Over time, I worked up to a few miles. Taking small steps helped me to keep running long enough to make a habit of it.’
Research suggests people stick to moderate exercise plans longer than more vigorous ones.
Alternatively, try SaluteTheDesk.com (£2.49), an app encouraging yoga stretches at work.
More inspiration:
Sign up for our Life Labs Practical Wisdom online course Achieve Your Goals here
Read Make one change happen by Vanessa Anstee on LifeLabs
Read 5 ways to feel more balanced, every day by Eminé Ali Rushton on LifeLabs
Photograph: iStock