The fastest way to improve your life today is to pick small, specific actions you can finish in a day: clean your space, plan tomorrow, move your body, cut the junk, call one person and write your goals down. This list has 15 of them, in the order we would do them. With less than 70 days left in 2026, you still have time to finish the year better than you started it.
Hello Aluxers. Success is not a school project where you cram everything into the last week, but a strong final quarter is real, and these steps compound. If you prefer a person’s voice to text, here is the video version:
The 15 things at a glance
| # | Action | Time it takes today |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Read this article to the end and execute | 10 minutes |
| 2 | Stop expecting others to solve your life | 15 minutes to write the list |
| 3 | Clean up your space | 30 to 60 minutes |
| 4 | Cut sugar, fried food and excess alcohol | Every meal |
| 5 | Start reading a good book | 20 minutes |
| 6 | Reach out to an old friend | 5 minutes |
| 7 | Limit social media and entertainment | All day |
| 8 | Make a plan for tomorrow | 10 minutes |
| 9 | Wake up at the same hour every day | Starts tomorrow |
| 10 | Meditate for 20 minutes | 20 minutes |
| 11 | Find where you waste money | 30 minutes |
| 12 | Identify one way to earn more | 15 minutes |
| 13 | Find what makes you happy and what does not | 15 minutes |
| 14 | Track your goals | 20 minutes |
| 15 | Write down 5 goals for the next 6 months | 15 minutes |
1. Read this article to the end and execute
Reading a list is not enough. Having a vague idea of what you should be doing is not enough. Take yourself seriously for once and self-analyze your reality as you go. Pause when you need to, take notes, and decide how you will act on each point.
Most people think success is miraculous when it is really just planning and execution. Do not brush these steps off as obvious. Little changes add up, and by the end you should have what you need to make a real difference.
2. Stop expecting others to solve your life for you
Is it hard to improve your life? Are you worried, stressed, tired? So is everyone. The difference is that some people get off the couch and do something about it. Chances are you helped create the mess you are in, and even if you did not, nobody is going to drop out of the sky and fix it.
Change only happens when you change. Have an honest conversation with yourself. What are the biggest issues in your life right now? Which ones could you realistically solve if you pushed? Then make solving them a priority.
Problems stack up and bleed into each other until you feel paralyzed and hope they go away. They do not; they grow. Start small and build momentum. Soon you will find it easy to improve your life one domino at a time.
3. Clean up your space
Want a win today? Clean your environment. Start with your desk, then your room, then the rest of the house. There is a feeling of pride in looking back at the order you put into the chaos. You feel powerful because your actions are changing your surroundings.
Deep down we all prefer order to chaos, and cleaning is the first push in the right direction. Ask yourself the next question: what can I clean up about myself?
Resource: The Bedford Park House Is A Contemporary Example Of Clean Luxury
4. Cut sugar, fried food and excess alcohol
This will be a shock to your system. Most of us eat far more processed sugar than we realize. The World Health Organization has recommended keeping free sugars below 10% of daily energy, and below 5% for added benefit. Unless a medical condition or medication is involved, extra body fat usually traces back to what and how much we eat, and the fix is not complicated.
Swap soda for water. Swap fries for a salad. Swap some of the bread and pasta for vegetables and protein. Watch salt and alcohol too. Make the changes gradually if going all at once makes you tired and grumpy, and talk to a doctor first if you have a health condition.
Then add movement. The WHO guideline for adults is at least 150 minutes of moderate aerobic activity a week, which is a 20 minute walk a day. Every time you make the right choice you get a little smirk and the feeling of being back at the wheel of the machine called your body.
Eat less junk and drink more water. It is that simple. Drink some water right now. We will wait.
5. Start reading a good book
Pick one that inspires you to be more than you are right now. Reading exposes you to other people’s stories and lets you borrow wisdom from their experience. You get richer with every book you read.
Not sure where to start? We have made plenty of videos and articles for every mood and stage on our channel. If you want a straight recommendation, we suggest Can’t Hurt Me by David Goggins. It is about how willpower can carry you through anything life throws at you.
Audible is a friend of the channel, so if you go to alux.com/freebook and sign up, you can get the audiobook version free. Audio is a good option if you commute or walk, and you can pair it with step 4.
6. Reach out to an old friend
Remember when you thought you would change the world together, and the world ended up changing you? Relationships fade if you do not maintain them. Not because of bad blood; we simply get absorbed in everyday life. One message or call can rekindle a fading friendship.
Do it right now. No need to be fancy. Tell them you were thinking about them, which shows you still value the relationship. If you feel like it, invite them for a coffee or a meal. Reconnecting with someone you always vibed with is one of the cheapest ways to feel better. Public health bodies have been warning about loneliness for several years, including a 2023 advisory from the US Surgeon General, so a five minute message is worth sending.
7. Limit your social media and entertainment
This sounds odd coming from us, since our business relies on you watching our content. But it is a smart call. The first and last thing many people do each day is check a feed. They scroll for the first 30 to 45 minutes before getting out of bed, then do the same at night, looking at the polished version of other people’s lives.
The urge to fill every quiet moment with something is a big reason people struggle to answer who they are and what they want. It is even easier to do in 2026, with short video apps and AI-recommended feeds that never run out.
Try capping social media at 30 minutes a day and entertainment at 30 more, using the screen time settings on your phone to enforce it. See what your life looks like when you are left with yourself.
8. Make a plan for tomorrow
And then for the day after, and the week after. You do not get more done because you have only a vague idea of what should happen at some point. A plan turns wishful thinking into reality. Start with tomorrow: build a schedule, be specific, and include the things you have been postponing.
You can even use the 30 minutes of social media and 30 minutes of entertainment as rewards in the evening. Find a slot for the audiobook or a few pages of your book. The moment you plan your day, you take control of your time. That is how very successful people get so much done in the same 24 hours.
9. Wake up at the same hour every day
Going to bed earlier lets you wake a bit sooner and finish tasks before the world is awake. We have found that productivity drops after 11 pm, however hard we tried to justify it. Waking at the same hour every day, usually 7 am, lets us get more done before noon than many people do in a 9 to 5.
The common guidance for adults is to sleep seven or more hours a night, and a steady wake-up time makes that easier. When we have too much on our plate we may rejoin the 5 AM club, but running on 5 hours of sleep every night is not sustainable.
Resource: This Alarm Clock Wakes You With Freshly Brewed Coffee
10. Meditate for 20 minutes
Meditation is not magic. It is like cleaning your room, but inside your head. It helps you organize your thoughts and find creative answers, and it takes back control of your emotions. People will try to push your buttons, but you control the narrative. You become more aware of how you react, and if you keep at it long enough you find things in yourself you never knew.
Research on mindfulness suggests it supports self-control and self-regulation, which is what we noticed in ourselves. Start with 5 to 10 minutes if 20 feels long, and use a guided session if sitting in silence is hard. The Alux app has audio sessions you can use for this: get the Alux app.
11. Find out where you are wasting money
One idea runs through this whole article: control. Control is power, and control comes from understanding what is happening. The better your picture of reality, the more power you have to change it.
Start with the basics. How much money are you making, and where does it go? Export the last three months of card and bank transactions and sort them into categories. Most people are shocked, and many find subscriptions they forgot about. With US consumer prices up 3.7% over the 12 months to September 2026, leaks matter more. For some of you this will be the first time you have spare capital. What you do with it makes all the difference.
12. Identify one way you can earn more
You are either an employee or a business owner. Either way, think about how you could bring more money home.
Employees: ask for a raise. It may have been a long time since you got one, and your workload has probably grown. Do not pick a number out of the air. Look up what your role pays in your market, write down what you delivered in the last 12 months, and ask for a figure you can defend. Even an inflation-matching raise is easier for a boss to justify than losing and retraining you. If you do not feel you deserve one, tell your manager you want to earn more and are ready to take on more responsibility.
Business owners: the options are more creative, but they usually fall into one of three buckets.
- Up-sell your existing customers
- Market better to bring in new customers
- Create a new offer for a different market segment
If those fail, look at what you do now and find what could be done more efficiently. Think automation, which in 2026 includes AI tools for drafting, support and bookkeeping, and think volume.
13. Identify what makes you happy and what does not
Most people never take a minute to think about this. You might be the first in your family to sit down and examine how you experience life. Make a list of what brings you happiness and joy, and a second list of what you wish happened less.
The secret to winning at life is doing more of the first column and less of the second. Do not brush this off. Writing it down makes it harder than it seems, because you have to be honest, and that is where the useful part is. At the end you have a good picture of what to aim for.
14. Keep track of your goals
At the start of the year you set some goals. What happened to them? How many did you hit, and how far along are the rest? You can only improve what you can measure. Tracking progress shows what went wrong with some goals and what went right with others.
With the new year around the corner you will face another “new year, new me” moment, and unless you want a repeat, understand your past actions first. It feels like work because it is work, and only real work makes real progress.
15. Write down 5 things you want to accomplish in the next 6 months
Now that you know why you missed some goals, focus on what is ahead. Choose 5 goals, no more and no less, that you can achieve in 6 months. Do not go overboard: you will not make your first million in 6 months if your net worth was $50,000. Choose specific things that change your life, like taking the kids to the movies weekly, reading a book a month, taking on more responsibility at work and getting that raise.
Write the five on a piece of paper and stick it above your desk, or set them as your phone lock screen. If you want a framework, the Alux app has short sessions on goal-setting and habits: download the Alux app.
Out of all 15, which ones will you do today? Tell us in the comments.
Keep reading
- 15 little habits to have a better day: small daily habits that fit steps 8 to 10
- 15 steps to master self-discipline: how to keep doing the list when motivation fades
- 15 ways to invest in yourself: the next level after the first 15
Keep building with Alux: alux.com/meditation, alux.com/goals.
FAQ
What is the fastest way to improve your life today?
Clean your space, plan tomorrow and take a 20 minute walk. They take under two hours combined and build the momentum for bigger changes.
How do you improve your life when you feel stuck?
Write down your three biggest problems, pick the one you can realistically solve this week and take the smallest step on it today. Repeat daily.
How much sleep and exercise do you need?
The common guidance is seven or more hours of sleep for adults. The WHO recommends at least 150 minutes of moderate aerobic activity a week for adults aged 18 to 64.
How much social media is too much?
There is no universal limit, but we suggest capping social media at about 30 minutes a day and entertainment at 30 more, and not scrolling in the first hour after waking.
How do you ask for a raise?
Check market pay for your role, list what you delivered in the past 12 months and ask for a specific figure you can defend. With inflation at 3.7% in September 2026, a raise that only matches prices is the minimum to hold your ground.
How many goals should you set?
Five goals for the next six months is a good limit. It is enough to matter and few enough to track, and you should review them monthly.
Last updated: October 2026.
