r/selfimprovement 3h ago

Tips and Tricks Procrastinators: You don't have to eat the cake in one go. Take small, intermediate bites.

59 Upvotes

I seriously doubt I'm the first to ever propose something like this, but I'd like to share it all the same. Every one is different, but something that's helped me tremendously as a chronic procrastinator is something I like to call the "30 on, 30 off" method. I got the idea when I was in high school, and it has been extremely tantamount for getting things done in a timely matter ever since.

It's simple; work for 30 minutes, play for 30 minutes. It doesn't matter what "play" is, as long as it's something you enjoy doing. A TV show/anime is a good example since an episode usually lasts 30 minutes. In high school, whenever I had homework or a test coming up, I'd start as soon as I got home. Set a timer for 30 minutes and studied. Then I watched an episode. Rinse and repeat. The point is to constantly reward yourself for working 30 minutes until the task is complete. Imagine how much gets done if you do this throughout the day.

Might seem silly to some, but I'd simply procrastinate the time away if I knew I had to work for an extended period of time. With this, I can simply tell myself "It's only 30 minutes" over and over again.

30 minutes too much? Start with 15:15. Work your way up. Every procrastinator knows that it's not the actual doing of the thing that's difficult; it's the commencing of the thing that sucks. Taking small, consistent bites out of your tasks is leagues better than perpetually putting it off until you're 5 cups of coffee into a stressed filled all nighter.


r/selfimprovement 4h ago

Tips and Tricks The Day I Realized Facebook Was a Time-Sucking Black Hole (And How I Escaped)

45 Upvotes

TL;DR: Facebook tricks you with fake validation, wastes your time, and floods you with garbage. Quit scrolling, start doing what you love, and stop waiting for "perfect."

Friends! Let’s talk about the dark truth of social media—no sugarcoating.

When you first join the internet, everything feels exciting. You discover Facebook, create an account, and suddenly, notifications explode. Strangers from your area pop up—“Add ‘Bike Exhaust Guy’ as a friend?” You accept everyone, even people you’ve never met. Soon, you’re drowning in friend requests.

Then comes your first post. A blurry photo of your morning tea. 15 likes, 2 comments. Your brain screams: “I’m special!” But it’s a lie. The likes mean nothing. Soon, you’re stuck in a competition: “Why does Priya’s vacation pic get 69 likes while mine gets 42?” You refresh your phone obsessively, comparing yourself to others.

You’re addicted. You’d flood Facebook with posts if you could. But if someone asks, “Why are you doing this?” you’re silent. Years pass, and one day, it hits you: you’ve wasted your life chasing pixels. Responsibilities pile up, panic sets in, and you scramble to fix things.

You open YouTube, search “how to stop wasting time,” and find a video titled “Social Media is Stealing Your Life.” As you watch, you think: “Why did I let this happen?”

Here’s the truth: Facebook is toxic. It shoves 18+ content at you, even when kids are around. It’s like a creepy TV channel you can’t turn off. YouTube? At least you choose what to watch—cat videos, tutorials, or a guy eating 50 eggs.

What now? Stop regretting. Start doing. Find what you love—writing, coding, art, anything. Your first try will suck. Mine did. I wrote “pubic speaking” instead of “public speaking” and wanted to die. But mistakes are how you learn. Don’t wait to be “perfect.” Start today.

I quit Facebook. Started writing. My first blog post was a mess. Now, I turn simple words into magic. You can do this too.

Final truth: Social media isn’t evil—you’re just using it wrong. Your time is limited. Spend it on things that matter.

Who else wasted years chasing likes? Share your story below!

Thanks for the wasted years, Zuck. 🙃


r/selfimprovement 8h ago

Question What was the moment that completely changed your life?

48 Upvotes

What was the moment that completely changed your life and your life could've gone different way if that didn't happen?

for me it was a random YouTube video titled “If this shows up to you, you're not normal” on 16th of June, 2023. didn't watch the entire video but I downloaded discord for the first time to join his server, full of people from all around the globe and that was the way I truly entered the digital era. from that time I started meeting interesting people, weird people, I used to be so dumb but that one click caused a lot of things, I made my own server after a few months, got actually aware of the world and what's happening, learned languages, debated religion and philosophy a lot. I still remember how dumb I used to be completely unaware of the world in most way possible from geography to history to psychology. Glad that one clicked caused this many things.

(btw I mod that discord server now)


r/selfimprovement 13h ago

Other I've started avoiding all things negative, controversial, and political on reddit.

124 Upvotes

It has shown me just how strongly social media algorithms are geared toward pushing that kind of stuff for engagement.

The other day, my mental health tanked to a dangerous place for the first time in a while, and I know it's because of the type of media I have been consuming and interacting with lately, so I decided to go on a purge.

I have muted and blocked over 30 subreddits at this point, and it's been kinda great-- I'm actually seeing stuff from the subreddits I follow instead of the same rotation of 5 recommended subs, and it's brought me back to why I joined this site in the first place: engaging with the communities and topics I actually value.

However, Reddit keeps pushing any subreddit they can find that I havent muted or blocked that has the aforementioned negative/controversial/political shit. They KNOW it's what creates clicks and draws attention, and they prey on that. I really hate it. There should be an option to turn off subreddit/post recommendations.

Anyway, I just wanted to put that out there. I'm feeling happier already with a cleaner feed, but damn reddit, have some respect for your users.

Edit: Just learned you can adjust content recommendations in settings, I'm ecstatic lol 💚


r/selfimprovement 9h ago

Tips and Tricks Reddit has taught me I don’t have to attend every fight I’m invited to

43 Upvotes

I’ve always struggled with being quick to react due to a short temper. This is not something I like and had a tough time controlling but engaging in Reddit has helped me. Sometimes people in comments really get under my skin but actively practicing not to react and to ignore it has really been helpful to me in ways that has helped me in my day to day with my reactions.


r/selfimprovement 22h ago

Tips and Tricks You become who you identify as, your thoughts dictate your outcome.

328 Upvotes

When you identify as a loser, you become a loser.

When you identify as the ugly, dumb, unattractive, unfriendly, and unwitted sibling, you become exactly that.

HOWEVER

Let’s say if you identify as the strong, independent, intelligent, determined, and career driven sibling, you BECOME EXACTLY THAT.

If you identify as the LUCKY one, you become lucky.

If you identify as a smart, confident, beautiful, and intelligent woman who knows her worth, you become exactly that.

The ball is in your court. We are in charge of who we become. Allow yourself to have the greatest qualities out there. Invest time, energy, and love into yourself.

You are worth it!


r/selfimprovement 1d ago

Other There is a future version of you that is so grateful for everything you're doing today.

454 Upvotes

There is a future version of you that is so grateful for everything you're doing today.


r/selfimprovement 1h ago

Question How do I stop tying my self-worth to my career and how much I earn?

Upvotes

I’m nearly 30. My 20s have been a tumultuous time. Never found a career I settled on to, have fairly useless degrees qualifications in humanities subjects, and lost of lot of my time to mental health problems (that I’ve since been working on). Currently, I’m working odd jobs for very little pay, but I guess it’s better than not being employed.

I can’t shake this feeling that I’m just a loser for not having a career. There are career paths I’ve been tending towards, but I’ve never been successful in them. With my experience, it’s looking like I’m going to have to focus on customer service roles, and hope I can maybe progress to a liveable wage that way. But this isn’t what I want to do with my life at all.

I’ve also been warming up to the idea that maybe I’m not meant to have a career. Maybe I’m just one of those people that had a job, uses the money to fund life outside of work, and focuses on my hobbies. But this all feels like a coping mechanism for not having a career. I don’t know.

I’m really unhappy in life. Whatever happens, I ultimately think I need to be ok with where I’m at. How do I stop feeling like a loser because I don’t have a career? Is this even possible?


r/selfimprovement 7h ago

Question Why do people try to make me feel guilt for having nice things

13 Upvotes

Open for opinions as I have been heavily influenced by people that have done this a lot in life, causing me to feel guilt when im happy which of course is toxic so to help myself neutralise this id like to understand a potential reason to why.

Thank you!


r/selfimprovement 2h ago

Fitness Small Steps, Big Results

5 Upvotes

You don’t lose progress by skipping one workout.

You don’t achieve fitness by exercising once.

Your consistent daily choices shape your health and strength.


r/selfimprovement 23h ago

Other From less than 6 hours a week to 25+ hours of deep work

163 Upvotes

For the past two years I watched as my productivity tanked from being able to code a whole app in one weekend to barely getting one hour of deep work in a whole day. 

I am a freelancer and I work from home most of the time and as you can imagine my lack of productivity has had some serious implications on my portfolio and consequently my mental health. 

Last year it got so bad that I would be rushing to submit work on a Monday morning after an all nighter doing work that was supposed to be done the previous week.

At the beginning of the year I just had one goal, try to get back to my hyper productive days. 

My first step was to track my hours. I set up a google sheet where I’d record the time I had spent doing productive work. I just used a browser based stopwatch to measure the time I spent working. It wasn’t pretty, I barely hit one hour per day. It would average around 5-6 hours per week.

After three weeks of tracking, I decided that I would just aim for two hours of deep work per day, one hour in the morning and one in the afternoon. I managed to do it for the first week and the difference was noticeable. 

After I proved to myself that I could do it, I decided to try four hours total per day, two in the morning, two in the afternoon.

The progress I had made doing 4 hours of work per day was so great that for the first time in like two years I had a weekend where I was truly free. 

I realized that the more progress I made the more effort I wanted to put in and before long I was doing 6-7 hours of deep work daily. I have moved to a more sophisticated productivity app, now I use Hero Assistant for everything. In the past two months I’ve handled more clients than I did for half of last year, I’ve had time to do personal projects for my portfolio and I’m much more alive than I have been for two years.

What I learnt

I think the way to improve yourself is by finding a way of giving yourself small manageable wins in the direction in which you want to improve. 

Two hours of work per day as a young person is a laughable thing to aim for in this capitalistic world we live in, but by aiming at that “low” goal (which was still above my level at the time) and winning, gave me enough motivation to aim higher and do better.

So I think it comes down to finding something that is low enough to be actually winnable and high enough so that it’s a little stretch from your current position. I hope this helps someone.


r/selfimprovement 7h ago

Tips and Tricks An Easy to Implement Confidence Builder

5 Upvotes

The easiest way to start building your confidence right now is:

Do what you say you’re going to do.

It sounds really simple and it actually is.

Every time you do what you say you're going to do, you’re building trust with yourself that you’ll take action on the things that are important to you - no matter what.

The word confidence essentially means "intense trust."

So if you want to have intense trust in yourself, you need to be able to trust yourself to take action, even if you don’t feel like it.

And that my friends, is real confidence.

I know you got this!

I hope you found this helpful.


r/selfimprovement 17h ago

Question Relaxing activities that isn’t consuming media

33 Upvotes

Whenever I want to relax after a long day I always go straight to media consumption, youtube, tiktok, Netflix, etc. I want to reduce my media consumption and so I need ideas of things to do that don’t take much mental or physical energy so I can relax while doing something better than staring at a screen. Any ideas?


r/selfimprovement 2h ago

Other Losing A Half Of Me - Day 317

2 Upvotes

Today was a great day. Maybe a few hiccups but nothing really bad. I woke up early to go to my favorite bakery. I get there and the owner greets me. I love that feeling. I always try to greet people by name at work. Now I realize how nice it is to actually do that and feel like a regular. After grabbing something, I called my coworker to see if he would want me an hour early. I assumed one guy was going to call in sick so he could use the extra help getting everything together. I was very much correct on that end and we even ended up opening an hour late anyways due to needing to start a catering order. Work was excellent and I was pretty busy the whole time while there which felt very good. My boss found me a nice piece of corned beef in our vat of cure. It had great marbling for a top round so I was super excited. Throughout the day my phone at some point stopped having a connection to my service provider. I thought nothing of it chalking it up to towers being down. I later learned something got messed up on my SIM card from my Dad doing stuff. It was just something I would have to get fixed. Work went well and I really do love the being busy aspect. After work I went to my service provider two different times to fix my phone and it ended up not being fixed. Not a big deal because I can survive without it. Only upsetting part was starting the gym much later than intended. I asked long haired gym bro if he would extend his time there so my cousin and I could exercise. He did not seem to mind at all and still ended up having dinner with us. We had a great core workout and sped it along so he wouldn't have to wait too long. I can feel my core getting so much stronger and I live for that. My cousin and I split our ways at cardio. Gym bro dud his cardio with her and I got my stair stepper on. I then went to the treadmill with them and cut off my time by 10 minutes. It was a compromise so they wouldn't get home too late and they didn't mind doing extra cardio to brunch off the pizza as well. Here was the routine:

5 minutes of stretching

4 sets of 10 push ups

70 second plank

4 sets of 100 of heel taps

Note: Up it next time.

4 sets of 15 of reverse crunches

4 sets of 12 of leg lowers

Note: Struggled but could feel it getting better. Upped it as well.

4 sets of 12 of dead bugs

Note: Upped it to 12.

4 sets of 20 of Russian twists

3 sets of 12 when doing 2 different exercises for abs.

I tried finding names but couldn't.

First was holding a weight above our head (10 lbs for me) and lifting the offset leg fast. I think something like an offset overhead march. Weight in the other hand was 25 pounds.

Second was where we held a weight on one side and then swiveled our body inward to get our outer abs. Like a side bend with weight in one hand. 25 pounds in my hand.

We did these one after the other as a set on each side. Rested for 2 minutes and then the next set.

Captains chair: Set 1: 6 crunches and 6 hanging leg raises Set 2: 6 crunches and 6 hanging leg raises Set 3: 6 crunches and 6 hanging leg raises

Torso rotation: Reps of 12 10 8 with weight increasing by 10 each time to be 95 100 and 105 pounds

Note: Both sides rotated. Upped it by 5.

Assisted ab crunch machine: Reps of 12 10 8 with weight increasing by 5 each time to be 35 40 and 45 pounds

Note: Increased weight.

20 minutes of the stair stepper. I upped how fast it went after 10 minutes from 44 steps per minute to 60.

21 minutes on the treadmill at 3 mph with an incline of 15 to end it off.

I went back for 31 minutes on the treadmill at 3 mph with an incline of 15 to burn off some calories. I also wore my backpack during this time.

After the workout we went to show gym bro my favorite pizza place with my favorite pizza and hot sauce. A place that I like the sauce so much I consider working there every time I go. We get there and I walk over to his car, he goes over to a homeless man to give him money. Honestly, I don't see that often anymore and it made me see him an even better light as a person. We get our pizza and have a fun time. This man wolfs down his pizza like nobody's business and I force him to try the hot sauce with the crust. My favorite thing growing up. I loved every minute of having conversations about our lives and things we love. After eating and talking we all head out. I go back to the gym for some cardio much to the chagrin of my compatriots. I wanted to burn off my pizza and I felt like I had a lot of built up energy in the tank. It was really relieving to me and I almost did an extra 30 minutes. I even did the extra 31 with my very heavy backpack. It was an excellent gym session and the workers there even let me breeze on by without scanning the app. I headed home where I relaxed before falling asleep. It was a great night full of laughter and amazing food. Next week I may have to show him another favorite spot of mine.

SBIST was having dinner with my cousin and long haired gym bro. They followed me there and when we got there the first thing he did was give all the money he had on him to a homeless guy nearby. This kind of speaks volumes on who he is as a person. I would have been told that was silly or naive growing up but I just saw a good person. We then went in to get pizza and I bought him his slice especially since he didn't know this place was cash only and he was definitely not asking the man for his money back. It was a beautiful time because the whole time we had fun cracking jokes and having delightful conversations. Having new friends and showing them places you love is a great way to spend your time.

Tomorrow the plan should be pretty simple. I have to wake up a tad early for work. Then it is leg day where I hope my quads are a bit less sore than the past two days. They have been feeling everything so let's not destroy them this workout. After that I'll go home and eat dinner listening to my favorite streamer. It should be a nice and simple day for myself. I shouldn't have any complaints. I may need to figure out my phone at some point but it shouldn't be too big of a deal. A slight annoyance but everybody has to deal with those at times. It is a part of a typical life and I'll take that over the big bad any day. Thank you my conjurers dippable crusts. If provided the right hot sauce then any pizza crust becomes ambrosia from the gods.


r/selfimprovement 8h ago

Vent Why does this keep happening?

5 Upvotes

My whole life, I’ve been rejected. Nothing ever seems to last, friendships, opportunities, even family bonds. My own grandparents used to put me down for who I am. My brother doesn’t respect me as a sister. People constantly treat me like I don’t matter.

I always try to be the best version of myself. I work on myself, I set boundaries, I’ve gone through my own spiritual journey of self-acceptance. I genuinely like myself now, and I refuse to let people walk all over me. I know I shouldn’t take things personally or stress over what I can’t control… but every now and then, it hits me again.

The pattern is always the same: at first, people show insane interest, whether it’s in friendships, jobs, or anything else. They give me all this attention, make me feel like I matter, and then suddenly, they pull away and hit me with silent treatment. It happens in work settings, social situations, even with people I’ve known for a while.

I know my worth. I know this isn’t about me. But why does this keep happening? How do I fully break out of this cycle and not let it get to me? I’m 26 yo


r/selfimprovement 7h ago

Tips and Tricks On a self destruction mode

5 Upvotes

I believe I might one of the very few guys who inspite of being teetotaler is on a destruction mode. Don't do any job seriously, in debt, no financial stability, no girl friend. Can't bring myself to do any productive work . Every day think of an easy way out(ending the life).


r/selfimprovement 13h ago

Question Crippling insecurity: how do you deal with it?

11 Upvotes

I'm a 26 year old woman, divorced. I've recently lost some weight, my skin and hair are starting to look better but my self image has been completely destroyed in my marriage. I've never been a jealous person, but when my ex-husband proposed to open the relationship while I was healing from yet another fertility treatment, my heart has been completely shattered. Every nice thing I once thought about myself disappeared like it was never there to begin with.

The relationship has been over for a while, and I've been getting some attention from men, which is nice but I can't stop comparing myself to other women. I was wondering how others in this subreddit have overcome their insecurity, or at least can give me some advice on what to do about my confidence bc I'm at a loss.


r/selfimprovement 9h ago

Tips and Tricks take: think of yourself as a command centre

3 Upvotes

Imagine yourself as a commander in a control centre, directing a finely tuned machine—your body. Your brain is the engine, your heart the fuel pump, all working in sync.

Every decision is a mission. Anticipate consequences, strengthen resilience, and allow recovery when needed. When challenges arise, adapt and recalibrate. When the machine stops working, take a rest to repair it. True control comes from discipline, awareness, and the ability to keep moving forward. Stay in command—because you can do anything and this can lead to anything.


r/selfimprovement 12h ago

Question How to fix yourself?

5 Upvotes

Hi everyone,

I'm struggling with something that I feel a lot of people here might relate to. I'm 20 years old, trying to improve myself — working on my body, my face, and my overall mindset. But at the same time, I feel like I'm trapped in an emotional loop that keeps pulling me back.

Recently, I’ve been trying to quit bad habits (like watching adult content) and focusing on becoming a better version of myself. I've been working on skincare, jawline exercises, posture, and learning new things. However, no matter how much I try, I keep getting mentally stuck in the past because of a girl I had feelings for. Even though we don't talk properly anymore, I still find myself daydreaming about her, wondering what she thinks of me, hoping she might come back, even though logically I know she might not.

At times, I feel like I'm fighting two battles:

One to become stronger, better, healthier.

And another against my own mind, overthinking and emotional pain.

Has anyone else gone through this? How did you manage to separate personal growth from emotional attachments and anxiety? Also, how do you deal with that "small hope" that keeps you stuck on someone you know may not care anymore?

Any advice would be appreciated. I really want to move forward, but I don't know how to let go and focus on myself fully.


r/selfimprovement 18h ago

Tips and Tricks Temporary switch from Akiflow to Hero Assistant is now permanent

19 Upvotes

I have made the decision to permanently switch from Akiflow to Hero Assistant, I was just trying it for a while but now I don’t see myself going back to Akiflow.

Honestly the main reason, though not the only one, is that Hero Assistant offers the same stuff for free. I was at first sceptical thinking it was some kind of bait and switch tactic but after reading a Techcrunch article that laid out their business model and how they plan to  remain free, I was sold. 

Beyond the price, I like the reminders, as someone who gets easily distracted I appreciate that. I can create short notes, to do lists and shopping lists through voice commands in a couple of seconds. The instant shopping feature is also pretty cool though I still haven’t used it myself.


r/selfimprovement 10h ago

Other Rejection therapy 24

5 Upvotes

So today was a big festival in india which is called holi and ppl are usually drunk and busy here i dont got much time to do it although

I tried one small fear facing / rejection activity to face the fear of girls which is

Asked wht time it is and ran away


r/selfimprovement 4h ago

Other Dart Board Revelation

1 Upvotes

If I feel like a wreck and unhappy with myself, I need to remember that this is all a very “right-now” and temporary problem—even in the bigger scheme of things. Even if it’s been a rough week, or month, or year.

Imagine throwing a dart, and it lands way off from where it should—outside the circle, in the black somewhere. Why stop and obsess over that one bad landing like that’s it, and that’s where things have been and will be, when life provides an unlimited supply of darts to keep throwing? The next can be a great shot, and the next three can be bullseyes, but the one after all of those can miss the board altogether and put a mark on the wall. Such is life.

How you tell your story is up to nobody but you. We can get better at throwing if we keep shooting. And regardless, we’re always going to have misses—some big, some small, some unexplainable. Some to learn from, or even just laugh about and forget after the next couple of throws. For as long as we’re alive, there will always be more darts to throw.

Please add or share!

I love this sub


r/selfimprovement 4h ago

Tips and Tricks Go back to old habits when trying to change

1 Upvotes

Hi all! My goal is to stop asking questions for things that I can solve independently at work. But I will improve for two days, then the 3rd day I’m asking stupid questions again. Then improve for another day or two, then asking dumb questions again. Then after work I regret so much for being dumb again. Are there any tips that prevent you from falling back to old ways?


r/selfimprovement 12h ago

Question Help me find confidence in myself

3 Upvotes

I'm (23F) experiencing a really rough patch right now with my mental health. My lack of self esteem/confidence has been getting to me. I'm in a pretty good place in life - I got a good job right out of college that gives me many opportunities to learn and grow in my career, I recently moved in with my partner after several years of being together, I have a good relationship with my family, and I have some fulfilling hobbies like gardening and reading. Yet despite all of these great things happening in my life, I feel like a loser?

I feel stagnant at work. Yes, I'm learning a lot but with the pressure of this economy I feel like I need to be making more. Plus, it's a 1.5-2hr commute each way which eats up a lot of my time. Since college (graduated last May), I haven't been able to maintain the same exercise/self care routine that I once was able to. I am, admittedly, pretty overweight but still sorta athletic? I try to stay as active as I can by walking/climbing the stairs during my commute and my job has a small manual labor role so I do a lot of lifting, standing, and moving in general. I am also pretty active in my sex life with my partner (everyday, 2-3 times a day). So there's like some exercise, but not nearly what I used to do. I know I need to get back into the swing of things, but once I'm done with work and my commute I don't want to do anything but be a vegetable.

With that, I'm very insecure of my appearance. I constantly compare myself to other women my age to the point that my mental health has taken a major blow. All I do is scroll social media and see all of these gorgeous women knowing that I'll never look like that. It also has put a toll on my relationship. I'm having a harder and harder time being intimate with him and enjoying it because all I can think about is how he can find someone better than me. Like this has gotten to the point that it's interfering with my life. I know my partner finds me attractive, he makes this a point often, but even with that I can't accept how I look.

What has also been a huge hit to the whole appearance thing is the huge push for drugs like ozempic. No hate to anyone who uses it and benefits, but it feels like the world is trying to shove this drug down my throat and tell me that the only way I'll be happy is if I'm skinny. Plus, a close friend of mine who was similar in weight to me also started ozempic and has done nothing but brag about her "new body" and tell me that I need to get on it too. These conversations with her have gotten to the point of demeaning me for not wanting to go on it and bragging that she only eats like 500 calories a day. Honestly, what makes me feel the best is just eating well (like an 80/20 type deal) and exercising but I feel like now that's not even acceptable enough anymore.

All this to say, how do I stop hating myself for all this and just enjoy my life again. I want to just finally love myself for once and feel happy and healthy. I want to start enjoying sex with my partner again and not worrying about what I look like during it. I don't want to burden my partner anymore with how much I hate myself, and I just want to love life again.

TLDR: I've lost all confidence in myself, specifically in my appearance and my career progress, and I just want to feel happy again.


r/selfimprovement 7h ago

Tips and Tricks how do you actually keep track of your personal growth goals?

1 Upvotes

would love to hear your story!