The Life-Changing Micro Habit That Requires 15 Minutes (Or Less)

It’s easy to think that in order to make big changes in our lives, we need to do big things. But micro habits — small actions you do daily — can make just as much of a difference, if not more.
It takes the average person 66 days to build a habit. So, smaller and more manageable actions you can stick with are best.

Micro habits can include taking three deep breaths as soon as you wake up, going for a 10-minute walk on your lunch break, and reaching out to one person in your industry each day. These actions alone won’t transform your health or career. But when you do them daily, they’ll add up to a clear mind, strong body, and powerful network.

And there’s one micro habit in particular that can help you level up every area of your life at once: learning something new each day.

Make Learning Something New Your Next Micro Habit

Blinkist is an app that gathers the key ideas from nonfiction books and shares them as a bite-sized explainer. There are 5,500 books available on the app across 27 categories like personal development, psychology, and entrepreneurship.

The best part? It only takes 15 minutes to read or listen to a Blinkist explainer, so it’s easy to make learning something new each day a micro habit.

You’re not just discovering the world’s best books, though. You’re learning the skills you need to upgrade any area of your life — like your career, your relationships, and your health — one day at a time.

Here’s how the app works.

Get to the Heart of a Book in 15 Minutes

Blinkist’s team of expert researchers and writers read entire books and pull out only the most important information to share in a bite-sized explainer.

You only need around 15 minutes or so to get through these explainers, so it’s the ideal amount of time to make it a micro habit. It may be small, but in this chunk of time, you’ll get all of the actionable advice, interesting insights, and entertaining anecdotes from a book.

Learn About Habits While Creating One For Yourself

You can learn about micro habits themselves with Blinkist’s explainers of books like Atomic Habits and Tiny Habits.

“In order to design successful habits and change your behaviors, you should do three things. Stop judging yourself. Take your aspirations and break them down into tiny behaviors. Embrace mistakes as discoveries and use them to move forward.”

B. J. Fogg, Tiny Habits.

Blinkist even has recommended reading lists tailored for those looking to make or break habits. The team has rounded up the Best Books on Habits and created a collection for making New Habits in 7 Days.

Try Habit Stacking by Listening on the Go

Habit stacking is when you pair a new habit you want to build with a habit or activity you already do each day.

Blinkist’s explainers are available in audio form, so you can listen to them on the go, and pair them with daily activities you already do like going to the gym, cooking dinner, or taking a morning walk.

Even without habit stacking, you can listen to Blinkist while commuting or getting ready in the morning, making this micro habit an easy addition to your daily routine.

One of the World’s Best Apps for Building a Habit

Blinkist users have proven you can make real changes using the app: 91% have created better habits and 87% have made positive changes based on what they’ve learned.

And the rest of the world has taken notice of how powerful Blinkist can be. The app’s won awards from Google and the United Nations, and it’s been praised by Forbes and The New York Times, and Apple named it one of the top 20 apps for lifelong learners.

25 Million Users Have Already Made Blinkist a Micro Habit

Blinkist has 25 million users around the world who already use the app in their daily lives. They’re turning reading, learning, and personal development into a micro habit.

And they’re not shy about sharing the love. They’ve given the app 94,000 5-star ratings across app stores.

Here’s what some users who have made Blinkist a habit have to say:

Expand Your Horizons and Improve by 1% Each Day

The point of micro habits is they make your life better. Using Blinkist will not only give you an enjoyable bite-sized read or listen each day, it’ll help you level up your life in any area that’s important to you.

The library has categories on leadership, entrepreneurship, health, relationships, and productivity, for example. And it’s always growing — the team adds 70 new books each month, including the latest trending titles and New York Times bestsellers.

With Blinkist as a micro habit, you’ll be expanding your horizons and learning something new, making yourself that little bit better each day.

Make reading and learning something your micro habit. Download Blinkist to make it happen.