By Leo Babauta

Every day for the last 4 months, I’ve studied chess. I’m no master (not even a strong player) after just 4 months of course, but I have seen myself steadily improve beyond beginner level. That’s incredibly encouraging progress in a short time.

Every day, I do something active — I go for walks and play a little basketball on most days, and on other days I might lift some weights or go for a short run. Not a lot, just some, every single day. And over the course of months, my body feels healthy and fit.

Just about every day, I tackle at least a couple of difficult tasks, and some smaller ones that need to be taken care of. Not all days, like when I’m traveling or sick or have family stuff going on. But most days. And when I’m doing that most days, my life feels well maintained.

Every weekday, I’ve been writing my next book for about an hour. I struggle with the writing on most days. But it’s moving forward, and I trust that the book will be written in the next couple of months.

This is what happens when you do things on most days — results start to pour in and your important things move forward. You don’t have to be perfect, and you can take breaks. But small (or medium) daily actions have remarkable long-term effects.