In the business and entrepreneurship world, there is something called the “minimum viable product.”

Instead of spending excessive amounts of time and energy obsessing over details and developing extra features, the minimum viable product is basically a rudimentary, bare bones version of the product you want to create.

It’s a solid first draft, if you will.

The goal here is not perfection.

The goal is speed to market.

The idea is to create the quickest and easiest thing you can.

You are doing just enough to get you initial desired results.

The perfectionist in me recoils at this idea…

–but simultaneously takes relief in it as well.

A lot of times, we can make out endeavors in our heads to be bigger than they actually are, but in reality, we can get away with doing less in order to get the same result.

It’s not laziness–it’s efficiency with your limited time and energy.

I like the idea of applying this concept of the minimum viable product to routines as well.

The purpose of a daily, morning, or night routine is to serve you in advancing towards your goals, and it can’t do that if it is so extensive that it is impossible to consistently execute.

Everyone needs to make a minimum viable daily routine.

Here’s how…

The 4 Pillars Of Health

Cover the bases of the 4 main pillars of health, by choosing 1 action that fits each category.

The 4 pillars and a few examples are below:

Physical

• Do yoga class
• Run 5 miles
• Walk 15,000 steps

Mental

• Read a personal development book
• Practice a foreign language
• Do word puzzles

Emotional

• Journal
• Talk therapy
• Release emotions through somatic exercise

Spiritual

• Meditate
• Pray
• Listen to religious or spiritual music

The minimum viable routine is rooted in promoting health and well-being, and conditioning the vessel that you use to “do life.”

Its primary purpose is to prep you and optimally prime you for your day.

The actions done as part of this routine are to put you in the best state to be able to do the daily work of advancing towards your personal and professional goals.

Aim low

Shoot for the minimum.

01  /  Choose the minimum number of things to do.

For example, for me personally, one of my most important aims that covers my physical, mental, and emotional health, is to regulate my nervous system.

There are at least 20 different practices I could do to achieve that aim, but that doesn’t mean I need to or should do 20 different things a day.

Maybe I can get the desired result of a calmed nervous system by just doing 1 or 2 of those practices a day.

Don’t do more than you have to.

The idea is to create energy and fuel for you to execute every part of your life, not take it away.

02  /  Choose the minimum amount of each thing that is effective.

Each action should be quantifiable with numbers so you know exactly how much or how long to do something.

Depending on what the action is, these numbers could be minutes spent, steps taken, pages read, etc.

When choosing these numbers, start small and add as/if necessary.

Starting small and incrementally adding is going to more quickly and easily give you an idea of your minimum effective dose than starting big and taking away.

It’s also important to note that there comes a point in every action where it reaches diminishing returns–that is, you will get results up to a certain point, then the more you do, your results start to level off, or even decline.

The goal is to find that sweet spot of getting maximum benefit for minimum effort, so that you can consistently continue the practice and continue reaping its benefits.

For example, you may enjoy the benefits of meditation.

Maybe for you, you discover that 10 minutes of meditation makes you just as calm as 40 minutes of meditation, and over 40 minutes, you start to get anxious, and lose the benefits altogether.

Therefore, in this case, you should just stick with 10 minute sessions of meditation.

03  /  Overlap where possible.

If you want to get the most bang for your buck, there are a few ways to do this.

You can choose actions that overlap multiple categories and serve more than one pillar of health.

Or, you can choose actions that not only serve the pillars of health, but also move you towards your personal or professional goals.

Or you can also do actions simultaneously…like listening to a personal development audiobook while you workout, listening to spiritual music while you walk 15,000 steps, etc.

You can get creative on how to increase the concentration, and therefore efficacy, of your minimum viable routine.

Final reminders…

Track your routine.

Sometimes, we get frustrated that we’re not getting the results we want, but if we look back at what we’re doing, we would see that we actually didn’t do the necessary inputs consistently enough to get our desired outputs.

Keep track of the days you execute your routine over time, then you’ll be able to see if the results you’re getting are reflective of your actions, and if you need to modify your routine.

You can use my free habit tracker to do this.

Aim for 70%.

You don’t have to bat 1000 to get positive results.

You don’t have to be a straight A student here.

Give yourself some grace.

Sometimes, things will come up unexpectedly that hinder your ability to execute your routine, no matter how minimal it is.

If you execute your routine more times than not–at least 70% of the time–that will be enough to provide benefits, and that should be enough to make you feel confident enough to give yourself a pat on the back.

A series of base hits is just as good as a homerun.

(I’m on a roll with the baseball references today…)

We all have our ideals in our heads, but even if you try to swing for the fences every day, you’re just not going to consistently hit home runs.

But the good news is you don’t need to.

All you need to do every day is a good base hit.

You don’t have to have a grand slam or a homerun to win the game.

You can win with simple, easy, consistent base hits.

That’s why the minimum viable routine can be so effective.

Small positive actions + time = big results