Overview of Try It For 1 Day: 4 Small Choices That Make a Surprisingly Huge Difference (Mel Robbins Podcast)
Mel Robbins breaks a normal day into four tiny “micro choices” that consistently shape how the rest of your day feels and performs. Using common-sense examples, interviews with researchers and clinicians, and practical tips, she shows how changing four very small moments—what you reach for when you wake up, the story you tell about your day, how you fuel your body, and your bedtime habit—can produce outsized improvements in mood, focus, energy, and sleep.
Key takeaways
- Small, automatic choices (micro choices) act as tipping points that shape your day—positively or negatively.
- What you do in the first and last moments of your day has disproportionate effects on dopamine, mindset, energy, and sleep.
- Simple, repeatable swaps (phone → water/sunlight; “bad day” → “I’ll make something good happen”; empty → protein; scroll → sleep) are high-leverage and easy to test.
- You don’t need to fix everything at once—these micro choices are available every single day; if you miss one, you can try the next.
The four micro choices (what they are and why they matter)
1) What you reach for when you wake up
- The choice: reach for your phone (news/social media) or reach for something that primes you positively (water, light, partner, pet, movement, shoes for a workout, journal).
- Why it matters: Dr. Alok Kanojia (“Dr. K”) explains the dopamine/“lemon” effect — mornings are when your dopaminergic stores are fullest. Using easy/cheap digital rewards first thing “squeezes” that dopamine out and leaves less fuel for focus, motivation, and enjoyment later.
- Practical result: Phone-first mornings often lead to wasted time, stress, impulsive purchases, and a depleted ability to do hard work.
Actionable swap: Put the phone away; reach for water, sunlight, a 5-minute movement or a short hard thing (meditation, walk, getting gym shoes out).
2) Are you going to have a good day or a bad day?
- The choice: decide to brace for a bad day (default negativity) or choose to have/engineer a good day (intentional mindset).
- Why it matters: Alia Crum (Stanford Mind & Body Lab) shows mindsets change attention, emotion, motivation, behavior—and even physiological responses. The story you tell yourself filters everything afterward and generates evidence that confirms the belief.
- Practical result: Choosing “good” is not delusion—it's a setting that changes how you respond to stressors, what you notice, and how you behave.
Actionable swap: Say aloud (or think) “Today will be a good day / I’ll make something good happen,” then pick one small thing to create that feeling (a kind act, a short walk, a task completed).
3) Fuel or fumes (run on fuel, not empty)
- The choice: start and power your day with real fuel (especially protein) or run on caffeine and sugar/empty calories.
- Why it matters: Morning cortisol spikes and blood-sugar regulation affect mood, irritability, focus and resilience. Eating protein early helps stabilize blood sugar and emotion; running on empty makes small problems feel huge.
- Supporting research/story: Professor Carl Pillemer’s Legacy Project elders note how arguments and bad moods are often solved by eating—“get something to eat and see what happens.”
- Practical result: A simple fuel choice can reduce irritability, improve focus, and change how overwhelming problems feel.
Actionable swap: Eat something protein-forward early (even a simple Greek yogurt, eggs, protein bar/shake) or keep a healthy snack available to prevent “hanger.”
4) Scroll or sleep (bedtime micro choice)
- The choice: scroll on a light-emitting device before bed or create a short pre-sleep routine and power down.
- Why it matters: Nighttime device use (“revenge bedtime procrastination”) delays circadian timing and suppresses melatonin (Anne‑Marie Chang, PNAS study). Also, psychologist Richard Bootzin’s work shows your bed should cue sleep; making bed a scrolling place trains wakefulness, not rest.
- Practical result: Late-night scrolling fragments sleep, delays falling asleep, lowers next-day capacity and contributes to a cycle of depletion.
Actionable swap: Tuck your phone away 30 minutes before bed, set an alarm as your cue, build a 20–30 minute wind‑down ritual (wash face, read, bath, light stretching, plan morning), and put any items you want to reach for in the morning (shoes, gym bag, journal) out before bed.
Science & experts cited (high-level)
- Alok Kanojia, MD (“Dr. K”) — dopamine, morning mental fuel, “lemon” analogy.
- Alia Crum, PhD (Stanford Mind & Body Lab) — mindsets alter attention, emotion, behavior and physiology.
- Nicole LaPera — practical note about cortisol and morning protein (context of blood-sugar/emotion regulation).
- Carl Pillemer (Cornell) — Legacy Project: elders’ wisdom, “get something to eat” reduces fights.
- Anne‑Marie Chang, PhD (Brigham & Women’s / Harvard) — evening device use suppresses melatonin and delays internal clock.
- Richard Bootzin, PhD (Northwestern) — bed should be associated with sleep, not wakeful device use.
One-day experiment (simple checklist)
Try these for a single day and notice differences:
- Morning: Put your phone in another room. Drink a glass of water, open the curtains for sunlight, or do a 5–10 minute movement. (Place one tangible item you want to use tomorrow where you’ll reach for it.)
- Mindset: Say to yourself, “Today will be a good day; I’ll make something good happen,” and pick one small intentional action.
- Fuel: Eat a protein-containing breakfast or healthy snack within the first part of your morning.
- Night: Set an alarm 30 minutes before your intended bedtime. Tuck the phone away and do a relaxing pre-sleep ritual rather than scrolling.
Memorable quotes & lines
- “Micro choices, massive impact.”
- “Don’t read the news in your pajamas.”
- Dr. K’s lemon analogy: using technology first thing “squeezes” your dopamine juice out.
- “If you choose good, that doesn’t mean you’re delusional; it’s a tool in your toolbox.”
Short recap
Four tiny, repeatable choices—what you reach for on waking, the mindset you choose about your day, whether you fuel or run on fumes, and whether you scroll or sleep—act as leverage points. Making small deliberate swaps is low effort, easy to test, and often produces big improvements in mood, energy, focus, and sleep.
Try the one-day experiment and iterate. Even switching one of the four consistently will likely be noticeable.