What everyday habit do you wish you had developed earlier in life?

Saw this question posted on Quora. 

Please provide a specific practical/measurable action-based everyday habit that has either enriched your life, made you money or both. For instance, "Reading a non-fiction book for one hour every night before bed" and not something vague like "learning". 

For me, I would have emphasized daily writing. I am writing (typing) more and more every year and wish I had started this habit much earlier. It clears my mind and is one of the fastest ways to reflect in hindsight or realize my own mistakes. 

Saving money. I wish I kept some money from my daily allowance I get from my parents when I was still in school

• studying
• saving money
• bible devotion
• writing

these are the things I wish I had developed earlier :| 

Studying instead of gaming 24/7

Can all of you elaborate on how those habits would help you had you started long ago? For example, saving money has several implications and I'd like to know more if you feel comfortable sharing the reasons. 

Saving money 

My parents give me money all the time, I have a part time job that pays like 50$ per week, and I used to have a "small business."

I have no money at the moment. I always find things to spend it on like expensive clothes, eating fast food, eating out, treating friends to lunch/dinner, just buying random stuff, and college materials. 

I've made about 2k+1k in allowance in the past 1.5 years and I have like $150 dollars at the moment. And I have to use that for an application soon 

If I did have even part of the money saved, I would have bought some soccer jerseys.  I buy clothes whenever I have money, but can never get 100$ together to buy a jersey. lol. I also want some Beats Studio. They are just soo freaking aweome!!! 

I hope I make enough money one day to donate to the poor. I feel so bad and it kills me inside to hear about poor people overseas. I wish I could just write a 100k check to poor kids in Africa and Asia :'(

I think healthier eating, which would have maybe prevented me becoming fat and diabetic.

Can all of you elaborate on how those habits would help you had you started long ago? For example, saving money has several implications and I'd like to know more if you feel comfortable sharing the reasons. 

I have this friend who started saving like 5 bucks everyday since grade school until today. She was able to use her savings when she got married and it also helped her buy a nice house in a good neighborhood. Even before, she was able to help people unlike me who couldn't because whenever I have money, I spend them all  

I wish I had started exercising on a daily basis when I was still a teenager so it wouldn't be so hard to do now.

It'd be great if it felt more like a daily routine rather than something that I have to "force" myself to do.

AND I'd be in excellent shape, haha.

Exercising and eating healthier foods regularly (water over soda, etc)

Saving up money, definitely. My friend just bought a new TV. She saves all the time. In like half a year she saved enough money for a TV, and she said it feels amazing to know you've reached your goal. I wanna know how that feels like... and I want a new TV.

Playing an instrument.

This would help me accomplish my crazy dreams... If I knew how to play an instrument, read the notes and maybe compose my own music then it would be easier for me to join the music industry. It would give me an "edge" and although everyone now-a-days plays an instrument and can sing, it would help me be closer somehow.

Studying at least an hour every night. My younger sister actually does this now and I'm envious of her. I just can't bring myself to touch my books at home..... 

Well, studying, exercising, and eating vegetables. 

Well, I do pretty well in school. Pretty High marks/grades and all, but if I actually had developed the habit of studying I would do even better at school and actually had chances to get into Ivy league schools or other colleges like Stanford. But currently, I know my grades and some of my standardize test scores don't come to par with the requirements for those schools. -.-

Well, I'm a lazy bum. I'm a bit over the average weight, so.... if I had exercised earlier as a child, I wouldn't dread it nor would I hate too. 

If I had the habit to eat my veggies, I would be sooooo~~~ healthier today. I'm gradually eating more and more, but I still can't stand the taste and especially dislike salads. I can't stand to eat some vegetables without this Laotian sweet/sour dipping sauce. 

I would have to say studying and socializing.

If I had implemented good study habits back in middle school I probably would be a better student today. I make good grades even though I don't study, but now I want to go beyond just Bs and As. I want to do something more (like all As) but it's so difficult to teach myself to study on a regular basis.  

Last wish seems a little odd, but I think having good social skills tremendously helps someone out in life. Not only are you able to befriend people better, but you will also have a better understanding as to how to get yourself out of/keep yourself away from awkward situations. I didn't talk to anyone during my middle school years and only started to talk to a few people once I hit freshman year. Now I have a whole youth group I socialize with and honestly I don't know what I'm doing half the time. As such, I've got a guy whom I only view as a best friend telling me that he likes me and the guy that I like thinking that I like the guy who likes me (ha, ha, so majorly confusing, sorry ). I wish now that I had socialized around more people, especially boys, so I wouldn't have ended up in such an awkward situation.

Studying.

When I was a kid, I rarely study...-regrets-

But now, I study more than I should..getting good grades...its all good ^^

If I could start my life all over, I'd start being socially active when I was a kid. I was a loner for a long time until I got a job. I'm socially active now because I need to be socially active for my job. I wish I changed earlier. I have a busy life that leaves me little time to meet a woman and make new friends. I sleep early because work tends to exhaust me. I became a loner because I was unfluenced by the students at my high school. They spent a lot of time studying. Even the ones with a lot of friends didn't date until they reached college. I think it was because of their conservative parents. They're the type of people who made their students study a lot and prevented their kids from dating at that time. My dad usually came home late and my mom was usually grumpy and rarely spoke.

I'm satisfied with my health. I exercised and had a healthy diet ever since I was a kid. I hiked and walked a lot. I played varsity soccer in high school. I learned to eat healthily from my grandfather. I'm healthier than anyone else I know in my age group.

Ehhh... whatever. You live and learn.

I'm usually waking up at 6am (when I sleep before that time) but refuse to do anything and take another hour or more in bed until it's time I need to to get up. The extra hour/s could be put towards something productive and I'd still feel as alert without the extra hour of snooze. Around three weeks of unused time each year wasted. 

Wish I had formed a better sleeping schedule earlier in life. 

brushing my teeth before i goto sleep. i cant get into the habit of doing it now. implication? unhealthy gums and rotting teeth...supposedly. i think this act of laziness has also extended to taking a bath as well .

Cleaning up after myself and keeping my room reasonably clean. My parents were never really strict about keeping the house clean until we have guests coming over, which is when we all frantically "clean" (ie. hiding things in our room).

Due to not cleaning up much, I've developed a weird difficulty in throwing away things. For example, a couple of years ago I found my old food technology textbook (from year 7 and 8) but I didn't want to throw it out. I was no longer doing that subject nor was I pursuing a career in that area, however, I refused to throw it away and believed that I might have a spontaneous urge to cook something from it in the future... Years have passed and I still haven't touched it... :/