The simple and quick things longevity experts do daily to live a long and healthy life

So, what can you do to hack your biological clock?

Walking a mere 11 minutes every day could slash your risk of premature death by almost 25 percent. That's the conclusion of the largest study to date on on physical activity, disease risk and mortality.

The landmark study, published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine last year, analysed the health data of more than 30 million people, looking for correlations between how much people move and how long and well they live.

The takeaway is that even small bursts of exercise can boost your life expectancy and can slash your risk of cancer and heart disease - two leading causes of premature death.

How to eat your way to an old age

Your diet need not be restrictive to reap the longevity benefits, research shows.

One of the largest and longest running studies to date, published in the journal JAMA Internal Medicine last year, found you can cut your risk of death by 20 percent by upping your intake of foods from four healthy eating patterns.

People who more carefully followed any of the healthy eating patterns — which all share a focus on consuming more whole grains, fruits, vegetables, nuts and legumes — were also less likely to die from cancer, cardiovascular illness, and respiratory and neurodegenerative disease.

The study followed the eating habits of 75,000 women participating in the Nurses’ Health Study and more than 44,000 men in the Health Professionals Follow-up Study over 36 years.

None of the men and women had cardiovascular disease at the start of the study, and few were smokers. All filled out eating questionnaires every four years.

After each person’s eating pattern was scored, the participants were divided into five groups, or quintiles, from highest to lowest adherence to one or more of the eating patterns.

The highest quintile of diet quality as compared to the lowest was associated with a roughly 20 percent reduction in all-cause mortality.

The study also found reductions in risk of death from certain chronic diseases if people improved their diet over time.

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The Mediterranean diet ticked many of the boxes. It's high in vegetables, fruits, legumes, nuts, beans, cereals, grains, fish and unsaturated fats such as olive oil.

The popular diet has been shown to reduce risk of heart disease, metabolic syndrome, diabetes, certain cancers, depression, and in older adults, a decreased risk of frailty, along with better mental and physical function.

Get more shut-eye

Getting more sleep has also been shown to add years to your life but the quality matters as much as the quantity, research suggests.

A five-year survey conducted on 172,321 people with an average age of over 50 included questions about sleep and sleep habits.

The results suggested men who regularly sleep well could live almost five years longer than those who do not, while women could benefit by two years. And they could also enjoy better health during their lives.

Good sleep was based on five different factors: ideal sleep duration of seven to eight hours a night; difficulty falling asleep no more than two times a week; trouble staying asleep no more than two times a week; not using any sleep medication; and feeling well rested after waking up at least five days a week.

Among men and women who reported having all five quality sleep measures (a score of five), life expectancy was 4.7 years greater for men and 2.4 years greater for women, compared with those who had none or only one of the factors.