Be it your work, a personal commitment, progress towards a goal, or even a bad habit that you are trying to avoid, a routine can help you stay on track.

Remember

Expanded perspective

Being productive is as simple as sitting down and doing the work. The bigger challenge is to sit down and get started. A routine can help you automate the process of getting started, avoid unnecessary thoughts, and procrastination.

When you pick a specific time and task to work on, it is scheduling, but when you do a series of steps without much planning that is when you have a routine.

Have routines in place

A routine automates your actions and you don’t resist much as you don’t have to put much effort into planning your actions.

Parents form routines for their children to avoid resistance from them. Having a routine makes both the child and the parent familiar with the things that they need to do. For parents, it helps them not forget steps and for the child, they know that they must go through those steps. As they practice the routine, they become comfortable with a series of tasks.

It also reflects in our school, college, and work, we have certain routines that repeat every single day.

Feel the sense of control

Life is unpredictable and having these routines might not give you control over how to tackle things, but you always have control over the steps that you need to take.

Having certain automated steps will help you feel a sense of control over your day. As most of our days are so unpredictable and there are so many distractions around that will just drive you away at times.

A Routine helps you get started

Having a well-defined routine helps you get into the right mood as there is less uncertainty about what you are going to do. Your brain doesn’t have to make many decisions on what to do next and is all ready for the steps to follow.

Have at least a loosely planned routine for common tasks like starting or stopping work, starting or ending the day, this will make it easy for you to shift your focus to the present actions. It is difficult to get anything done in a distracted mode. Having a routine to getting started, will help to get you into that rhythm to work.

I personally think of routines as follows:

• A long time commitment to get things done
• A short time commitment to warm up

By categorizing your routines this way, you will be able to get clarity on what routines you should be following at what time of the day.

If you are looking to build a reading routine, here are some benefits of reading. If building a morning routine is what you are looking for, here are some tips on waking up early.

You don’t have to follow

You don’t have to start with a routine of a successful person. If it works for them, doesn’t mean it will work for you. You can use them as references, but routines are very personal.

Having a routine for yourself will take some hits and trials. The goal is to find something that works for you and suites your style. There is no one solution that will work for everyone.

Don’t overwhelm yourself with a lot of information, you need to keep it simple. Routines are to make your life easy, so they should be easy and simple.

You don’t have to be too strict

Don’t be too harsh on yourself if you miss your routines.

Routines are to help you, not to feel bad about yourself. Click To Tweet

If your routine starts making you feel bad about yourself, it is time to either change the way you think about that routine or completely get rid of it.

You will have to find your own balance between the strictness of the routine and the burden of that routine.

There will be some parts of the routine that you will need to follow strictly and you will also have to make sure that not everything in that routine needs to be followed strictly.

This gives you enough breathing space to tackle unplanned things.

Take away

Having a structure for your work and personal life can help you avoid distractions and focus on the things that matter to you. Routines can help you stay consistent with things and reduces the amount of unnoticed wasted time on distractions.