Success needs discipline. If you’re a “fly by the seat of your pants” kind of person, then you’ve probably stopped reading by now.
This does not mean spontaneity is not important. However, relying on spontaneity to govern how we act, and plan is dubious at best. Going with the flow is a death knell to building the routines that help us succeed.
- Routine – How we establish any semblance of order in our daily lives. They help us organize time, tasks, and day-to-day activities.
- Routine – A cornerstone for comedians, pilots, ranchers, manufacturers, or pretty much any occupation that requires a checklist or consistency.
- Routine – Builds discipline for children around the world. And makes good workers later in life.
- Routine – Helps us stay on track, deal with interruptions, and build habits that are conducive to success.
- Routine – Blindly following tradition or routine may inhibit our need to change, but self-evaluation every so often can keep this in check.
Ideas to Establish Routines
1. Health Routines
It seems that routines often derive out of little steps and actions of change we do overtime. However, sometimes a large decisive step is necessary. I’ve found success by keeping a monthly journal of the hours you sleep, everything you eat, your exercise times, and your basic mental/emotional/physical status during the day. Accumulating this data takes time and discipline but pays off in huge benefits. I spent almost half a year doing this with some amazing results.
My personal findings:
Sleep: Best performances during the day came after 7.5 hours of sleep. Too much sleep gave me a headache and left me groggy all day. Under 7 hours made it difficult to function well throughout the day.
Coffee: 1 to 2 cups didn’t negatively affect performance. Drinking in the afternoon/evening didn’t affect my sleep but increased my desire for more coffee the next day.
Diet: The more sweets I eat, the more I want. A sweet breakfast made me crave sugar all day. Lunch not so bad. Evening sweets just made me sleepy.
Exercise: Peak performance seemed to be two days on, and one day off. This not only limited fatigue and injuries but helped balance working out with other activities. Physically, I felt my best exercising at night.
Overall health: My health consistently suffered by pushing myself too hard. Usually, this happened because I hate stopping until I finish a task. This led to working late and waking early, not pacing myself, inconsistent eating, and ignoring my routines. Making me ultimately push my stress limits which made me tired, fatigued, and sickly.
Over the next year, I made a conscious effort to fix these issues. By the latter half of the year, I found my emotional, physical, and mental health rhythm got back to balance.
2. Family Routines
Building family traditions and routines help establish memories, builds strong bonds, increases communication, and establishes stability they can hold onto later in life.
As a parent, we set Saturday nights aside for family activity nights. Then, early in their teens, they complained about not going out with friends on Saturday. So, we opened family nights for their friends. This helped establish our repour with their friends and helped us keep track of our children’s activities. Years later, each one told me they are doing the same with their children.
Family routines that allow for open communication and commoradary will build bonds not quickly broken.
Find something your family enjoys doing and set a routine to regularly spend time together. Our family usually can tell when they are not a priority. And then things always seem to get ugly.
3. Money Routines
Just like your health, it helps to keep track of your finances for at least 3 months to a year. This includes EVERYTHING you spend.
I personally set up my own spreadsheet, but online software and budgeting tools will help.
My personal findings:
Drink: The cost of coffee, water, juice, and sports drinks added up to $148 a month. I now easily save a hundred per month with my home expresso machine and water purifier.
Food: Food is expensive. Eating out was due to my laziness in preparing food. It was easier to grab breakfast or lunch to go than make one. This cost about $200 extra per month.
Utilities: I Shut down everything until the utility meter stops. Then one by one had someone turn on appliances, lights, electronic devices, etc. You can see the consumption via the movement of the electric wheel or digital count. Here’s how I took 20% off my utility bills.
- Shut down every computer after use.
- Installed a water heater timer.
- Replaced lights with energy-efficient bulbs
- Insulated windows and doors.
- Ran larger appliances after peak hours.
- Encouraged family to save electricity with a promise to use saved money for weekly family night.
4. Productivity Routines
My personal findings: (some of these things I’m still putting into practice).
Efficiency: Prioritize tasks, batch similar tasks, organize workspaces, don’t multitask, stay focused, take breaks.
Timing: Set a timer during tasks, calendar events, break tasks into small focused segments, find your peak work time.
Distractions: Declutter workspace, clear your schedule before starting tasks, remove electronic distractions, schedule tasks times, practice focusing techniques.
Delegate: Ask for help, pay for services you dislike doing yourself, partner with others to reach goals.
Equipment: Sharpen tools, increase the speed of computers, update software, buy ergonomic equipment, research devices that reduce time, and increase productivity.
In conclusion, routines are sequences of regularly followed actions. These can be habits we developed, grooming regimens, yearly vacation planning, or anything we do constantly and regularly. So, maybe it’s time to find something you’re doing and make a tiny or easy adjustment that moves you toward your goals.