With only twenty-four hours in a day and a lot of things to get done, sometimes it can be hard to fit everything in. Planning our lives is something a lot of us aspire for, but at the end of the day, it feels out of reach sometimes. It can be difficult to take that first step and start forming a schedule.
However, when you finally start doing it, it will enrich your life. Think about a goal that you have – no matter how big or how small. One of the best ways to accomplish that is by cutting it into manageable tasks! That’s just one way this can help, so continue if you want to learn more.
The Importance of a Routine
If you’ve ever heard that you should make a routine for yourself, I’ll let you in on a not-so-secret: it’s true. Creating structure in our lives gives us some much-needed stability in the chaos of the world. Especially given the recent events lately, it feels more important than ever.
What we do in a day is usually repeat a variety of habits that we have, or tasks that contribute to an overall goal. These habits can be both good and bad, but as you take a more active approach to scheduling, there are ways we can lean into the good ones over the bad.
Many successful people around the world cite their morning routine as one of their hallmarks of their accomplishments. It’s up to you to decide how much stock you put into these claims, but you can see some more information here: https://www.indeed.com/career-advice/career-development/organize-schedules.
Overall, it’s a good idea to have some sort of plan for yourself every day you wake up to help yourself form positive habits. In the next section, I’ll talk about some things you can include in this!
What to Include in Your Routine?
One way you can set yourself up for success each day is to have a designated time you wake up each morning. For me, I like to get up around eight or nine in the morning, but for any early risers out there, you can do earlier!
Is there a reason to do this, though? Well, many people find that they are more creative early in the morning. It’s a time of quiet and relaxation for many of us, allowing some time for our minds to fully embrace our waking hours.
In this vein, you may want to make your bed after you get up. It might sound like something your parents made you do while growing up for no reason, but it goes a bit deeper than that. By accomplishing that task when you wake up, it ends up encouraging you to continue completing more throughout the day!
Obviously, you should brush your teeth. Some of us have other grooming to tend to, such as brushing our hair, using any skin care, or applying makeup. This step is personal to you, so just include what you feel is necessary to start your day.
Try to have breakfast as well. I know how difficult it can be – I’m not a fan of most breakfast foods. Something I found that helped me was to ignore the food “rules” that designate what time of day we can eat certain things. Sometimes I have ramen for breakfast, even! It’s just important to get something in your stomach.
As far as our bedtime routines go, they will obviously look a bit different. Brushing your teeth and taking care of our skin is still important, but there are some other things to include as well. One such thing is to consider what you need to get done tomorrow.
Making a list of those tasks to conquer tomorrow can be quite helpful. If you have a calendar like the ones from Calendar Company, you can pencil them in on the date or in a notes section. Identify what the most difficult things are and sort them in order of priority as well.
A good way to motivate yourself is by considering everything you achieved in that day. Even just a few short moments can help you to remind yourself of why you’re going through with this scheduling thing, anyway. Don’t forget that you deserve to be proud of yourself!
How to Get Started
Now we get to the hard part. How can you take your first steps on this journey? Well, a big part is your own mindset. You must make the decision to get started.
Once you do this, consider what your own values are. How do you define success, for example? What do you want to prioritize most? One way to apply this in a practical example.
Do you want to be a creative person? If so, you might want to prioritize things like painting, drawing, or sculpting over other hobbies that don’t let you lean into that expressive side. If you want to spend time with family or friends, do your best to fit those activities in and perhaps let some other things wait awhile.
As you look at your to-do list for the day, ideally that you made the night before, decide what the most important thing you need to do it. This is what you should make sure you accomplish before anything else. If it’s something large, try sectioning it into smaller, more manageable tasks.
If you know there is something that distracts you often, take that into account. One thing that has helped me with this is setting a designated portion of time that I can do those fun activities that are distracting. This might be a mobile game or social media application. If I give myself even ten minutes between other tasks to do this and plan for that, I end up getting a lot more done.
While making a routine and sticking to it is not easy, it is worth it. Even if you slip up a few times as you get started, creating that muscle memory in your brain will pay off!
