A Toast to Daily Routines — Day 5 — As life Happens | By Vindya Vithana
I love routines.
Every single day for the past 10 something years, from the moment I wake up to the time I leave my house, I have been doing more or less the very same things.
In my freshman year of college, the year I trained myself like an athlete to be more productive, I took my routine game to such an extreme that I even ate the very same things every single day for an entire year!
I believe that it is the sense of comfort that comes with the familiarity which makes me always stick to routines. This is very much projected into other aspects of my life, too!
If you know me personally, then you know that I am always drawn to long-term commitments. Among other things, I am still very much friends with those who I knew from my primary school. My best friends have been the same for over a decade now. I still wear my favorite pair of shoes from 5 years ago. I am pretty sure my hair tie is from 2008!
So today, I will write about the power of routines.
First of all, I will confess this. In my natural, uncontrolled form, I am a serial procrastinator.
If I allowed myself, I’d be on my bed doing nothing for 3 weeks straight. Therefore, building habits and sticking to routines have made it possible for me to fight the procrastinator in me and actually get things done.
When you stick to a routine, you train your body and the mind to act without having to force yourself too much. You add a solid structure to that particular time of the day.
If it is a morning routine, you get to wake up with a sense of order and ownership. There are not many decisions for you to make since they are already made.
You get to be productive, be organized and actually get things done without the excess energy that goes for making a conscious decision to do them.
One of the best things about doing something repeatedly is that with time you get more efficient at it. You automatically save time and energy without even being conscious about it.
To add a little personal anecdote, recently I have been more aware and conscious about the things I do.
As a way of taking advantage of my natural tendency to fall into routines, a week ago I started writing a journal entry right after I had my morning coffee, and before I eat my breakfast. (Which is what you are reading now!)
I was truly surprised to see how extremely effortless and easy it was.
Routines have a power of building momentum. If the first hour of your day is active, productive and satisfactory, the rest of the day usually follows through.
I should also add that I am speaking of routines that give a structure to your everyday life.
This does not mean that you should live every day the same way!
Just make sure that you leverage the power of routines to make your life more efficient and productive.
Here’s to daily routines…
Cheers!
