Routine is something that you do over and over again. Healthy routines can have a powerful effect on your life. The best routines come at the start and end of the day, and both your workday and your day in general can benefit.
Routines for a more productive life
You can develop a routine for:
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- When you awake
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- When you first start working
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- When you finish your workday
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- The end of your evening.
How can this change your life? Creating morning and evening routines will help you:
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- Get a great start to your day
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- Complete your day by preparing for the next day
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- Build good productive habits
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- Focus on what’s important, not just what comes up, that is increase efficiency
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- Need less willpower and self-motivation
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- Create momentum; make sure you get done all the things you really want to get done everyday
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- Improve your skills, knowledge and expertise.
Routines to help you be calmer and less stressed
Create your own calming routine. Give it a couple of weeks to become a habit. Focus on doing it every day, and soon you will not want to miss it.
Here are twelve ideas to get you started:
- Morning coffee. If you’re not a coffee person, tea or cocoa work just as well. Wake before everyone else and sit and enjoy the silence as you watch the sun rise. It’s the perfect way to greet the day.
- Exercise. An easy run in the morning relieves stress, and gives you time to yourself to think and enjoy nature. Evening runs are great too, especially as the sun goes down. If you’re not into running, try walking, cycling, swimming or any form of exercise you enjoy. Just take it easy in the beginning, and try to do a little every day.
- Meditation. Meditation is calming and centering. You don’t need to do anything formal. Simply focusing on your breathing, as it goes in and out, is a good meditation. Give yoga a try if it sounds appealing to you.
- Gratitude session. Every day, take a couple of minutes to think about everything and everybody you are grateful for in your life. You can try it right now. it only takes a minute. Who are you grateful for? What are you grateful for? This little ritual makes you feel happier and more compassionate.
- Positive affirmation. Create a personal affirmation of no more than three or four words to remind yourself of your personal mission – why you do everything you do. Make sure to repeat your affirmation at least once a day (if not several times) to help you stay focused.
- Evening review. This only needs to take a few minutes. Reflect on your day, think about your goal, what you did to further that goal, what you can improve, what you need to do in the future. Better still, write your daily review down in a journal.
- Bath time. A long hot bath or shower can be extremely relaxing.
- After work unwinding. Long day at work? Stressed out? Take 30 minutes to unwind. Some great ideas: a 20–30 minute nap, snuggling with your children, deep breathing, stretching, self-massage or anything else that relaxes you.
- Pre-bed ritual. Develop a routine: get clothes ready, get lunches ready, clean up, brush teeth, decide on your three most important tasks for tomorrow, etc.
- Journaling or writing. A daily writing or journaling ritual at any time that works for you can be very productive and relaxing.
- Conversation. Try this: every night for an hour, just sit and talk to your spouse. Share the highlights and lowlights of your day, talk about your goals, your finances, your relationship, movies, music, books, etc. This can, of course, be adapted for conversation with your children.
- Reading time. Take time each day to spend with a good book.
Sources
Power of good habits. Retrieved from: https://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/power-good-habits.htm
Why having a daily routine is important. Retrieved from: http://examinedexistence.com/why-having-a-daily-routine-is-important/
(Revised by M van Deventer)