CREATING A PERSONALIZED DAILY ROUTINE

Habits are powerful, but they’re not easy to form—particularly good habits. Creating a schedule for your daily tasks and activities that you’re able to stick to will help you to form good habits and break bad ones for a more productive, happier life.

Setting up a solid daily routine is a little bit science and a little bit of art. The science is figuring out what you need to get done, while the art is figuring out when to do it. Let’s take a look at the following steps;

MAKE A LIST

First, write down everything you need to get done daily, both in your home life and at work. Take 30 minutes with a notebook to jot down everything you do each day, as well as everything you should get done.

If you feel like it’s too hard to remember all the tasks in one sitting, carry around a notebook and take notes throughout the day.

STRUCTURE YOUR DAY

Early birds get things done most effectively before lunchtime, while night owls tend to get their creative burst of energy in the evenings. Think about when you work best, and group your tasks into the time of day that makes the most sense for when you will best complete them.

GET SPECIFIC

Within these loose outlines of each part of your day, you can get as specific as you want. For example, you might want to write out a routine for your morning that looks something like this:

6 a.m.: Wake up, brush teeth, and shower ■
6:30 a.m.: Breakfast ■
7 a.m.: Leave the house ■
7:15 a.m.: Drop off the kids at school ■
7:30: Arrive at the office ■

That’s a very detailed schedule, but some people might feel more comfortable with that—at least until they get the hang of the routine

SCHEDULE IN TIME FOR FLEXIBILITY

Life gets in the way of even the most detailed of routines. The point is to harness your most productive times to use for your most challenging tasks, and your least productive times to do the more mundane tasks.

TEST DRIVE YOUR NEW ROUTINE

Take your new routine for a test drive for 30 days. How does it feel? Did you schedule your tasks at activities at times that make sense? Do you need to adjust things? Tweak anything that is not working on a case-by-case basis, and then assess after 30 days to see how your new routine is working for you.

BOTTOM LINE

Creating a daily routine seems daunting at first, but you will soon reap the rewards when your productivity soars, morning meltdowns are reduced, and you find you actually have pockets of free time throughout the day or week.

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