If you think depending on routines will turn you into a boring, predictable, uncreative automaton, think again.
Routines are the secret weapon of creative professionals and have been for centuries.
Poet W.H. Auden recommended a routine approach:
"Decide what you want or ought to do with the day, then always do it at exactly the same moment every day, and passion will give you no trouble."
Plenty of other creatives, from writers to artists to composers and filmmakers, have depended on sturdy, predictable daily routines to provide a safe place for their creativity to expand.
Philosopher William James posited that habits and routines free our brains from continual small decisions, so we can more easily develop and use “our higher powers of mind.”
Using routines is a matter of allocating resources. Research shows us that willpower, like a muscle, gets tired when used.
When you have to really think about what to eat for breakfast, which route you'll take to work, and when you'll exercise today, you're using up a lot of your creative willpower on mundane decisions.
Instead, if you set up your routines to pilot you through repetitive tasks, you can let your mind wander, ponder, muse, and percolate with great ideas.
It's easier to jump into doing, creating, and problem-solving with a full tank of willpower at your disposal.
1. Choose Routines to Stabilize Your Life
The desire to become more productive is usually focused, rightly so, on our work.
By using routines for your personal life, you can simplify and stabilize it. That way, you're dealing with less stress and less complication, without missing important interactions, ignoring relationships, or neglecting your priorities.
Small crisis moments in personal, family, social, and home life often come from forgetting or neglecting tasks.
Think about the pain of rushing to do taxes, forgetting a birthday or anniversary, or double-booking your calendar. Routines ensure that you do what needs to be done on a regular basis so you can avoid those moments of crisis.
Here are some examples of helpful life routines:
- Morning and Evening Routine: If your mornings are chaotic, this set of bookend routines might be just what you need. Plan a few simple steps you take each evening before bed to prepare for the next day (your evening routine) and then putting a simple, adequately timed morning routine in place.
- Weekend Routine: Set up a weekend routine, you can plan and prioritize how you'll spend your time, ensuring you get the necessary chores and tasks done without feeling like you have no play time or rest time.
- Family Meeting: A weekly family meeting can help you keep calendars in sync. It could be just you and your partner, going over the budget and the calendar, or you can include your kids in this routine so you can all give input and stay on track with each other.
You can also follow the tips in this article to leave work on time and set some time for yourself:
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2. Choose Routines to Improve Your Work
Now it's time to think about how you can increase your productivity, lower your stress, and boost your creative output with some work-oriented routines.
Even if you work in a creative field, or if your work responsibilities vary wildly from one day to the next, there are still ways to streamline work with routines.
Here are a few examples of effective work routines:
- Starting Ritual: Getting started at work is often the hardest part. Design a starting routine, then follow it consistently, to train your brain to start without the hesitation and procrastination you might struggle to overcome now.
- Weekly Priorities Routine: Setting priorities regularly, with input from the people involved, helps you allocate your time wisely for the most effective output. Set up a regular routine (weekly is usually good) to get a top-down view, determine which tasks merit the most attention, block time for what you want to accomplish, and give and get input as needed.
- Communication Routine: Doing collaborative work, sharing responsibilities and projects with a team, or dealing with clients creates the need for dependable communication. A communication routine can keep you from forgetting to communicate regularly and, also, keep you from having your day hijacked by an unending stream of questions and clarifications.
- Follow Up Routine: Building strong relationships, whether with your peers, your team members, or your clients, is key to doing good work now and creating good opportunities for the future. A follow up routine can help you streamline your networking activities, whether via social media, email, phone, or in-person meetings.
To decide which work routine you should establish first, ask yourself which tasks or goals you struggle most to accomplish. Those areas are the ones that will benefit most from a strong, supporting routine.
3. Design a Solid Routine
From these examples, a few routines might stand out to you. Often, the most appealing routines are the ones that would apply to the most chaotic areas of your life and work.
It's not enough, however, to have a general idea of a routine in mind, or to copy someone else's routine.
Start With the End Goal
What is this routine going to accomplish for you? Each routine, to be most effective, needs to be built for a specific purpose.
For example, the goal of morning/evening routines might be to get you out of the house each morning in an organized, unhurried, healthy way.
The goal of a starting ritual at work might be to help you make significant progress on your main project or task before midday. First, define the end goal before you start designing your routine.
Work Backwards
Estimate how much time each step will require. Streamline as much as possible, but don't force yourself to hurry. It's best to overestimate the time you think you'll need at this point. You can always reduce it later.
Walk Through It
Next, mentally walk through your routine from beginning to end. This mental walk-through will help you see steps or necessary resources that you might have overlooked.
You can also look for ways to simplify. Cut out any redundant steps. Complication is the enemy: the best routines are easy to remember and as simple as possible. Order the steps for your routine in the most logical way, but don't worry about reaching perfection.
You'll have time to tweak it after you've tried out your routine a few times.
4. Start Using Your New Routines
More than two will get confusing and exhausting, and the attempt will become counterproductive.
One approach is to choose one life routine and one work routine to establish at the same time. Seeing increased efficiency in both your personal life and your career at the same time is nice, and helps minimize confusion or overlap since each routine belongs to a different part of your life.
It takes time to build a routine. It might take more than 21 days to make it stick. Research shows that the time needed to build a solid habit can vary widely, from 21 days to upwards of 250 days.
Give yourself at least 30 days to build a new routine, or set of routines; at the 30-day mark, you can evaluate if you've established your routine well enough to build another, or if you need to stay focused on the current routine for another 30 days or so.
5. Improve Your Routines
When you first start using a new routine, expect resistance...from yourself, mostly. Anything that requires change and increased self-discipline will feel uncomfortable, maybe even painful, at first.
Certainly all routines can be improved, but if you start tweaking your routine too soon, it will never become habitual.
Try to stick with a new routine, as is, for at least a week before you make changes. After a week, consider the small tweaks. After you've tweaked your routine, stick with it another week before you change it again.
Once you feel confident with a routine and ready to start building another, try to leave the established routine alone.
The power of a routine is in the fact that it becomes routine: you want it to be a default set of actions, second nature, a set of steps that you don't have to think about.
6. Maintain Your Routines
Some routines will serve you well for a long time; others will need to be adjusted, rearranged, or even discarded as the needs of your life and work change.
If you get promoted, for example, and trade one set of tasks for another, your old routines may no longer be helpful. You'll need to look at your new responsibilities and think about how you'll accomplish them in the most streamlined and effective way.
Whenever you approach a major life or work change, take a little time to think about how your routines will be affected.
Evaluate the routines which must change to fit your new situation, and follow the steps above to build new routines to replace the old, out-dated ones.
Let Routines Do the Work
Routines are magical because they a keep you grounded, enabling you to function effectively, even in the midst of chaos.
Routines free up your creative power and self-discipline to be spent on higher, creative pursuits, while keeping the daily stuff of life in dependable working order.
Learn more about routines, productivity and balance with our articles and tutorials:
Effectiveness vs. Efficiency: Which Is More Important (+Why)?
16 Best Time Tracking Software Apps to Boost Your Productivity
The Value of Your Time: How Much Is an Hour Worth to You?
15 Top Tips to Work Effectively From Home (Remotely in 2023)
Editorial Note: This content was originally published in September of 2015. We're sharing it again because our editors have determined that this information is still accurate and relevant.
