Most of us think that making a daily routine that’s somehow perfect will help us feel 100% joyful all the time, but that’s just not true. We have to plan our week ahead of time, but the fact is, it won’t be 100% fun all the time, and that’s normal and okay.
In the end, what WILL light us up are the results we get from honoring the daily routines we create. However, it’s not enough to just set good intentions or jot down some notes in your calendar.
To honor your routines, always plan your week ahead of time.
Decide What Life You Want to Live
It may not feel like it right now, but you can decide how much you want to work and what type of life you want to create for yourself. And when you plan ahead of time by making a daily routine, you can design your life on purpose. This is a uniquely human ability due to our use of our prefrontal cortex over our primitive brain.
When you create your plan ahead of time and honor it and stick to it, you’ll develop a sense of calm and peace in your life that you never imagined possible. By sticking to your commitments, you’ll also create the most amazing results in your life and deliberately generate the life you’ve always imagined for yourself. And you’ll do this with intention and on purpose.
It’s essential to make decisions ahead of time about how you want to spend your time and how you want to live. By making those decisions and following through, you’ll feel proud and invigorated with what you’ve accomplished each day and each week. You can also build in as much fun and rest into your daily plan as you want. I plan a nap and work out *almost* every single day. I also schedule time to eat meals together as a family and to unwind with my husband and play with my daughter. It’s not easy, and you can’t do everything all at once, but there is absolutely time for everything if you plan ahead.
There’s More Time Than You Think
Here’s the big secret. By being more deliberate with your time and making a daily routine, you’ll find that you have far more time than you’d ever realized. When you consciously choose your priorities and actively plan your days and weeks around them, you’ll be amazed to see how your life transforms into the life you’ve imagined for yourself. Otherwise, you’re choosing to let life happen to you by taking passive action. You’re still consciously choosing passivity.
By choosing to plan your days and week ahead of time, you’ll also free yourself from any feelings of guilt you may have about doing something fun because you already planned for your own downtime. You won’t find yourself feeling like you should be productive while you’re napping in bed because, yes, you will have planned that time.
Planning your days and weeks ahead of time and following through also eliminates every excuse you could possibly come up with. Imagine what your life would be like if you never had to make another excuse for why something wasn’t done? By planning your days and weeks ahead of time, you’ll be able to craft the exact life you want for your future self. Over time, that life will become yours.
Honor Your Schedule By Setting Boundaries
What if you have kids underfoot, friends who are always sliding into your DMs, or clients whose needs are always “urgent”? Making a daily routine also requires setting boundaries with others. Unless there’s truly an emergency, don’t let others intrude on the schedule and time you’ve crafted for yourself.
Celebrating your wins and all you’ve accomplished can further the desire to stay productive, organized, and focused on your daily routine. Your daily routine also doesn’t have to look like everyone else’s. What works for one person or influencer is not necessarily your own personal zone of genius. Work with a routine that fits your desires, lifestyle, and goals.
Getting out of reaction and building a life that responds to your desires and goals takes time to get used to. Avoid the temptation to slip back into the chaos the moment something unexpected comes up. Your life may also require a block of time to take care of the kids, get on the plane to travel, or make room for the unexpected. When you schedule a time to deal with those issues, you can still enjoy the work time and downtime built into your schedule.
Four Ways Crafting Daily Routines Changed My Life
1) Predictability
I’m obsessed with my daily routine and delight in how much it’s changed my life. I’m able to nap, work out daily, get 8 hours of sleep (caveat: this was before kids! Nights can be unpredictable with a baby in the house), and spend focused time doing my most important creative work every single day.
2) Productivity
I’m definitely one of the most productive people I know, and that’s because I decide to be. This isn’t a bragging point; anyone can do it with the right planning and mindset shift.
3) Discipline
I’m far more disciplined and organized than ever before. I honed my organizational and productivity skills once I started being intentional about each and every hour I have, ahead of time. It’s a learned skill anyone can learn. Now that we have a daughter, I have to be even more ruthless in my prioritization. Just this week I’ve turned down two potential clients whose projects didn’t get me excited.
4) Down Time
Best of all, it’s not unusual for me to take an afternoon off because I finished all the things I said I would do that day in far less time than it actually took me. Now I can spend that time with my daughter when she gets home from daycare – and lord knows my favorite thing lately is soaking up baby cuddles!
Making a daily routine sounds like a simple answer to living your best life… because it is. Start scheduling out your life on Monday and watch how it transforms your life.
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