The Art of Making a Routine

Before I start with the article, I really must apologise for missing a day yesterday. I'm afraid I don't have a good excuse now either... I was watching "Dirk Gently's Hollistic Detective Agency" which is a show on Netflix, I got a little distracted and before I knew it, it was two a.m and I needed to go to bed.

Now, you might wonder what the use of a routine is. Well, for one, it helps with productivity. Dedicating a certain amount of time for certain tasks ensures that you complete most, if not everything, you set out to do. In my case, having a routine also helps me with my mental health. I have found that knowing when to get up, when to go to sleep, when to eat and when to work helps greatly with keeping depressive episodes at bay.

I am aware that articles about making routines are probably oversaturating the internet right now, with youtubers making morning and evening routines left, right and centre, but I still feel that making this blog post might still be beneficial . I find that the way I make my routine is slightly different from other people's in that it is open to change and flexible to the situation. By that I don't mean that some components can be removed, although that is true, I mean that whenever something in the routine stops working, I tend to start the process again. I do this to give my brain the impression of starting fresh. How often I change up my routine depends on what is going on in my life, I change it if I have stopped following it, if my situation has changed, or if I have started or stopped an activity. I know this might sound obvious but this is something I did not think I could do. All the influencers I looked towards when first trying to develop a routine. They all seemed to have everything so figured out, they told you how to develop a routine but not when or how to change it to accomodate life.

So to help you develop a routine that can be kept, I have a few tips.

The first tip is to find out when it's best for you to sleep and wake up, "Sleepyti.me" is a website that let's you imput when you want to wake up and tells you when it would be best for you to go to sleep. I like to write these down so I have something to refer back to later. I also advise you to find out how long you can remain concentrated, once you know that you'll know how much time you can schedule for work or study time.

The second tip I have is to write down three goals you have and ways you think will help you accomplish them. You will be able to look at them when you make your routine and incorporate them, ensuring that you spend more time working towards those goals. For example, this year I would like to learn Russian, become more flexible, and finish my first novel. So I will add twenty minutes of Russian practice every morning, ten minutes of yoga every evening, and write for around an hour a day.

The third tip is to write down all the things you need to do on the daily. This can be chores, hobbies, etc. While you could just use a tracker in your journal, I prefer to plan time for these things in my daily routine to make it even more likely that everything gets done or that at least, if I chose not to do something, I am not forgetting but actively decide that something else is more important. I also like to plan a little downtime for myself when I am at this stage of making the routine. That way it forces me to take a few minutes to an hour to relax and pay attention to what my body and my mind need.

The final tip is to schedule mealtimes. I know this one sounds stupid, because eating is something so obvious that there is no need to schedule it, but I am doing this for a reason. That reason is that when I get depressed or distracted I forget or decide to skip a meal, if I schedule it in, I will be more inclided to eat because it will feel like something I accomplish. Scheduling mealtimes also helped me rain in my snacking because I could look at how long I had between meals and I would feel like it was easier to wait if I knew exactly how much time I had left.

I hope these tips are as useful to you, as they are to me. If they are, feel free to message me to tell me!