Written by: Sarika Kishore, Executive Contributor
Executive Contributors at Brainz Magazine are handpicked and invited to contribute because of their knowledge and valuable insight within their area of expertise.
Do you find that you have difficulty sticking to a routine you have created and end up procrastinating?
Do you create your routine based on the top 5 search results on the habits of successful people from the internet? Do you then find yourself struggling to keep up with the routine because you think you need to be more successful?
Do you find the goals you set for yourself each day go by the wayside? Do you then realize that you didn’t take into account how much time each task will take realistically?
I have always struggled with routines. Trying to find a balance between getting everything done, raising kids, having an active social life, pursuing a career/hobby has been the bane of my life. I am not a routine person, and yet I need one to keep my days structured to get things done on time.
Struggling with anxiety and depression made me realize the importance of routines. It helped me create a structure that would make me get out of bed and take care of my family.
As I got better, routines became a source of negative self-talk. The self-flagellation got so bad that I had to seek help from a therapist to stop me from tripping into OCD hurdles.
I learned to delve deeper into myself to understand what kind of a routine was necessary for me and how to become more efficient without having to push myself every day.
These are lessons from my journey to becoming a more productive and happier person:
Create a routine that follows your Biorhythm
Biorhythms are your own physiological, energy, and mood cycles that you experience daily or seasonally. They are unique to you. For eg.-You are someone who can stay awake till late at night but just cannot be an early riser habitually, or you love the winter season and are most cheerful in the cold months. So before you start creating a routine, try a week of self-observation. Notice the times you are the most energetic, the times that you feel exhausted, what time you go to sleep naturally, what time of day do you feel is the worst time for you energetically. Also, notice what activities energize you and what is draining/boring for you. Use the most energetic times for activities that are chores and boring. Use the times that are not your best to schedule activities that are energizing and could be a reward for all the other things you have accomplished. Waking up early/late should be decided based on what your body needs and not what your mind thinks is good for you.
Create a routine that is realistic
Your routines should be based on your own personal experience of achieving your goals. Your goals and schedule should reflect how YOU do things and how long YOU take to complete them. They should not be based on how others would or what you expect yourself to achieve.
Do a reality check when you are scheduling a project, how much time do you have, and how long you have taken to complete a similar project before. What are the other ongoing tasks that you have to take care of while giving time to this project?
Create a schedule that matches your needs- time and energy-wise. This will definitely create a healthy and achievable schedule.
Your routines are a reflection of your beliefs
If you have a tenuous relationship with success and believe that you are useless, your routine will be set up for failure. You will create an overambitious routine that you know you will never achieve. And that will lead to procrastination and failure. Success is achievable only if you believe you can and are worthy of it. Are you keeping yourself busy with unimportant things but ignoring the one thing you need to do to be really successful? Are you so busy rearranging everything to look perfect instead of taking actions that can actually contribute to your success? Don't let your routines and schedule mask your fear of failure.
Taking action and doing things that will be productive for you is more important than a great routine that just keeps you busy.
Your routine should enable you not to disable
Are you setting up a new routine because you haven’t been able to achieve your goals, or are you changing them because you didn’t achieve them the way you wanted to? Routines should be used to maximize your efficiency and not the results. If you are looking at unsatisfactory results and altering your routine, then you are only blaming yourself for the failures. Results are based on many factors outside of your control. You need to be objective about them so you can actually work on the problems that led to your failure. Focussing on just the routine or your efforts will lead to missing out on finding the solutions to getting better results next time.
Whose routine is it anyway?
Are your routines dictated by what others taught you, or are they based on your own experiences? Sometimes we follow what has been taught to us from childhood. It becomes ingrained as beliefs, becoming habits that can keep us in a cycle that is unproductive.
When you find yourself unhappy because you didn’t follow a certain routine you are used to, ask yourself why? Challenging your need to do things at a certain time of day or in a particular way will help you uncover that there is some belief about your self-worth linked to that activity.
Where did you learn to do this? Is it really working for you, or is it just acceptance of how things are done? Figure out why your self-worth is linked to this habit? Were you punished or reprimanded when you had broken the rule/routine? Do you believe that if you didn’t get 8 hours of sleep every night, you could not function well just because you were made to do so as a child?
Do these lessons of mine resonate with you? If you feel conflicted about changing your routines, question yourself. Do you truly need that conflict, or can you spend your energy on something that is more important in your life? Find the real reason you are unhappy before changing your routine.
Your happiness should not depend on just following a plan. Your happiness should be a result of effectively managing your time and accomplishing things. Your routine should help you do exactly that!
Sarika Kishore, Brainz Magazine Executive Contributor
Sarika Kishore is a Life Coach who is passionate about helping women rediscover the magic of life. She had battled with depression and anxiety for several years and learned that happiness is an attitude, not an event. A shift in attitude allowed her to reinvent and adjust to any challenge that life threw at her and empowered her to live life on her terms. Now, she shares her strategies and techniques in her signature program "Be The Magician" and helps other women identify, modify and defy their barriers to life and take control of it. Her goal is to help women become more impactful and joyful and create a ripple effect in our society, spreading happiness and hope to others.
