Why you need a routine...

We have all felt the impact of the past few years post (pandemic) that was a whisper. Whilst for some people this was bliss, they 'found' themselves, discovered their true passions etc... the rest of us were just at home living the same day-to-day, binge-watching shows, missing out on their teen years and 20s, stagnant in education and career.

Looking at the state of the world and community now, we are still in that transition period where nothing is quite 'normal', going out is too expensive, work is too stressful or you have too many exams to think about. It's so easy to feel overstimulated and overwhelmed, especially where content and information is so easy to access, so consider this your quiet reading corner of the Internet.

If you feel that everyday is running away from you and you are losing sense of time (and goals) then it may be worth sitting down and doing a re-think of your daily routine. There is so much evidence out there really supporting that a routine, and building good habits will do wonders for your mental health and I can definitely vouch for it too - https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC7535346/

A routine will eventually become second nature to you, and you will begin to not think twice when it comes to doing it, and what's better is that a routine does not depend on your mood, you just do it. If you're asking yourself, 'how do I do that' then you're in the right place because I will give you the only tips you need to incorporate a routine into your life successfully.

1. Start with your goals

In order to determine a routine, you need goals in mind. Are you looking to be more active? Read more books? Increase your step count perhaps? You need clear goals, and something to work towards. For example, if you want to be more active, then one of your first habits will be to work out your work/school schedule and find a few hour slots which you will dedicate solely to exercise (I will delve deeper into the schedule part later on).

A useful way to decide what your goals are is to sit and journal the best version of yourself, what do they look like? What is their daily routine? Envision this person and begin to emulate what they would do in their daily life. This was probably my favourite technique ever and really helped implement 'difficult' habits that I would've probably found excuses for in any other instance. The core of it is to feel so passionate about reaching this self-actualised version of yourself that you would be unwilling to find excuses, and will only ever find reasons to push through.

2. Develop resilience

Really and truly, in many instances we have been brought up with all the blessings we could possibly want, including a community, advanced education, the ability to work from a young age and have safety, which has made us soft in a lot of instances. There is no reason to 'work hard' because we have what 90% of the world already work for, so a lot of people in our demographic don't feel that hunger to actually work towards something.

This leads onto the issue of resilience, we cry and quit at any inconvenience and this will be your biggest enemy because without this discomfort you will not experience growth and everything becomes stagnant. The most resilient will succeed and the rest of us will just be there, thinking 'oh they must be lucky' when ultimately they just did what you didn't (in most cases).

3. Find out 'why'

The reason we work is for money, the reason we go out is to have fun, the reason we have hobbies is to enjoy our free time. Why do you want to implement a routine? What is the driving factor, if you don't have the why then you don't have a starting point and without a starting point you will forever be going around in circles of stopping and starting because you're not on a clear path.

Discovering this is easy, but admitting it is hard. The 'why' requires introspection, and coming to terms with potentially feeling insecure, uncomfortable or potentially unhappy. Once you do find the why, you're 50% of the way there, the other half is just implementing.

4. Counter your excuses

We all have our core 'excuses' that we have used in every occasion, and we probably feel super comfortable with them because they have now formed a part of your identity. 'Oh I'm just not a reader' 'I'm not an early riser' 'The gym isn't for me' 'I'm not naturally smart'. The more you say these, the more they become a part of your identity and that's when you have quit before starting, because it's better than starting and then failing.

If you want to overcome this, then it is so easy. Let's use the example of waking up early. Everyone can wake up early, humans aren't nocturnal so in most instances we should be sleeping early and waking up early for an average of 7/8 hours sleep a night. Excessive sleep is actually damaging to your health, both physically and mentally by the way https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/ana.23818

If you are someone that wakes up around 8 and you'd like to wake up at 6 for example, then it's not a case of just setting your alarm for 6 the next morning and expecting to jump out of bed doing star jumps. Realistically you could do that for a day or two but that's not a habit and it's not enjoyable truthfully, and on the third day you will be sleeping in playing 'catch up' until 10am and then you say to yourself 'see, i tried but it's not for me'.

The healthiest way to implement this as a habit is to bring your alarm clock forward by 15 minutes each day, so on day 2 you are waking up at 7:45, then day 3 at 7:30 and so on. You will slowly bring your body clock forward to 6am and won't feel super lethargic during the day!

After a week or so of training your body to wake up at your desired time, you can then start implementing habits, whether it is going to the gym, going for a walk, or just sitting and read. Decide what you want to fill this time with and make it enjoyable!

5. Schedule

This to me is one of the most important aspects, having a schedule, aka knowing what you're doing and when you're doing it. Sometimes it is as simple as grabbing a pen and paper and time blocking your week e.g. working out your work hours/commute time during the week and seeing if you are able to squeeze in a early morning walk before work or a gym session on a Saturday morning.

It goes without saying that this requires sacrifice, maybe you won't be able to stay out until 11pm on a Friday because you know you have a gym sesh on the Saturday, but you need to decide if it's worth it to you. If you are spending 3 hours a night on Netflix, then maybe we can cut down to 2 hours and use that additional hour to read or paint (whatever you choose your creative hobby to be).

Everyone has different commitments and responsibilities, it's very easy to make excuses and then be upset that you haven't achieved any personal goals, as harsh as that sounds. Ultimately we can decide what to do, create a life balance that works for you. The time to complete these things will not magically appear, you need to make the time and that involves prioritising.

6. Being grateful

As I'm writing I realise that I have pretty much called every single point important, but this one really is! This is not meant to sound poetic, but factual. We are incredibly lucky to be living the lives that we live in the era we are currently living. We have all the information in the world at our fingertips, within seconds we have recipe ideas, diet step by steps and detailed videos of world class athletes/academics providing advice and we use the phone to doom scroll instead.

I am so blessed and grateful to live in world where I can freely meet a friend for coffee and not have to rely on asking someone for money, because I make my own. I am so grateful I can go to a supermarket and buy fresh produce to allow me to cook healthy meals to look after my body. I am blessed that if I have a tight shoulder I can bring out my yoga mat and access thousands of youtube videos to alleviate my pain.

Point being, whatever your goal is does not require motivation, you don't need to be going to the gym kicking and screaming for it to be 'worth it'. You can actually go to the gym with a smile on your face knowing whatever you achieve today will be an achievement because you are a human being living a human experience and sometimes all we need is to take a step back and look at the bigger picture.

I hope you found this blog beneficial! I realised how much I missed writing as a creative outlet. If you have any specific topics you'd like for me to touch on just let me know in the comments!

Until next time,

Argita xo