Easy Ways to Improve Your Current Routines

I guess it’s time for an upgrade?

It’s time for an upgrade…. with your routines!

Routines are a game changer… and you would probably know that if you have routines yourself. (If you don’t have routines, you definitely should start formulating some! Read this blog post on the types of routines you can create and how to do them)

There are so many different routines you can have! They include your morning routine, night routine, study routine…. and countless more! The greatest part about routines is that they are filled with habits and they are automated, meaning you could do them without even thinking of it.

And when the routines are filled with effective and lifechanging habits, you have actually yourself up for better results in what you do.

If you currently have any routines right now, whether that’d be a morning routine or a night routine (any routines you have in mind), then this blog post is all about improving those routines. If you don’t have any routines definitely read the blog post on essential routines first!

Now, we will go through all these ways you can improve your routines. If you have noticed in the title, they are easy ways. By easy, we mean that you can easily take them in small steps…. you’ll soon see if you read further right?

1 – Track Your Time

One of the first ways to improve your routines is to actually track the time you spend on them.

Track how much time you spend on each of your routines, and use that time to budget tasks so you don’t waste too much of it.

For example, when tracking the time you spend on your night routine, you may notice that you spend too much time watching TV, that you end up going to bed late. Being able to track that time allowed you to become more self-aware of it, and therefore you can make the change.

2 – Brain Dump

This involves just getting a piece of paper, and just writing everything that comes into your mind.

This is really helpful to get all those thoughts out and honestly, creative ideas to come out!

Do a brain dump specifically for every routine, whether that is your morning, night, or your work routine. Note down:

• What will make the routine better.
• What will make the routine worse.

By knowing those two things, you obviously will do more of the things that make your routine better, and not do the things that don’t.

For example, for your morning routine, you may say that reading a book makes the routine better, but going on your phone makes your routine worst.

3 – Invest into Items that can Improve Your Routines

It may also be worth investing your money into items (or even applications!) that can improve your routines.

This is because sometimes you can actually save more time in your routines if you have the items that allow you to do so. Even if it’s not a time-saving item, they can still make a big difference to your routines!

For example, for your morning routine, you may think about getting an actual alarm clock for your alarm. While you’re probably not going to save time since it’s just an item to wake you up, it can make a big difference to your morning. It may be an item that prevents you from going on your phone first thing!

Another example is that you may get essential oils for your night routine! Again, it’s not a time-saving item, but it can make a big difference to your environment and how you feel during the evenings. It may be an item that gets you into the “sleeping mood” and helps you sleep better!

If we’re talking about time-saving items, you may get a 2L water bottle for your work routine. This can help you not spend those little minutes of the day (that do add up!) refilling your water bottle. This saves time during your work routine, so you can actually spend it working, or using your breaks wisely.

4 – Have Everything Ready to Go

This is important because it’s actually a time-saving strategy…

Think about starting work in general. Say you plan to start working at 9am. When you go to start work, there’s still so many things you need to set up. You need to set up your computer so you can go on the applications you have to work on, your resources, your materials, and clear up your environment. This can take up to 15-20 minutes.

BUT if you had prepared everything at least the day before, at 9am, you can just get straight into working.

It’s the same with your routines. Most times, you just want to go straight into it. Just like with the example mentioned above, you want to have everything you need ready to go.

For instance, if we go back to all our routines. For your morning routine, you will want to have all those things you need ready to go, whether that is your book, journals, or your workout clothes. For your night routine, you may already want to put all your essential items into one spot, so you can grab it and get ready to go.

By having everything ready to go, you save so much time trying to find and figure everything out. You just get on with your routines smoothly.

5 – Remove Distractions

This is your typical productivity tip that still applies to routines!

Distractions for routines refer to your time-wasters and the things that don’t really help with your routines.

For example, with your work routine, you may have different phone apps that are really distracting. It may be something you need to remove to prevent yourself from getting distracted by it.

Or maybe, social media time is a distraction to your night routine. Hours of scrolling may lead into the night, and then it’s too late to go to your bed.

A fun thing you can do to not get distracted…. by your distractions, is that you can create a NOT-to-do list.

Definitely read my past blog post on how to create a not-to-do list, but to briefly explain, a not-to-do list is like a to-do list, except it’s a list of things to not do. Every time you don’t do something in your day, you tick it off. For example, your not-to-do list may look like this:

• No more than 30 minutes on social media
• No eating junk food
• No going on phone in the morning

If you didn’t do those things, you can tick them off your not-to-do list.

There’s something very intriguing about ticking something off a list that makes it very exciting. You can use that to your advantage!

You can even create separate not-to-do lists for each of your routines… there’s benefit to that as well!

6 – Shake Them Up Once in a While

This is where you regularly shake up your routines once in a while.

Because here’s the thing – if we do the same thing over and over again, we tend to get bored. When we get bored, we become unmotivated.

That’s why it’s important to shake up our routines every once in a while. Instead of doing the same thing for days on end, we just add something or replace something every now and then.

For example, your work routine may have always included the same break where you just go and get a snack. You may want to shake it up by going for a walk outside after getting a snack.

Another example is your morning routine always including the same tasks every day. For instance, your morning routine may have included reading, journalling, and then taking a walk. You may want to switch it up by adding some affirmations into your journalling.

You always want to switch things up every once in a while. Not only does it prevent you from getting bored and unmotivated, it also allows you to try new things and see if they work for you! The worst thing that could happen by trying a new thing, is that you go back to your original routine anyway. That’s okay… at least you have tried something new!

Take a SMALL STEP

Now that you know the six things you can do to improve your routines, you can now take the small steps in applying them!

Small steps is all you need here! You can choose to track your time first, and then brain dump all your thoughts on what you could do to shake things up. You can find ways to manage your distractions and start investing into items that can enhance your routines! Then, when you start your day, you already have everything prepared and ready to go.

Your Routines Do NOT Need to be Perfect

The most important thing to remember is that it’s all about progress here. We’re not worried about getting things perfect. We’re all about finding ways to improve and progress, When it comes to routines, we don’t need them to be perfect… we just need them to be efficient and effective.

We don’t need to have perfect routines to achieve what we want to achieve. We don’t need to do everything perfectly every time. We just need to be patient with ourselves, and find ways that we can improve everything we do, including our routines!

-Lauren 😊

---

Share This Blog Post Here:

Related Articles:

Essential Routines for Personal Growth

10 Biggest Mistakes With Routines

How to Ruin Your Work Routine

How to Ruin Your Morning Routine

Study Routine for Personal Growth

---

---

---

CONNECT with ME!! 🗯

Instagram:

@laurenlbarri (blog Instagram)

---