The Benefits of a Routine
Each day we wake up and wash our face, make the bed, clean our teeth, and have a hearty breakfast… Or do we?
Routines have become a luxury for a lot of us. Whether you are single, or in a relationship, or married you may find it difficult to get into an all-important routine. While I am generalising, I do know that a lot of us struggle to stick to a routine. A lot of the time we can start one, but it can be very challenging to follow through every day.
Why is this such an important issue? From a personal perspective I find that not having structure to my day makes me feel stressed, overwhelmed, and when I don’t “get to what I need to do” I can even sometimes feel like a failure.
I have been making some rather pathetic excuses over the last year. One of those excuses is that I have moved again, for the 16th time in my life, or the 12th time since I left my childhood home. One minor difference is that I moved to a new city, in the suburbs of a new city, no tall buildings… I really surprised myself with this move. Within 6 months I had experienced loss twice, left a job I had been at for just over 9 years, and I had moved from a city that I called home for 27 years, and I developed a rather nefarious health condition. Let me address one question I may be asked, “Do I regret making the decision to leave that job, or moving to a new city?”, no I do not, not for one second.
What I do however regret is that I allowed myself to spiral into destructive behaviour mentally after I made the first decision, which only worsened after I moved. I was faced with a challenge and I literally derailed myself mentally and, well I didn’t exactly slow down the health condition, if anything I allowed it to take hold and I am still struggling to get myself back to where I was. What does this have to do with a routine? Why am I waffling on about me, me, me?
Speaking about my “tripping over myself” is my way of telling you that nobody is perfect and least of all me. I am pulling up my socks and moving towards who I should be once again. In other words, because that sounded so weak and “snowflakey”, I am working on fixing me and I want to share the specific benefits I have experienced when it comes to a solid routine.
- You will be at work on time
- You won’t fall behind on the dreaded home management
- You won’t fall behind on projects
- You won’t be caught with a roast in the oven when loadshedding (power cuts) starts
- You will have the free time you crave to garden or read or – insert your favourite hobby here
I have only listed 5 benefits, and I am not just referring to a morning and/or evening routine, I am referring to creating routines for your whole day. Plan out the week, and even the weekend. This way you make sure that you don’t just waste time running around like a headless chicken unsure of what is next. I have not had time to craft anything for quite a while now, this is not entirely true. If I had a set routine, I would have the time, to be honest. In fact, if I had a set routine, I would be a lot more organised in every aspect of life. I am going to leave this post right there, I could go on for ages about routines and list ways in which to create them but that will come in future posts. For now, ponder what you do each day that can be seen as your own routine, build on that and you will see amazing results.