How To Cultivate A Flexible Daily Routine That Supports Your Health & Wellness Goals
It's no secret that babies thrive on routine, but as it turns out, so do adults. We’re creatures of habit and we find comfort in the familiar and it just so happens that a daily routine is a great way to provide structure and predictability to your day, which incidentally come with many other benefits.
What are the benefits of having a daily routine?
Increases productivity & reduces stress
Creating a flexible schedule for your daily tasks and activities helps you stay in control of your day so you can be more productive and experience less stress.
Reduces reliance on motivation & willpower
Having a daily routine provides you the structure you need to get going and move forward, even on difficult days when motivation and willpower may be low.
Helps you focus on your goals & priorities and keeps you on track
A positive daily routine helps you prioritize tasks and activities that align with your goals and allows you to make progress consistently.
Helps you form good habits & shed bad ones
A daily routine that works for you facilitates habit and behaviour change as it encourages regular repetition which helps you sustain new habits and behaviours over the long term, until they become second nature.
On the flip side, it helps you reduce or eliminate bad habits over time, as you’ll consciously be choosing to replace the habits that don’t serve you with the ones that do.
Frees up time for play
Over time, a daily routine frees up time. The more you do something, the better you get at it, the easier it gets, and the more efficient you become at completing the tasks and activities that you do on repeat.
If you’re new to cooking for example, you might find it time consuming in the begining, but with time, repitition and practice, you’ll learn new skills, tricks and short cuts that will make it easier and you’ll be able to get dinner on the table faster, freeing up time for you to do other things like play withy our kids or take more “me time”.
Routines are important, but what’s equally important is finding the right routine that works for you; especially when it comes to something as important as your health and wellness goals. There is no such thing as one size fits all.
How to cultivate a flexible daily routine that supports your health & wellness goals?
A daily routine is a great self-accountability tool that encourages you to show up for yourself in the best way everyday. To be effective, it should be structured yet flexible and shouldn't be difficult or stressful to maintain.
Here are a few tips to help you cultivate a positive daily routine that fits your life and supports your needs:
Split Your Day Into Buckets
As opposed to having a morning routine and then flying by the seat of your pants the rest of the day, think about how you want to begin and end your day and every other part of the day in between.
When you consciously decide what you want to do with each part of your day, you are more likely to build good habits throughout the entire day. This can include simple things like adding reminders to drink water, take deep breaths and get up from your desk to stretch to each of your mini day part routines so that you are hydrating, managing stress levels and moving your body all day with less effort.
Morning, midday, afternoon, evening is one common way to divide up the day, but you do what works best for you.
Manage Your Time and Energy
Plan your activities realistically, based on the time and energy you have available to you in different parts of your day.
If you are not a morning person and you know you have to get the kids to school by 8am, then chances are it’s going to be overwhelming and stressful to plan a 12 step morning routine that requires you to get out of bed at 4am and juggle while hopping on one foot to make it all happen.
If you work from home, as many of my clients do these days, and you know you have a meeting late in the day that’s going to cut into your meal preparation and make the dinner rush more stressful, then plan to do some advance meal preparation the night before or earlier in the day when you have free time in your calendar.
If you’re always pressed for time and find it hard to build healthy eating habits into your routine, read this.
Build “Me Time” Into Your Daily Routine
Me time is an essential part of your day. It’s what allows you to recharge your batteries. Whether it be time for movement, meditation, reflection and journaling, reading a book, listening to a podcast, catching up with a friend or a combination of the above, carving time out of your day for you, is an essential part of a positive and supportive daily routine.
If you split your day into buckets as suggested above, you can plan a “me time” slot into each part of your day, even if it’s just 10 minutes. It’s quality over quantity.
Be Prepared
A routine is a great way to stay on track and build momentum with your goals. However, it is not a replacement for a plan of action. Know what you want to accomplish and how you intend to do that so that you can build the right tasks and activities into your daily routine and be more efficient in your execution.
If your goal is to improve your eating habits and prepare more home cooked meals, you’ll need to be sure that your pantry and refrigerator are well stocked and ready for you. You’ll also need a meal plan to guide you so that once you build meal preparation into your routine, you know exactly what you’ll be preparing and won’t waste time trying to figure it out on the spot.
If getting better sleep is a priority for you, then work on cultivating an evening routine that supports winding down, relaxing and getting to bed early enough so you can get a solid 8 hours of quality sleep. Ideally you should start the bedtime process 1 - 2 hours before you want to fall asleep, especially if you have trouble falling asleep, but if that’s not feasible for you, aim for at least 30 minutes to give your mind enough time to relax.
Change it Up
While change takes time and I do encourage you to give your new routine a chance, remember that it’s not etched in stone. If it’s not working for you, don’t be afraid to change it up.
Rather than scraping the whole routine and starting over at the first sign of struggle however, remember that you may just need time to adjust and adapt to your new routine. Give it at least 20 to 30 days but feel free to make small tweaks little by little until you find what works for you.
If you’ve split your day into buckets as suggested in step 1, this process will be much easier, as you can identify what’s not working in each part of your day and tweak that, or perhaps you’ll find that you only need to make tweaks to one part of the day to make things flow better.
If after 20 or 30 days your new routine still isn’t working then reassess it and make sure it’s the right routine for you and your lifestyle. Don’t force someone else’s routines on yourself, just because you’ve heard they work.
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