“Establish and follow daily and weekly routines.” ❝Zen is not some kind of excitement, but concentration on our usual everyday routine.❞ Shunryu Suzuki
Establish daily and weekly routines to get a sense of greater order and calm from your days and weeks.
Routines make you the master of your day, instead of leaving you at the mercy of the ups and downs of all the requests that come to you.
Without a routine, we have no way to say no to requests when they arrive, and we are always available to anyone who wants to use our time and every website that wants our attention.
How to establish routines
Work activities list
Make a list of everything you need or want to accomplish in your professional life. These could be important activities like in the Weekly Review or small tasks.
Personal activities list
Do the same with your personal life.
Group together
Look at the lists and find ways to group small tasks together; this saves time and reduces interruptions. Group them as errands and do them all on the same day.
You can choose a weekly desk day to deal with family documents.
At work, you can group all phone calls in one hour, dedicate another hour to email, group all office work, etc.
Daily list
Look at your lists and assess which activities are repeated daily. Plan your Daily Routine, that is, some fixed times of the day to perform these daily activities in succession.
Highlight your morning routine (perhaps one for home and one for when you arrive at work) and one for the end of the day (in this case too, one for the end of the workday and one for the evening before going to bed).
Leave the center of the day (the main portion) free to complete MITs and other important tasks that might arise.
Weekly list
What you do once or twice (or more) a week but not daily should go into the Weekly Routine.
Schedule these activities throughout the week, trying to not accumulate too many on the same day. You should have a maximum of 2-3 activities per day.
Group some activities or eliminate the less important ones.
Test
Now that you’ve set your daily and weekly routines, put them to the test.
Try to follow the daily routines for at least one week. Try to follow the weekly routine, instead, for at least two weeks.
Stick to the routines
Here’s the problem: creating routines is easy, sticking to them is difficult. However, once you find a set of routines that work well for you, if you manage to follow them for at least 30 days, they will become a habit.
Examples of effective routines
Morning routine (home)
- Wake up at the same time every day
- Hot beverage (tea, coffee)
- Light physical activity (stretching, short walk)
- Review of the day’s MITs
- Breakfast
- Preparation to leave
Morning routine (work)
- Complete the first MIT before checking email or other inputs
- Check email quickly only for emergencies
- Brief meetings with the team if necessary
- Continue with the second MIT
Mid-day routine
- Lunch break away from the desk
- Short walk
- Quick review of progress on MITs
- Batch email management
End-of-day routine (work)
- Review of the day’s results
- Planning of MITs for the next day
- Orderly closure of projects and workspaces
- Closing email and notifications
Evening routine (home)
- Time dedicated to family/friends
- Relaxation activities (reading, hobbies)
- Preparation for the next day
- Sleep preparation routine
- Consistent time to go to bed
The power of routines
Well-designed routines allow you to:
- Reduce daily decision load
- Eliminate procrastination
- Preserve energy for important decisions
- Create a structure that supports your goals
- Develop a sense of mastery and control
