Before routines, I was a perpetually behind, disorganized, stressed-out individual. Once I started putting routines in place, they were life-changing. I know they are foundational I still get off track. I’m not alone.
Some people can’t stick to a routine. Some people can’t start their routine. Some people don’t know what to put into a routine. Let’s look at the three biggest reasons why people cannot follow a routine and talk about some ways to combat that.
Time Restraints
Tip One- Start Small and Build Up
I was super inconsistent when I walked my dog. I would do an hour-long walk one day and a five-minute walk the next day. He had no idea what to expect and I couldn’t allot time. I wanted to start having a predictable routine.
We started with 7 minutes. Once we were consistently doing that we bumped it up to 10 minutes. Now we are on a 30-minute walk every morning. If I told myself I had to walk for 30 minutes every morning starting from nowhere, that’s not sustainable. I slowly built up that walk time until we had a stable and consistent routine.
Tip Two- Let Go List and Oh No List
Do you wake up early one day but hit snooze 4 times the next day? Try this strategy. Make your ideal list of everything that you want to do in your routine. You might go to the gym (60 mins), walk your dog (15 mins) do a full face of make-up (25 min), and journal while eating breakfast (20 min). Some days, you will be ready to go to do all of this. We are going to call that “let’s go” because you are ready to conquer the whole thing (all 2 hours of it).
The backup list is the oh-no list, like oh-no you overslept. Your instinct might be to skip the routine altogether, but that makes it harder to get back on track tomorrow. Let’s take the routine from above and break it down into an “oh no” list.
Instead of going to the gym, do an at-home workout (15 min)
Instead of a long walk, do a short walk (5 min)
Instead of a shower and make-up, dry shampoo and Mascara/Chapstick/SFP (5 min)
Instead of breakfast and a journal, make coffee and eat a granola bar (5 min)
The 2 hours just got consolidated down to 30 minutes and you still did most parts of your routine!
Tip 3-Switch Things Up
Always work out in the morning? Try an evening workout. Like to journal but have no time? Do a gratitude journal while your coffee brews. Always want to read at night but find that you are super tired? Read on your lunch break. See if switching the time helps you fit it in. It turns out morning walks are so much better with my dog!
Motivation
Tip 1: Do you like the routine?
Make sure your routine is something you actually like doing. You’re not going to build momentum doing things you don’t like. This also applies to what you are doing in your routine. Maybe you love the idea of journaling but the journal you have is not working for you. If the activities feel stale, freshen them up!
Tip 2: Accountability Partner
If you’re finding it difficult to stay accountable on your own, find a friend. When I was adding exercise, I had my friend Ashley hold me accountable. When I finished my workout I had to text her. If she didn’t hear from me she knew to text me. It helped me make sure I got it in.
Tip 3: Treat Yourself
Do you need to buy something new? Absolutely not. Does it feel really good to go ahead and do that though? Yes! Buy a brand new journal and fancy pens. Get a new matching workout outfit. Buy a new coffee mug to drink out of when you do the routine. See if something new helps increase your motivation.
Organization
Tip 1: Have a Vision
Have a vision for your routine. Do you know why you’re doing the routine? Are you doing it because you actually think it’s going to impact your life or are you doing it because you’ve seen enough aesthetic girls on Instagram showing their routine? If your answer is the second one, let’s try and twist it.
Think about things that would enhance YOUR life. What are practices that you can see actually making you feel better? Which are ones that you think wouldn’t add to your life at the end of the day? If your head is all over the place, your mind is not organized. It’s going to be hard for you to see why you’re doing something on the days that you’re exhausted and don’t want to do it.
Tip 2: Checklist
You could have a checklist of every activity you want to do during your morning routine or it can be a checklist for a certain part of your routine. For example, for my workouts, I turn to Lindsay with Nourish Move Love. She has workout calendars. I use her 30-day calendars and I found this to be perfect. Each time I work out I just go to the next workout she has on the checklist. Just having that planned out makes me much more likely to wake up in the morning and follow-through.
Tip 3: Organize Materials
If I am trying to do a routine but the materials I need to do the routine are not easy to use, I’m not following through. Is my moisturizer in the wrong spot? Not putting it on. Can’t find my sports bra? Not working out. Are my journals spread all over the house? Not writing in them. If I can take everything and put it in one central spot then when it is time to do the routine I’m so much more likely to follow through.
If you use any of these tips, let me know!
Listen to the podcast version here!