Creating a Daily Routine That Works for You
Studies suggest that daily routines are important for productivity and well-being. People with a daily routine experience improved focus, reduced stress, and better work-life balance. I’ve often wondered if they included neurodivergent individuals in their studies. My experience with daily routines left my ADHD brain feeling discouraged, frustrated, and with no work-life balance. I began every new year (or school year) with a new planner, an example of a daily routine schedule, and some pretty pens, only to discard them three months later.
Years later, I realized that my failed attempts at keeping a daily routine revolved around three primary reasons: I created a schedule based on someone else’s life, I treated everything on my schedule as a priority, and I didn’t include breaks.
Understanding more about how my brain works and the reasons for failed daily routines, I could finally succeed by creating what worked for me, reducing stress, improving productivity, and finally having a true work-life balance.
Without these clearly identified, I was not able to stick to a daily routine that worked for me. The following five steps helped me prioritize and set boundaries, which laid the foundation for a successful daily routine.
Identify your priorities
As a multi-passionate entrepreneur, mother, wife, educator, volunteer, pet owner, friend, and student, I juggled so many daily tasks. Every person and responsibility held equal weight for me because the person or cause connected to them was also equally important. I didn’t truly understand how to assign priorities to my tasks until I learned about the Eisenhower Matrix.
Essentially, each task is assigned one of four quadrants; Important/Urgent, Important/Not Urgent, Not Important/Urgent, and Not Important/Not Urgent. Sometimes I didn’t know what urgent tasks to write down because they had not happened yet, such as a sick child Dr. visit. However, when I looked at the tasks, I could see that outside of a specific current deadline, not many things needed to be in the Important/Urgent quadrant. Most would be in the Important/Not Urgent quadrant. This is because I would know deadlines, meetings, appointments, etc. ahead of time. I had them on my schedule and would (ideally) break them into smaller tasks that I worked on over time until the deadline approached, and they became urgent.
Create a flexible schedule
Once you have your true priorities identified and listed on your schedule, block out time around those tasks to allow for flexibility. Schedule strategic blocks of 1.5 to 3 hours for non-urgent tasks such as working on homework, volunteer duties, or self-care. Additionally, create one to two 30 to 60-minute buffer blocks to tackle minor tasks such as making phone calls, checking email, etc. With these blocks on your calendar, you can adjust them as needed by swapping tasks or replacing the non-urgent task when an urgent task pops up like a sick child or impromptu lunch date invite.
These blocks of time helped my ADHD brain stay on task. I blocked the time, scheduled a task, and only focused on that task during the assigned block of time.
Incorporate Breaks and Downtime
In good design, there is plenty of white space. This gives the design elements like the text and graphics room for the viewer’s eyes to move around the page and see the information. It allows for a clear message. Likewise, our daily schedule needs white space too. Give your day margin. Do not attempt to schedule every minute of the day. Give yourself 15-minute windows before and/or after the urgent and important tasks.
During these breaks, do things to relax and reinvigorate your mind. Stretch, meditate, walk, listen to music, take deep breaths, or daydream. These small activities will contribute to an overall sense of well-being and reduce stress. I like to follow the 52-17 rule. I plan a block for a task, set a timer, and work on that task for 52 minutes. When the timer ends, I stop working and take a 17-minute break.
Use tools or apps to support your routine
There are a variety of productivity tools to help you keep track of your schedule, set reminders, create lists, and more. Some of my favorite apps for my business (and life) include Calendly, Toggl, and my iPhone’s timer app.
Many productivity apps offer free trials. Play with a few and see which ones work best for you. I rely heavily on my timer and alarms to keep me on track during my day.
Stay Accountable
One of my biggest lessons was being accountable to myself. MYSELF! I worked hard to do and be all things to everyone else, but time and time again I let myself down by ignoring the schedule I created, not using the tools I put in place, saying yes when I should have said no, and not giving myself breaks to avoid burnout.
Your Personalized Daily Routine
Now that you have implemented the 5 strategies for creating a schedule that works for you, the next step is to create a daily routine. The schedule you created is like the meat in the middle of a sandwich. Your morning routine is the top bun, and your evening routine is the bottom bun.
Your daily routine needs to start and end strong. Here are 5 tips to get started
- Start your day 15 minutes before everyone else and end your day 15 minutes after everyone else’s bedtime.
- Prep ahead. Lay out your morning clothes the night before. Put food in the crock pot in the morning for dinner later that day.
- Look at your schedule when you wake up, and before you go to bed. Make any needed adjustments.
- Begin and end your workday at the same time every day.
- Set alarms and stick to them.
Your Customized Daily Routine
Now that you have built a daily schedule with appropriately prioritized tasks, and you have made adjustments to your morning and evening routine, a new and improved daily routine has taken shape.
Go one step further and print a copy of your daily routine and post it where you and those around you can see it.
When life throws your routine off balance, give yourself patience. Set a date to start again, but be realistic, like after the unexpected house guest leaves, or once you are over the flu.