2024 flew by for me! The New Year of 2025 is here and what a great time to create daily routines that allow joy!
Benefits of Daily Routines
When reading about the benefits of daily routines, I didn’t see joy on the list 🤷🏻‍♀️Along with joy, other benefits include:
- Reduced stress: By knowing what to expect throughout the day, your mind is less overwhelmed by decision-making, leading to lower anxiety levels.
- Improved focus and productivity: A structured routine helps you stay on task and avoid distractions, allowing you to accomplish more in less time.
- Better sleep hygiene: Consistent sleep schedules fostered by a routine can improve the quality of your sleep.
- Healthy habits: Incorporating activities like exercise, meditation, or nutritious meals into your daily routine makes it easier to maintain a healthy lifestyle.
- Enhanced self-discipline: Sticking to a routine builds self-control and willpower.
- Time management: By planning your day with a routine, you can prioritize tasks and allocate time efficiently. Consider energy levels when planning your routine!
- Mental clarity: Less mental energy is spent on deciding what to do next, freeing up brainpower for more complex tasks.
- Positive impact on relationships:Consistent family routines can foster quality time together.
Photo by Amanda Jones on Unsplash
Start Fresh
This is a great time to start fresh and mix it up a bit! Pay attention to the “auto-pilot routines”, those you do without thinking and make adjustments to benefit you. Routines give us a sense of accomplishment – Routines typically have a beginning and an end, and we plan our day and time around being able to prioritize them and accomplish the most important tasks of the day for ourselves and our families.
Our brains strive to turn everything into a routine because thinking is time-consuming! Routines help our brain conserve energy and minimize risks. This makes sense from a neurobiological perspective, and it’s even essential for survival, but it can have adverse effects on us – for example, when we develop a bad habit.
Thinking Routines
If you haven’t heard of a thinking routine, Secure.Smore.Com shared the 4 if’s inspired by/adapted from Ron Ritchhart https://www.ronritchhart.com. A thinking routine is a series of steps or structures that help people analyze and interpret information.
The 4 If’s – take action
- If I take action . . . What might happen?
- If my community takes action . . . What might happen?
- If the world takes action . . . What might happen?
- If I do nothing what might happen?
The 4 It’s – consequences
- If I take this issue seriously . . . What might the consequence be?
- If my community took this issue seriously . . . What might the consequence be?
- If the world took this issue seriously . . . What might the consequence be?
- If I do nothing what might the consequence be?
Thinking routines can help people:
- Understand how thinking helps develop understanding
- Engage in the study of a topic together
- Set expectations for themselves and others
- Contribute and participate in different ways
- Analyze a wide variety of materials, such as artworks, photographs, documents, and newspaper articles
- Encourage multiple interpretations of source material
Photo by Hester Qiang on Unsplash
Have a Great Year!
The start of a month (and year) is a great time to decide to try new routines. You can tweak them throughout the year. Have some fun and see what works for you!
A beginning-of-the-year review of your details before tax season makes sense to me! I know I’m a bit unusual 🌞 Send me an Email or Message anytime if this sounds like your cup of tea! For additional information about my work check out my website @ The Living Planner or my online DIY information @ The Living Planner.
This is the quote I kept with me as I changed countries and companies. It speaks to me often, especially at the beginning of a new year! “Man cannot discover new oceans unless he has the courage to lose sight of the shore.” —Andre Gide
Make your fresh start a good one🌞 Lynn
#Can’tPredictCanPrepare #PlanForTheUnplanned