Create a Routine

Our good-night routine

There are some things that we have to do every day. Brushing your teeth, doing dishes, putting your shoes in the cupboard, etc. Some of these become habits, some of them are things we keep having to remind ourselves of. Obviously, the habits are much easier to maintain, because, well... they're habits!
You should try to make all of these activities habitual, so that you don't need to spend any more energy on trying to remember them. You can read about creating habits here.
But today, I want to talk about creating a string of habits to form a routine. Making routines will reinforce each separate habit and help you form new ones. It also prevents you from forgetting some of the things that need doing.

Think of what you need to do at a specific moment in time. A time in which you need to combine different activities, that don't really change on a day to day basis. A good example is the time after you wake up, when you go to bed or after you've arrived at work. List all the different activities on a piece of paper, and decide on an order that makes sense (don't brush your teeth right before you drink your cup of coffee, or after you put on your lipstick). 

For the first couple of days, keep this paper at the place where the last activity takes place. Go back to it, if you need to remember the steps. Stick to it religiously. That shouldn't be too hard, since you have to do all those things anyways, right? 
After about three weeks, this routine itself will become habitual. It will become faster and more efficient, thus saving you time and worries. 


To simplify this, try to limit the amount of activities at first and add to the routine later. 

My husband and I have now developed a very good 'going to bed' routine. Take a look at the picture to find out how we started it. It's been saving us time, money and stress. What's not to like?

What kind of routines are you creating? Did you do this already? Do you find it hard to keep it up?