What To Do When Your Routine Falls Apart
We worship the productivity gurus and try to build a perfect routine surrounding everything they teach as if there’s some kind of one size fits all approach to productivity. We make a strict schedule overloaded with tasks, set unrealistic goals, and feel pretty good about ourselves until one little wrench gets thrown into the machine. We say things like “I’ll just get back at it tomorrow,” but let’s be honest, tomorrow never comes. Our schedules are so bloated with clutter that it feels like we can never catch up, and eventually, the anxiety causes our routine to collapse beneath our feet.
I’m currently recovering from the fallout that was breaking my leg, and since I’ve been confined to the couch my life has really taken a toll. Everything I was working on before the accident has slowly slipped away from me, and now I’m in a complete phase of rebuilding. I’m limited on time, energy, and mobility, so I’ve got to employ a strategy I’ve used every time something has caused my routine to shift. Today I’ll show you what’s worked for me.
Step 1: Identify Your Habits
Having a journal is going to be crucial for this process. You can use anything you want to get started, I prefer pen and paper, but if it’s easier for you to just open up Apple Notes by all means use that as well.
The first step in rebuilding my routine has always been identifying all of the habits I want to build. Some of the items on my list are sitting down to write every day, exercising, finishing normal work-related tasks to keep my business moving forward, and just boring stuff like keeping my space clutter free so I don’t have a mountain of junk stressing me out while I try to work.
This list is for productive parts of our day, so items like playing video games, petting your dog, or eating a tub of ice cream while binge-watching all of Blackbird don’t earn a spot on the list just yet.
To effectively track these habits, come back at the end of each week and check off each daily task you accomplished.
Step 2: The Time-Block Method
The next step is what I like to call the Time-Block Method. Basically, this is a fancy way of setting up my calendar so I force myself to get into a routine until it becomes second nature.
We all have varying amounts of free time, and sometimes it feels like there aren’t enough hours in the day to do anything extra, but when we create blocks of our time for dedicated tasks and adhere to some type of personal schedule it’s amazing how much of that free time we actually waste aimlessly scrolling through Tiktok.
I like to put the biggest tasks of my day at the beginning of my work time, and as the day goes on the move through my tasks until I’m just doing things that require almost no brain power. This has always allowed me to spend my peak hours working on the most important items on my list and doesn’t put me in a place of forcing my way through my work. I believe in quality, and it’s almost impossible for me to produce that when I have absolutely no energy left for the day.
Time is our most important currency, how we spend it dictates the quality of our life.
Step 3: Become Pavlov
If you’ve ever read Steven Pressfield’s “The War of Art” you’ll probably be familiar with this concept. But it’s important to realize that the most creative people happen to have their inspiration hit them at the same time every single day. This is because they create an environment that almost automatically switches their brain into work mode so they can remain honed in on their craft every day.
For those of you that didn’t pay attention in gen-ed psychology classes like me, here’s a brief explanation of Pavlov’s dog. Every day Pavlov would ring a bell before feeding his dog, after a period of time the dog would begin salivating when the bell rang before the food was ever poured.
For me, my bell is the same Lofi playlist every day. Something about Tokyo beats just gets my creative juices flowing, but maybe for you, it’s sitting in the same spot every day, having the same drink when it’s time to work, whatever works for you.
Step 4: Treat Yourself
Pavlov rewarded the dog, and you have to reward yourself! I don’t know about you, but I have a very addictive personality, and it’s crucial that I don’t let that get in the way of my work.
I like to be productive, but that doesn’t mean I don’t get to have fun once in a while. I always have time blocked off in my calendar for “doing absolutely nothing,” doesn’t matter if it’s reading, video games, or catching up on my Youtube subscription feed, all work, and no play makes me go insane. This system works, because if I don’t finish my work, I don’t get to play Cult of the Lamb until my eyes hurt every night. I recommend blocking out some fun time in your calendar, and as long as you get 75% of your work done for the day, sit down and do whatever it is you enjoy.
Step 5: Make Your Weekends Sacred
Of course, I end up working over the weekend, but I don’t let that get in the way of enjoying my life. I’ve never liked the idea of waiting till I’m in my 60s to retire and really live life, so I just treat my weekends as mini-retirements. Work slows down for me during this time, sometimes that means not doing anything, and sometimes that means I have to spend a few hours outlining one of these articles, but no matter what there’s always some fun event planned out on my calendar.
I discussed one of my favorite books “What the most successful people do before breakfast” in a previous article, and I recommend this book to anyone interested in learning how to make the most of their time. Laura Vanderkam provides one of the most effective strategies for maximizing the weekend, and I find that my life feels much more full when I apply a few key principles from her masterpiece.
The first was making a list of my top 100 dreams. Not all of these are extravagant events like flying to Breckenridge for a weekend, or hopping on a cruise ship and leaving reality; some of them are simple things like eating at new restaurants or just taking a weekend trip on my motorcycle.
The second is setting anchor points for how I’m going to spend my time over the weekend. I plan ahead with all of my friends for specific times over the weekend so I don’t have to feel the stress of figuring out what to do on the spot, spontaneity just isn’t always for me. Once I’ve got this plan, I have something to look forward to during the week, and when I have something to look forward to I just feel more motivated to barrel through my to-do list until it’s time to stuff myself with sushi on Friday night.
Conclusion:
Productivity isn’t a one size fits all method, you have to find what works for you. If you’re like me, you might feel anxious when everything is out of order, but this system has worked for me time and time again. I hope this helps, let me know what works for you.
