Ever notice that the longer the day wears on, the harder it is to make decisions? For example, if you don’t plan your dinner in the morning, you’re bound to be stressed and unmotivated when it’s time to cook at 5pm. Unbeknownst to many, we all have a finite amount of decisions that we can make on any given day.
To combat this, highly organized and effective people know how to implement habits and routines. This cuts down on the need for snap decision-making. If we’re making less decisions, then we have more room in our minds to indulge creative and productive thinking. In this way, we alleviate daily stress.
Chances are you already have a morning routine. You get up, make coffee, read the paper or check email and fix some toast before heading into the shower. If you create a “uniform” for yourself, you don’t even have to think about what to wear. You just grab a pair of pants and a shirt, or a skirt, tights and sweater, and off you go about your day.
Routine begets routine.
Of course, you won’t be able to don your “uniform” if you haven’t made a routine out of laundry management. So pick a day that you get laundry going in the background of whatever occupies you during the waking hours. Or, delegate laundry to the kids for a specific day of the week, so that everyone will have access to their “uniform” and the entire household can run more smoothly and efficiently.
Implement some routines into your workday wherever possible. Meal planning helps you figure out what meals to fix and eat. A cleaning schedule helps you stay on track with your household chores without having to spend any valuable decision making skills in the process.
Wrap your day up with a bedtime routine that not only helps when you’re too tired to make smart choices, it also helps you fall asleep more easily. What works for your toddler works for you as well. Think light stretches, hot bath, herbal tea and a good book to help you settle into slumber with ease.
Sit down with a pen and piece of paper and think about what parts of your day and week you can turn into routines. Write these down and create daily to-do lists for yourself until you’ve established your routines become habits!
Spending a little bit of time creating routines and habits will make your day run a lot more smoothly. You might just find yourself less stressed and get more done during your productive hours. This allows you to save plenty of decision making for the fun stuff like figuring out what park to go to, what family movie to watch or what board game to play. And that’s a beautiful thing indeed.