Do we need a strict schedule to build up a new routine — or is that just too much for our already calendar-managed lives?
Let’s say we are keen to start a new routine which would help us improve our health, career, relationships or simply spend less time on social media and Netflix. Do we need a strict schedule, or can we allow for spontaneity? Here is my take.
1st hour — just to draw a finish line on admin
It all started with too much admin. Back in the pre-corona world, every day I had some kind of admin to do — not necessarily something boring like ordering light bulbs on Amazon or renewing my home insurance (in fact it could easily be booking a holiday or checking if the lovely dresses I’d spied on #COS are yet on sale) but still… It doesn’t make you happier, smarter, healthier, it doesn’t create any value and doesn’t add any emotion. Boring admin.
And the list never ended… Never. Paper lists always got too long, and even useful productivity apps like #todoist and #asana could not finish it off. What drove me nuts the most was the sense of not having any kind of finish line, not being able to say that’s it — all the tasks have been done.
So I decided to take a different approach, and draw a finish line using a classic human invention called a clock. Every day, 7:30pm to 8:30pm, would be my ‘admin hour’ to get stuff done. As a consequence, the to-do list is of course still here, but my head is finally clear of this continuous nagging of when I should get my admin done, and how much of my life it should devour.
2nd hour — 4-years attempt to read more
For the last 4 years, I kept repeating to myself that I wanted to read more — especially when my brother, sister-in-law and my former boss kept talking about all the amazing books they had read. Meanwhile, look at me: 2016–5 books… 2017–6 books… 2018 — back to 5… It got much better in 2019, when I found time for 11, but I decided to set myself a bigger challenge for 2020: read 24 books.
‘We are what we repeatedly do’. Aristotle
As 2020 started with this new ‘admin hour’ I thought … Well, maybe I should just add another hour for reading… Just to make sure I definitely get that book open in front of me before it’s 11pm and already too late. So, I’ve dedicated 8:30 to 9:30 pm to reading. The idea of this quite rigid structure did feel a bit odd for a person who has WhatsApp groups with titles #Let’sBeSpontaneous and similar… But I thought I would try and give it a go. All of a sudden this continuous dilemma of whether I should read now, or maybe after dinner, or maybe before bed was gone. 8.30pm became my reading time — and I’m now finishing my 13th book in 4 months.
3rd hour — Miracle Morning
Feb 2020… Holiday in Cuba… I’ve brought a book recommended by a few people, called Miracle Morning by El Harod. He suggests that we all spend 6 to 60 min every day or at least every weekday exercising, going through affirmations and visualisations, reading and writing. The key: it has to be the first thing in the morning. Quite a few people told me how Miracle Morning has transformed their lives so I was quite tempted to give it a go.
I did not have high hopes. I was never a big morning person plus I already had 2 hours blocked for admin and reading and now I needed this whole other hour for a Miracle Morning routine… 3 hours ‘scheduled’ every day!!!! What about spontaneity and some chill time?? Well, it has become the best part of my day. These days, I get genuinely upset if I don’t have my morning hour to myself.
No time left for rubbish habits
Now for the best part… As we have only so many hours in the day, some of the useless habits just had to go — watching endless TV news, scrolling through Facebook and Insta of other people’s lives … x% of what we do is just an unconscious habits which has developed over the years and has nothing to do with what we actually want for ourselves.
So, thanks to a few imposed calendar reminders, all of a sudden reading, managing admin, morning exercise, affirmations and writing became joyful rituals which make me a slightly better version of myself everyday.
I’d really appreciate if you could share the routines that you do on a daily (or almost daily), weekly and monthly basis.
