The Clarity of Routine

Gustav Klimt’s The Daily Routine

As I was writing recently about my belief that much of our mental clarity is based in and generated by our physical body, I realized that I think there is another important tool for clarity that most of us only scratch the surface of.

Routine may be an external resource, but it has everything to do with how we build skills, whether we’re trying to establish a practice routine for our instrument, a habit of mindfulness, or a physical practice of exercise or stretching.

It’s easy to say we are going to build a habit or routine of something. This is exactly the fodder that New Year’s resolutions are made of, and the basis of the common knowledge that it takes 21 days to create a new habit. Except that we all know it’s not that easy. If it was, we wouldn’t abandon our resolutions so quickly each year.

Think about the routines that you have. Did you actively put them in place? Are they a by-product of your life? What routines were the easiest to build?

For most of us, creating structure around something meaningful is easy. When we’re emotionally committed, it can drive our ability to stick to something new. If we need to do something just because someone told us too, though, it can be a lot harder. Showing up at work a half hour early for a mandatory meeting is a lot harder than showing up to take a walk with a coworker you like before your work day begins.

This doesn’t mean that it’s impossible to be diligent about the things that don’t light us up (like laundry, doing the dishes, and maybe even exercise), but rather that we need to be wiser about our approach.

Understanding your personal rhythms is a major component of building a routine that you can sustain. Morning routines are glorified in literature and online, but there’s research that shows some of us are just not morning people (I may find myself in that category). If you’ve spent years criticizing yourself for not building the perfect morning routine, we are in the same boat. You might consider if your efforts are not producing results because you are fighting against the grain. This is true for many tasks we want to fit into our day. If you know you practice better in the early morning, don’t try to replace it with exercise. No matter what you see online, nothing is made instantly better simply because it happens in the morning. What does matter is that you are working with your rhythms rather than against.

You also need to understand what motivates you. Does having a map of how your time will be spent help you feel relaxed or does it make you feel suffocated? We’ve all had experience with this before as students. When we’re young everyone plans our time for us. By college, we have a lot more flexibility and freedom, which can create a difficult transition for many of us. If you reflect on how much rigidity was supportive for you it will be easier to decide how much structure your routines might require.

Another major barrier to creating routines is our lack of commitment to them, especially when they are working. I don’t think we can blame this simply on laziness. Most of us are guilty of finding a routine that works, and then releasing that routine once we see the evidence it has been effective. This is true for practice, weight loss, and trying to save money. We might help ourselves with this tendency by finding comfort in the doing of the routine, rather than the short-lived excitement of the result. It stands to reason that creating routines that are uniquely suited to us will make it easier to stay committed to the doing rather than chasing a result. Although external, routines become most effective when they are rooted in self-knowing. In this way, we can generate routines that fall into the rhythm of how we live and who we are, which will all change with time.