Having a daily routine can be extremely beneficial in your daily life. Now more than ever, a routine is important for creating a healthy mind post Covid. Also, if that is not enough to tempt you into creating a routine, many successful people over the years are known to have a daily routine such as Steve Jobs, Ernest Hemingway and Benjamin Franklin.
Listed below are four main benefits of creating a daily routine.
1. Better Time Management
Having daily habits helps you to organise your time during the day better because you’re following a specific pattern of activities. It is kind of like having a to-do list or a shopping list where you cross off items one by one. However, with this kind of pattern the activities are repeated as they are a part of our daily lives, such as work etc. Hence, being able to appropriately allocate time to them is very important. Knowing how much time you spend on each task during the day will allow you to have a deeper insight to your daily process and understanding where your time goes. Having a specific plan for the day, week or even month, it is easier to achieve your goals and keep order in life.
2. Focus
Having daily habits can eliminate distractions, if you are focused on the things that need to be done you will not easily become side-tracked and then overwhelmed with endless tasks to complete. Also, the more you stick to your daily routine the more automatic it becomes and this will then result in smoother work, being more efficient and a deeper ability to focus. Now, keeping the focus relies a lot on self-discipline and seeing the task for the bigger picture can help here. So, in this case think of why you are keeping a routine, what you are going to gain and how this will help you in your life.
3. A Healthy Balance
Since keeping a daily routine helps you to stay organised and focused, this will also mean you will be able to create a work-life balance. This is vital as being all work and no play or vica versa is not ideal for anyone. Creating regular habits and self-discipline will give you the space and time to clearly see when things are getting out of control. Being able to organise your life so important tasks are completed you will be amazed at how much free time you have on your hands to try new things.
4. Understanding Yourself Better
Sometimes the more we do in our lives the more we are unsure of who we are. Forming a new daily routine may take some time but, during this time you will learn to understand yourself better. Your likes dislikes and what your priorities are says a lot about you as a person so, listen to this. In time, you can develop your own habits and eliminate the bad ones, this is all a trial and error task, so you will learn to personalise your daily routine according to your likes, dislikes, structure of work or other factors that affect your life at a particular moment. This will also help you to see what triggers both your positive and negative personality traits.
Stef Gafa’ is a counsellor with Willingness who has a particular interest in trauma, attachment, domestic violence and the LGBT community.