Happy New Year! I hope your holiday season was as refreshing as mine. After Christmas, I took some much-needed time to rest and recharge. However, it felt amazing to get back into my routine. I realized that I actually thrive when I have a routine in place.

Why Rigid Routines Didn't Work for Me

In the past I used to try to create these really rigid routines where everything was planned out. However, I kept “failing” at them and getting frustrated. I also knew that not having a routine was chaos for me. So I found my happy medium.

The Tools That Help Me Thrive

My routine consists of two tools: my Google Calendar and a task management tool called Trello. I run on a scheduled/task list. Don’t worry—I will explain what that means.

How I Use My Google Calendar

Anything that has a time/date associated with it goes on my Google Calendar. I consider these as events that need to be scheduled in advance, because someone is relying on me during that specific time/date. These include doctor's appointments, coaching sessions, and lunch dates.

How I Use Trello to Organize My Tasks

Then I have a list of daily tasks that I have to accomplish. I put these in Trello, but I do not put a specific time to them. I complete these tasks when they fit within my schedule. I love to focus on one project at a time. It cuts down on procrastinating because it doesn't give my brain options to choose from.

Why This Flexible System Works

It was important for me to identify which tasks I needed to complete within a week. I then assign days to them, but I keep the time I do them open. I noticed that when I switched my routine to this model, I was able to accomplish so much more in a day. I was also actually able to show up for myself and complete the task!

Design Routines That Fit You

When designing your routines, it is important to have your routines focused on who you are as a person. Oftentimes, we can get caught up in trying to do what everyone else is doing for their routines and we try to force ourselves into that mold. Time to break out of this pattern. Getting to know how you function best and designing your routines around that instead.

Routines Are Not All or Nothing

Routines are not all or nothing. You can fall out of routines, change your mind, and switch up activities. View getting back into a routine you loved with curiosity.

• Why did you fall out of the routine?
• Were there aspects of the routine you didn't like, but were doing because you told yourself you had to?
• Is there a different motivation for these activities that would make you actually enjoy them?

Make Your Routines Work For You

I once had a client tell me they wanted to start meditating. They would sit down to sit in silence, and it would stress them out. They started to skip meditating but would beat themselves up over it. I finally said, "You have permission to stop meditating." They looked at me, confused. I continued, if meditating is stressing you out this much, it isn't worth the benefits of meditating (which is to calm you down). Find something else to help with stress, or find a different format for meditating. My current favorite is listening to meditations while going for a walk.

Start thinking outside the box of how you can incorporate activities into your routines that will actually support you in a way that feels good for you.