Routines Power Who You Become

Routines keep you from neglecting important areas of your life.

Routines = Time triggers + Habits.

Habits determine who you ultimately become. Routines enshrine positive habits into your personal operating system. Following consistent routines helps you avoid procrastination, reduce stress, improve energy, and better achieve your goals. Use routines to become the person you want to be. Here's how.

"You do not rise to the level of your goals. You fall to the level of your systems." — James Clear

Build Your Routines:

Prioritize Identities: Before you design your routines, create focus by clarifying what you want to accomplish and who you want to become. How do long-term goals align with your values, passions, and identity? If you want to run a marathon, identify as a runner. List all your priority key roles. Consider role names for personal, work, community, and spiritual identities.

Find Your Optimal Times: Everyone will have different time triggers. Some people add routines for transitioning to and from work, before dinner, on specific days of the week, or important dates during the year. Others set multiple daily alarms to reinforce mindfulness checks or other important habits. Different people have different energy levels and preferences throughout the day. Find the time and frequency that suits you best for your most important habits.

Get Started: Create a few triggers with associated habits and get started on the most important things. Rinse and repeat. Create the right environment to succeed like removing distractions while executing your routines. If you are looking for ideas about what habits to incorporate into your routines, consider ideas from the habits of World Class Leaders.

Create Balance. Your routines should include various activities that cover your identities as a whole person such as education, health, spirit, connection, hobbies, etc. Make habits challenging enough to push you, but not so difficult that you feel overwhelmed. Leave room for creativity, exploration, and fun to avoid boredom and burnout. Be flexible if your routine changes according to your situation, environment, or mood on a given day. Be disciplined, but not fanatical.

Track Progress and Adjust: Use tools to schedule, track, and monitor your results. Use lists, apps, journals, and reminders to plan, execute, and track. Some routines may be more effective, so adapt as you go. You might reward yourself for routines that work with something that makes you happy, such as a treat or a break when done.

"We are not human beings; we are humans becoming." — Chalmers Brothers

How I Use Routines

My mission is to maximize my impact on my local and broader community by helping others live their boldest lives and set an example by doing the same in myself. My values are humility and adventure. In my current priority roles, I am an:

• executive coach and strategy advisor
• father, friend
• athlete

I use these time triggers and habits to build and maintain those identities:

• Morning: center, hydrate, energize, nourish, jump-start the day's plan
• Before bed: plan and prep for the next day, reflect/gratitude/journal, unwind, center
• Sunday Evenings: review mission, vision, and annual goals; set rocks/next actions for the upcoming week for each identity/role listed above.
• Quarter: review progress by role to hold myself accountable, find one way to get better results, set new personal goals/rocks for the quarter
• Birthday Month: annual physical and health checks, flu vaccine, financial health update
• New Year: coordinate priorities with family, review and revise mission, vision, and identities/roles as appropriate, review accountabilities over last year, set new milestones for coming year and beyond

Notice, I don't list specific actions for each daily habit. Doing the same thing each day can get boring. Allow for different actions to keep it fresh. I have a go-to, but not required, action for certain habits (like drinking different flavors of tea to hydrate in the morning - though recently a cacao drink has been my favorite.) In reflecting on the benefit of my morning routine, I've recently switched to a short yoga nidra guided meditation that I may make permanent. I allow for more alternatives for energizing, which depending on the day and season, can mean:

• Take the dog for a walk
• Calisthenics
• Work out at gym
• Go skiing
• Ride bike

Because one of my priorities for the morning is getting centered and ready to face the day with composure, my morning rule is to not check my phone or email until my morning routine is done. I also tune out music and news. Planning the evening prior and allowing enough time to complete the habits helps me succeed most mornings.

Some habits do not fit neatly into a routine. I have a reading habit, but it does not fit neatly into a time trigger. As an alternative, I set a goal of reading at least 5 days a week. I also have goals of working out or biking at least 5 days a week and attending my peer group meetings at least 10 months out of the year. I'll block time for these as I do weekly and evening planning.

I use ClickUp to track and adjust my routines. Each routine gets a recurring task with the appropriate due dates and a checklist for each habit. This tracks progress and keeps them front and center as I plan. I get a little dopamine hit and a sense of accomplishment by checking things off.

What routines do you use? Which will you add to become the person you envision?

As always, subscribe to stay in touch and reach out if I can serve in any way.

May you explore with humbleness as you live boldly.