A well-crafted daily routine can have an exponential impact on your life as a whole. Learn the basics of building a self-care routine in this Life Advice Guide article.
Image: Freepik
How To Start Or Improve Your Daily Routine 1
The Power Of Routine: Winning Reasons To Give Shape To Your Life 2
5 Aspects To Focus On For A Well-Rounded Routine 2
5 Steps To Get Started With Building A Successful Daily Routine For Self-Care 4
Break Tasks Into Smaller Steps 4
Implement Accountability Measures 5
Incorporate Flexibility And Downtime 5
Establishing a well-rounded daily routine can have a profound, beneficial impact on your life as a whole. Studies have shown that regularising your life can help better manage stress and anxiety, equipping us with the mental clarity to face everyday challenges without feeling overwhelmed. According to Harvard Medical School, daily rituals can also improve sleep quality, which can optimise cognitive function, help with weight management, and keep diseases at bay.
Last but not least, building a routine can help you unlock your creativity and productivity, and allow you to carve out the time to pursue self-care and self-help activities.
Despite these benefits, reshaping your life from the ground up can seem like a daunting, unachievable venture. Fortunately, there’s a lot you can do to get started today and lay the foundations of long-term mental and physical health – let’s see how in this guide.
The Power Of Routine: Winning Reasons To Give Shape To Your Life
To understand the importance of implementing a daily routine, let’s take a step back and look at what happens when bad habits or a chaotic schedule are in place.
Habits like drinking alcohol or caffeine before bed, or going to sleep at different times each day can disrupt your sleep quality. This can cause you to feel more tired, irritable, less productive, and unable to concentrate the day after, which can impact your employability, finances, personal relationships, and dietary choices while also reducing your ability to deal with stress.
Over time, this can lead to worry and anxiety which, coupled with unwanted weight gain, poorer sleep quality, and social isolation, can lead to a whole host of health conditions, from depression to cardiovascular disease.
This vicious cycle will, over time, have an exponentially negative impact on your life. And, to make things more difficult, it can seem impossible to interrupt this downward spiral when you are tired, overwhelmed, ill, or irritable.
Fortunately, just a single step – or lifestyle change – is enough to halt the cycle and start moving in the right direction. For example, learning to reduce drinking can immediately improve your sleep quality – and feeling rested will make it much easier to make better decisions, which will ultimately be more conducive to overall health.
Some of the reasons why it’s worth putting in the effort to improve your daily routine include:
- Improved sleep quality
- Improved cognitive function, memory, and focus
- More spare time for the activities you love
- Lower risk of chronic health conditions like diabetes, obesity, and cardiovascular disorders
- Improved personal and intimate relationships
- Better self-discipline and time management
5 Aspects To Focus On For A Well-Rounded Routine
Changing your life at once can feel like an unachievable goal, especially when you are comparing yourself to highly successful businessmen and Instagram influencers. However, by focusing on the right aspects, you can start making positive changes today.
Movement
Regular exercise plays a critical role in helping you maintain your physical and mental health in check. It reduces the risk of obesity, unwanted weight gain, and diabetes, while also strengthening your heart health, immune system, and musculoskeletal structure. Moving your body regularly can also keep at bay conditions like depression and anxiety.
Exercising does not necessarily mean spending hours at the gym though! You can reap these same benefits by committing to daily walks, cycling to work, or enjoying activities you love, like yoga, jogging, or swimming. Taking up hobbies that involve physical activities – like gardening or hiking – can be a great way to make movement a natural part of your daily routine.
Sleep
Sleep isn’t a luxury – but a bodily function essential to health and well-being. While you are asleep, your body works to optimise energy management and brain function, while also promoting the healing of damaged tissues and cells, thus protecting you from chronic pain and health disorders.
Establishing a sleep routine isn’t easy, but you can significantly improve your sleep-wake cycle with easy strategies, such as:
- Turn your bedroom into a dark, quiet sleep sanctuary
- Avoid screen time several hours before bed
- Reduce the consumption of alcohol and caffeine, which can disrupt sleep
- Enjoy relaxing pre-bedtime activities, like yoga, a warm bath, or reading
- Consider taking melatonin supplements
- Go to bed and wake up at the same time each day
- Make sure you get 7-9 hours of sleep each night
Nutrition
Your diet plays a critical role in supporting your health – but sticking to restrictive meal plans leaves too much room for pitfalls! Instead, work with a nutritionist to understand how to improve your daily eating habits and make them work around your lifestyle requirements. Some great way to get started include:
- Always take enough time to eat
- Consider eating in the company of others, while sitting down and focusing on the food on your plate
- Build a diet that is centred around whole grains, fresh fruit and vegetables, legumes, seeds, nuts, and plant-based proteins.
The way you eat can also help you boost your productivity and energy levels while supporting health and longevity. For example, according to studies, the Mediterranean diet is considered to be the gold standard in preventive medicine.
Stress Management
Stress is a vital bodily function that keeps us safe from threats and ensures that our body responds effectively in dangerous situations. This is known as the fight or flight response. In a perilous situation, your body draws energy from the immune and digestive system to support increased blood pressure, muscle response, and breathing – basically the functions you need to respond to danger.
However, when your body is constantly in this stress response mode, your health can begin to deteriorate. You may begin to struggle with digestive issues, poorer sleep quality, irritability, and increased susceptibility to illness.
Because of this, stress management should be a priority in your daily routine. Some beneficial strategies and disciplines include:
- Meditation
- Mind-body activities like yoga
- Spending at least 120 minutes in nature a week
- Quality sleep
- Regular exercise
- Learning to recognize your triggers
- Specialised interventions like Cognitive Behavioral Therapy.
Social Life
Having a rich social life is vital for cognitive health and longevity. Studies have also seen that one of the key factors contributing to the long life of people in the Blue Zones was their sense of community and social life. So, in your new daily routine, focus on building meaningful relationships, taking part in social sports and hobbies, and dedicate time to your community.
5 Steps To Get Started With Building A Successful Daily Routine For Self-Care
Rebuilding your routine is about finding the right encouragement to start making positive changes. Above, we’ve looked at the areas of your life that may require intervention – now, we’ll focus on the practical steps to take to see improvements in your routine from Day 1.
Identify Specific Goals
First and foremost, be sure to identify your goals. You may want to lose unwanted weight, get stronger, become more productive at work, or simply find the motivation to commit to a passion project. Make sure your goals are SMART: Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-Bound. This will allow you to track your progress and make adjustments along the way.
For example, if you are looking to improve your sleep quality, start with a goal such as: “over the next four weeks, I will go to sleep 15 minutes earlier each week. By the end of the month, I’ll be going to sleep one hour earlier”
Break Tasks Into Smaller Steps
Changing your life upside down isn’t only daunting – but also unsustainable in the long term! Instead, try to break down each goal into smaller steps, which you can implement progressively to make long-lasting positive changes.
For example, instead of saying “from tomorrow I will eat healthier”, try “this week, I’ll have a portion of legumes and a portion of vegetables a day every day”.
Schedule Time Blocks
If you struggle with procrastination, you may find that scheduling time blocks helps. This strategy can help you keep track of time and the tasks ahead, while also avoiding procrastination and staying in control of your workload.
To get started, make to-do lists for the days and weeks ahead, then allocate time blocks for each task.depending on what works for you – and we encourage you to experiment with different strategies -, you may try to complete the easier tasks first to find motivation, or tackle more significant to-dos to ease your mind. In any case, don’t forget to allocate time to regular breaks, as well as to activities outside of work (i.e.: hobbies, sports, and time with your friends and family).
Implement Accountability Measures
Implementing accountability measures is a great way to track your progress – but also find motivation in the small wins! There are several accountability strategies that don’t involve spending hours writing a journal. These include:
- Using apps to track the nutrients in your meal
- Using wearable devices to track your physical activity and daily steps
- Leveraging trackers to check on your sleep duration and quality
- Establishing an accountability tracker
- Working with a mentor, coach, or peer group
- Celebrating milestones
Of course, if you prefer journaling, don’t discard this option: it can also be a powerful stress reliever and can help you look back at the progress you’ve made over time!
Incorporate Flexibility And Downtime
Self-care time and time off are just as important as your productive time! Be sure to incorporate these important aspects in your routine by blocking off time on your schedule – starting today! Taking time for a walk in the park, a coffee chat with a friend, or a phone call with your family can have a profound impact on your wellbeing.
Last but not least, remember that you are a human, not a robot – some days you may feel less productive, while others are more energised. Be kind to yourself and enjoy the learning curve ahead!
Consult An Expert
Studies have started to uncover the dramatic impact of habits, routines and lifestyle on our overall health. Nonetheless, with so much information out there, it can be confusing to know how to change your life for the better. That’s where specialised lifestyle counsellors come in. Working with an expert can help you understand how to modify your lifestyle in a sustainable way to achieve long-term health and wellness.
Summary
Having a routine in place can help you revolutionise your life, achieve your goals, and find more time to do the things you love most. But building a routine from scratch can seem like an Herculean task. This is especially true when you are caught in the vicious cycle of bad habits and procrastination – which can make you feel tired, irritable, unproductive, and unmotivated to work towards your goals.
Fortunately, you are not alone in your journey. In this guide, we’ll help you understand the reasons why it is worth investing time and effort in building a routine. You’ll learn how routine can impact your mental health and physical well-being, and how it can influence your ability to achieve your goals. We’ll also explore the fundamental aspects to address to give your life shape, from sleep and stress management to social activities, movement, and nutrition. And we’ll take you through easy, actionable steps such as breaking down goals, tracking your progress, and allocating time to productive tasks and downtime. With this knowledge at hand, you can start improving your daily routine for self-care – today