Today I am goinng to discuss the importance of routine and how it relates to structure, and your overall mental and ultimatly business health.
If you’re anything like me, routine is not an easy thing to fall into. I’m a little bit more of a “live in the moment” type of person. Combine that with the daily interruptions involved in running your own business and working from home, routine is not something that necessarily comes easy. That said I think routine is extremely important for many reasons including that it also aids in the establishment of structure and overall betterment of your mental health.
It is also very important to talk about routine and structure together, for example if every day you start your workday by checking your email that’s a routine and structure. I don’t necessarily recommend you do that. However, in some situations that’s the only way you can start your day.
So let’s consider the importance of routine from the perspective of physical and mental health.
I was reading once in a book by Yogi Berra and he had said that one of the things he liked to do every day was his workout in the morning. That way, even if the rest of his day went horribly wrong he could always look back and say, “Hey I did something good today and that was my morning workout.” I always look to that as an example of not only a routine but also a positive mental health routine. You can sit there all day and say, oh well, you know, I’m gonna go for a walk at lunch or I’m gonna do this at lunch or whatever and whenever the time is right for you to do it. I’m not suggesting it has to be a morning routine, however I set it up as a morning routine as that was what worked best for me.
I guess what I’m getting at is that you have to have some level of routine built into your day. People can get so sucked into the day-to-day grind that they feel overwhelmed and feel that they’re way too busy. Don’t get me wrong. I feel the same way, often, but I still make a point to do my basic routine items because I do find, and you’ll notice this once you get into a set routine (and I’m talking a routine being something you’ve done systematically for let’s say at least a month) you’re going to start to notice the difference of when you don’t do those things.
Take, for example, my basic morning routine. We have a rather long gravel driveway and every morning I take my son to the top of it to catch the bus, from there, since I am already at the paved road, I take a morning walk. The reason this works for me is that it is early, at least an hour before I start work, and I already feel as if I’m ‘halfway there’ so why not take advantage of being out and take some extra steps.
There are a lot of mornings where I feel stressed and that I just have to get to work, I just have this thing we have to do and I am way too busy to do this. The truth is you need to make the time. If I were to then say to myself, “well I’m gonna do this later in the day” that’s gonna then upset the balance of my routine. It’s also going to allow me to make more excuses and start changing things up so I insist and I’ve very systematically made sure that I am going for my morning walk.
You have to make sure that you have time built into your day to do a specific routine at a specific time and you make sure that you stick to that. A perfect example is you set meetings with people throughout your day, so set a meeting with yourself! Make this meeting the time you do this one specific routine that you’ve decided that you want to do.
That is my opinion and just my thoughts for you. As a business owner and entrepreneur or a busy business professional make sure you take the time for yourself to better your mental and physical health and well-being. You will find routine pays dividends towards so many other aspects of your life.
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