Successful people are GREAT at routines, but why?  This week I dug into the reasons I love routine and always find myself flourishing most when I stick with a routine in different areas of my life! I thought I would share with you the top 5 reasons I love routines and what they do for me!

#1 it provides structure:  When I was a teacher, my students flourished with routines.  They loved knowing the “plan”.  Today that same thing is why I always go back to routine in my day!  Routine provides a sense of structure and familiarity.  Structure is a way of organizing your life so that it makes sense to you.  You wake up with a sense of ownership, order, and organization of your life.

#2 is is EASY: One of the basic reasons why structure is important is because it eliminates the need to regularly schedule your days ahead of time.  You already know what you are doing each and every day.  Once you are finished with a task, you already know what is next on your schedule.  This structure provides direction in your life, enabling you to take action rather than to sit in “think” about what to do next.

#3 it builds good habits: We are creatures of habit. Building a daily routine for yourself instills lots of good habits.  When we consciously decide what we want to do with every day of our lives, we generally want to do what makes us happy or what gives us the most push.  Therefore, we build tons of good habits along the way!

#4 it increases efficiency: A routine is something that you do over and over again, eventually making it a habit.  Once it is a habit, you do not need to think about it to act.  The act of it being automatic increases efficiency in your life, by allowing you to do things without thinking about it.  You will automatically get things done, without having to remind yourself to get things done.

#5 lessens the need for willpower: A routine lessens the act of having to motivate yourself to do something.  Willpower is hard and motivation is not constant.  That is why relying on routine to accomplish tasks is a lot easier than relying on willpower and motivation.  Yes, when establishing a routine, you do have to will and motivate yourself to get stick the routine.  But once the routine is set, it is on autopilot and the need for constant willpower and motivation is no longer necessary.

I hope this helps you consider putting a routine into action in different areas of your day! I know for me, it is not always easy…but in the end it is powerful!