Hello, hello, hello, everyone!! I hope you are feeling great!
Today I would like to speak about the importance of routines in your day-to-day lives, especially if you are living by yourself.
Everyone has simple routines every day, like brushing your teeth, maybe having breakfast, or even choosing your clothes. And these things are repeated daily. However, do you make your bed in the morning? Do you wash your dishes after eating? Do you put your clothes away when you’ve had a shower, or you’ve gone out at night? These are small tasks that shouldn’t take more than 5 minutes but can take more than 1 hour if they are left for another day. Keeping your house or room tidy is more important than cleaning and will give you the motivation to do small tasks.
Making your bed in the morning seems simple, but sometimes we wake up late, or we just don’t mind if it’s not done. By making the bed in the morning, you will not only have completed the first task of the day, you will have earned this power of motivation to complete other tasks. In case the day doesn’t go as expected, at least you will go home and see your bed done.
When you leave things from one day to another, you have this thought of having things to do popping up in your head every instant. Therefore, isn’t it better to have what is really important only (like studying)?
The key is to do it bit by bit. When you clean your dishes after eating or even clean as you cook, you won’t feel this waste of time of having to clean just one plate. And what is even better, the next time you want to cook, you won’t feel exhausted from having to clean the last day’s dishes.
Doing the small things makes a difference. Research shows that having a clean and tidy place will increase an individual’s motivation, productivity and concentration. If you need to study but also do the laundry, cook and tidy your room, you will struggle a lot focusing on the important task, having all these unnecessary thoughts. And if you make it into a routine, you will not even have to think about it, so it’s one less worry to have.
Try it for a day, bit by bit and you will see the difference.
Other tips that might help you as well as they have helped me complete the small tasks and strengthen my routine:
- Plan my day
- I have a checklist where I tick once completed
- Have positive quotes around my room which keep me motivated
- If a task is not completed, then I would pass it onto the next day in a different colour and evaluate why I haven’t completed it (prioritise if it’s really important)
- Have food already cooked – this helps me not worry about having to cook every so often
- Putting my phone away is crucial
- Making the bed is one of my strongest routines – when I come in from uni, no matter how the day has gone, at least my bed is done
I leave you a video which motivated me to speak about routines:
Thank you for reading and I hope this helps you with your day-to-day tasks.
“In every job that must be done there is an element of fun”. – Mary Poppins, Walt Disney.