Our world today is ruled by the “hustle” mentality, to a limit where you feel unworthy if you’re not high functioning on a daily basis. 

What is the best method to develop a healthy routine when you have a busy schedule, and how to avoid draining yourself?

Due to your busy schedule, you might find yourself drowning in a constant cycle of occupations. The result? At one point or another, you will suffer from high anxiety levels, restlessness, and burnout.

The vital solution here is not by decreasing your performance levels but by adding organizational tools to help regain your needed balance. Developing healthy routines is one method that could sustain your process through: Organization, Consistency, and Guidance.

Read more to figure out the best way to follow a healthy routine!

The Importance of Setting a Healthy Routine

Following a healthy routine is not an easy chore! Our brains need to be habitually trained on repetitive tasks. However, routines are the one glue that could bind all your habits together. They help structure your days, prioritize your tasks, block your time, and reduce distractions.

If you are consumed by anxiety, low concentration, perfectionism, or dissociation, routines can help you get back on track. Not only does it create a safe ground for your nervous system, but it also helps reduce the tensity of your symptoms. 

Practically, developing healthy routines will help you to:

• Tracking your progress 
• Automating your tasks
• Cultivating new habits
• Eliminating negative patterns
• Improving your sense of organization 
• Staying mindful about your spent time

Healthy routines help redirect your life and tailor your path towards acquired positive habits.

In order to better develop these routines, make sure to avoid the following mistakes.

Mistakes to Avoid While Creating Routines

Some habits could affect your progress towards a healthy routine, these include:

• Inconsistency: It could easily lead to you going off track. Accordingly, you will lose the sense of regulation in your mood, mindset, and memory.
• Choosing meaningless routines: Wrong routines do not only include selecting unhealthy habits, but also adopting the wrong healthy habits, like going for false diets.
• Being self-critical: Even though self-awareness could help you enhance your performance, negative self-criticism could manifest itself in unrealistic expectations. 
• Pressuring yourself: This could be shown through your refusal of enjoying your activities or of rewarding yourself. Denying your need for rest will end up consuming your energy and leading you to be healthy options instead.

Three ways to develop healthy routines while you’re busy

 

1- Plan your day

The first and most important tip to boost your efficiency is to follow clear steps. Some prefer organizing their chores through time blocks, others like creating a checklist, or even prioritizing their tasks through color codes and tasks. Set 3 main goals you would like to achieve every day, and divide them into smaller chunks when needed. Make sure to avoid multitasking as it will increase your cognitive load and distract your thoughts.

2- Prioritize yourself

When deciding on your lifestyle pattern, make sure to take your needs into consideration. For example, think about your leisure activities as you’re planning your schedule, or choose to have some time alone to practice your hobbies. A healthy lifestyle is built upon your acceptance and aspiration towards better daily routines, hence, it should not overwhelm your mental health, nor take away your life’s joys. 

3- Define your purpose

Instead of focusing on the tasks themselves, focus on your acquired benefits from each. For example, once you define that meditation is there to soothe your anxiety, you will better make use of its methods, and you will have a greater reason to incorporate it throughout your day. Once you define the parts you need to change, you will have a vision of how to achieve that.

Remember that healthy routines are to make your life easier, not to pressure your mind with required tasks.

If things fall off today, you can get back stronger the other day!

Reach out if you needed support!