Working On Your Routines

It is important to continue to work at your routines even if you are busy or rushed. If you delay or put off those habits and routines you are trying to build, then it can jeopardise the system you have worked so hard at. Don’t risk your morning routine for a few minutes extra in bed, because it will make you rush and you won’t complete all the tasks you need to.

Working Out Your Routines

If you are adding new tasks to your routines it is important to do these slowly, changing something too quickly increases the chances that you won’t stick with the routine and not just the new task you are adding.

It will make you feel overwhelmed and this can have a negative impact on your whole routine, it is important that you add new tasks to your routine slowly. It’s thought that a habit becomes natural after you have repeated it a number of times, anywhere from three weeks and longer to establish the pattern. So, with this in mind you shouldn’t be adding more than one new task a month.

However, if something isn’t going well and isn’t working within your family then it is fine to change your routines, but do it gradually to allow time for the change to become more of a habit than a chore.

Learning Your Routine

Writing your list down so you see it every day is a great way to help instill this into your brain so you know what you have to do. I like to cross tasks off my list each time I complete one and I still like the task of writing the list in my diary each evening, this way it forces me to think of the tasks I need to do and they seem fresh in my mind when I wake up.

Having a visual reminder of what you need to do is great; it helps to commit them to memory. You can do this in a number of different ways from writing a note or you can have them just printed up and leave them in a prominent place, allowing you to can see them and mentally check them off after you complete each task.

Breaking your routines into time zones is a great way to use your routines to know what you are doing. If you know that you wash up the breakfast pots at 8 am, it can help to enforce the habit into your day.

By having the routine written down, if you are struggling with an aspect or circumstances change, it is easy to try and identify the problem and to see where you can help to make the tweaks that can allow your routine to run more smoothly.

Help Develop Routines For Your Family

It is often easier to get tasks completed by everyone in your family; if they all have their own routines, but note it is not appropriate to develop a routine for your partner; it is something they need to do themselves, but it is fine to help children understand about routines and learning what they need to do each day.

Therefore, it is important to keep your routines as near to normal as you can over the holiday period, to prevent all the hard work that you have put in to developing a system that works for you. Don’t be afraid to change something if it isn’t working, but give yourself the time you need to establish a new task to your routine.