How to develop simple daily routines with discipline
Our lives are full of rushing from here to there and full schedules of activities or work. Our brains are on fast-forward most of the time and we are always busy trying to get through a long to-do list.
Sometimes we forget to slow down and take the time to be intentional in our everyday tasks, responsibilities, or even fun.
Daily routines are a powerful tool that is necessary as we work toward our short-term and long-term goals. That’s why I’m a huge proponent of creating daily routines.
Working out or taking a brisk walk or running, praying or meditating, reading, journaling, and taking vitamins, drinking water are examples of daily routines that are great and can drive you forward in life. However, how we choose to do these things will really be the largest factor in momentum and growth.
To create daily routines that inspire you and you can stick to, you need discipline. I’m happy to share some key strategies and tips on How to develop simple daily routines with discipline. The aim is to be more effective, accomplish more, and live a more balanced and fulfilled life.
The Importance of Daily Routines
Having daily routines means doing things regularly and consistently. There is so much we need to do in our days between work, kids, and family, time to rest and relax, time for spiritual things, and taking care of your body and mind. All this requires decisions to be made and actions to be taken.
Research shows that adults make about 35,000 decisions on a daily basis. That’s a lot of decisions!
Without daily routines, we end up suffering from decision fatigue. This mental and emotional fatigue will result in making poor decisions and neglecting or delaying more important tasks. So daily routines help to reduce and manage the number of decisions you make in a day and help you focus on your bigger goals.
Daily routines reduce procrastination as you perform tasks subconsciously. Having your own routine helps to create structure in your daily life, manage your time, and provide stability, focus, and intention in your life.
It helps you to develop good habits by encouraging you to repeat the same tasks over and over again and break bad habits. It builds confidence, and momentum and reduces stress by giving you a sense of accomplishment in your daily schedule.
How to develop Simple daily routines with discipline
Having a daily routine is good but it must come with discipline. This is what gives you consistency and momentum. It’s what drives you to take action even when you just don’t feel like it.
If you look at all the most successful businesspeople, most accomplished athletes, authors, or preachers that you admire, a disciplined life is one of the key secrets to their success.
Discipline is necessary in life and the good news is it’s a skill that you can learn. It’s about self-control, personal restraint, making high-quality decisions, overcoming instant gratification, and being able to endure comfort and inconvenience to achieve your goals.
Discipline builds good habits and helps you create and stay consistent in your daily routines. This leads to a balanced and fulfilling life.
It helps you improve to reach your goals and improve your life. When you have discipline, you can commit to new habits and daily rituals. Having discipline in daily routines helps to reduce stress, build effective time management skills, and build your self-esteem.
Here are some key tips on How to develop daily routines with discipline.
Start small with your daily routines
When you’re feeling motivated you get tempted to start many new habits at the same time. You start early morning routines, work routines, and night routines and at the end of the day, you become so exhausted from it all and lack the discipline and inspiration to keep going.
The hardest part is starting to the key is to start small, be mindful of how you spend your time, and develop solid routines over time. This allows you to build consistency and develop discipline.
For example, start a wake-up routine that includes taking a cold shower, simple breathing exercises, light cardio, or journaling every single day. These are small tasks and as you become consistent in them, you build momentum and take on more tasks.
Start and wake up at the same time daily
This may not be easy but it’s so important. It’s one of the effective ways to stay consistent in your routines and remain disciplined. Lack of sleep leaves you with no energy and you can’t even focus.
It’s best if you decide which time is best for you to wake up and sleep. Do what works for you but also be okay with stepping out of your comfort zone. That’s where the big results are.
Take time for Affirmations
This is one of the key steps in the W.R.A.P.S. acronym. These are core daily disciplines that will aid you in your personal growth. They are proven techniques or activities that most successful people utilize.
The W stands for workout, the R is for reading, the A is for affirmations, the P is for prayer or meditation, and the S is for success audios.
Affirmations are the most important thing in your daily routine. It’s crazy how what we say to and about ourselves actually can make a difference in our lives, but it can.
If you don’t believe me, I dare you to try it. Take 30 days to test it out and see what happens. Every day for 30 days. See how you feel about yourself.
Do you believe in yourself a little more, or are you feeling extra confident? Are ideas or solutions popping into your head about the barriers that have been getting in your way?
But it’s not only important to speak your affirmations out loud and believe them. Take the time to see yourself with or as the affirmation says. Visualize what it will be like when you become that quality, have that thing, or hit those big goals.
This is a transformation process that includes intentionally dreaming about what it is you want or who it is you want to become, making a list of positive things to say about yourself, saying them, and then actually seeing yourself as that person. It will help you to stay disciplined and see your daily routines as a way to achieve your goals.
Remember your why
Why did you start the daily routine? You may have started running each morning to clear your head, get healthy, connect with nature, reduce stress, and have more energy. On the days you don’t want to go for that jog remember why you started. This gives you discipline, especially with healthy habits.
Write your clear goals and why they align with your values and what you want to accomplish. Put them somewhere visible like in your notebook, bathroom or bedroom mirror, on your mobile phone, or in your favorite place. This increases your chances of success and sticking to your word.
How will your daily routines serve you and others? Remembering your “Why” will help you step out of your comfort zone, change your perspective, take daily actions toward your goals, and remain disciplined. It brings more meaning and joy to your actions.
Instead of thinking “I have to run in the early hours of the morning” your mindset changes to “In order to feel less stressed, connect with nature, and increase my energy levels, I’d love to go run in the early hours of the morning.”
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Include other people in your daily routines
Most routines are a way of building good habits so include someone else in them to make you accountable and to bond as well. For example, if your daily routine is to pray first thing when you wake up, invite your husband to pray with you and do it together.
If you’d like to start writing in your gratitude journal daily, get your child a journal as well and have time to write together. These new routines will be the best way to create meaningful family time.
Add pockets of joy to your routine
Make your routine the perfect time to add something to look forward to. Include your favorite music as you run or do a training session. Journal with your favorite beverage. Take a brisk walk with your pet. Doing tasks while you’re full of joy helps you to remain consistent and disciplined.
Learn to say no
If you’re someone who likes to make others happy, you may struggle to say no to someone else’s requests or needs even when you don’t have the space, time, or capacity to help. But this is necessary to stay disciplined, give you a sense of control, and protect your time and mental health.
Doing everything for everyone every single time may make you a superhero in other people’s eyes but will affect your mental, emotional, and physical health and over a long time leave you with less free time for your own goals.
Pivot if you need to
While initially difficult the routine should help you with daily habits and to achieve your goals and dreams. If you’re a runner, you’ll want to consider changing up the pace or mileage during your weekly runs. Change up the workouts by adding in a hill or speed day.
Do some runs with a walk-or-run mentality. Add in some speed intervals into your long run. There are so many things you can do to ensure your running is quality time and not just something you feel like you have to do.
This works for any sport, workout, or training session. You can’t continue to lift the same amount of weight week after week and expect outlandish results. If it doesn’t seem like you’re progressing, change it up! Maybe add martial arts or a cross-training day where you get on the bike or head to a fitness class.
Just working out itself will make your day better, it will get your heart rate up, get that blood flowing and the muscles warm, but don’t you also want it to produce the results you’re looking for?
When you see positive results, you’re inspired to continue being disciplined. If you’re not getting the desired results, change direction and set new routines that make you healthier, happier, and more successful.
Avoid Distractions
One of the most important ways to develop simple daily routines in your personal life is to remove or avoid distractions. It could be Netflix, social media, or small things like hunger or emails.
You need to proactively give yourself a set amount of time to focus on the task at hand. You can even put your phone away or on Do Not Disturb and develop systems so that you don’t self-sabotage yourself and focus on what’s really important. When you have fewer distractions and have learned to manage them, you become more disciplined.
Choose To Avoid Checklist Mentality
Daily routines are important, but just having these disciplines isn’t enough. We can get stuck in a rut if we continuously go about our daily routine unintentionally just because we need to get it done. We need to check it off so we feel accomplished.
These disciplines, if done right, are meant to push us, move us, and grow us, but if done wrong, they can become a crutch in our lives. They can become excuses as to why things aren’t working in our favor because we assume we are doing everything right and that just by doing these disciplines and checking them off, success will come.
That’s not the case. We need to work on the intention behind each discipline just as much as work on the habit of creating it. The quality matters more than the quantity, and the quality is what will change us.
Expect the unexpected
Change and disruptions are inevitable in life. Don’t be too rigid with your days. Plan and expect the unexpected. You may get an unexpected illness, an unexpected visitor, or a personal crisis. Be willing to adjust your routine to accommodate this.
Reward yourself regularly
Starting new routines, new habits, and developing new discipline is the first step to living a more balanced, joyful, and fulfilling life but it’s a challenging task that needs constant hard work. Once you start living a more disciplined life, your life, attitude, and beliefs will change.
The best thing you can do is reward yourself when you reach milestones and have been consistent in your own routines, new habits, and discipline. Take time to intentionally celebrate your success as this motivates you to keep going.
Daily routines are not a nice to have but an absolute necessity in life. Both morning and evening routines help you manage your to-do list and avoid doing things at the last minute. Being intentional about how you spend the day results in big achievements.
To achieve your best work, you not only need to have daily routines but to be disciplined in sticking to them on a daily basis. That’s the only way to stay organized, and consistent, build effective time-management skills, reduce stress, and build self-esteem and confidence.
When you implement these strategies for How to develop simple daily routines with discipline will help you achieve your goals and propel you to success in every area of your life.
