188 | The Best Habits Begin as Intentional Routines that Simplify Everything

We make thousands of decisions every single day. And the more we can do to reduce that number and put the things that we have to do all the time on autopilot, the easier the daily tasks will be.

Do you ever have to, here’s where it feels like the day is simply out of control or it lacks the structure you needed to be successful in getting the thing is done, that you want to get done. Or maybe those days feel like you’re scrambling to do anything or achieve anything or just simply get through one task to the next thing.

are your days, the kind of days aware you want to arrive on time, but you are getting to the location, whether that be school work and appointment, you’re getting there late, or you’re just barely getting there on time. Pulling in the parking lot is stressed out because you [00:02:00] don’t know if you’re going to make it or not.

If any of those situations sound like something that you deal with frequently, then your routines need a bit of a shakeup. Maybe you’d have never made a routine and the way that you are living. Is just the way that you have always done something you haven’t ever taken the time to really give an assessment of what the struggles are.

How you can move forward and solve some of these problems. Because in those situations that I just explained, those are stressful. And whether you make the comments like, oh, I’m just always running late or I’ll never be organized. Or I’ll just never have it together. If you’re making comments like that, that’s not true.

You absolutely can become organized. You can organize your home, you can shift what you do so that you arrive places on time. Instead of always being late or always being all, mostly barely making it, you have to be intentional about the changes that you make. And when you make those changes, you remove a lot of the stress, even if you don’t know how stressful.

These situations are, they are adding to the stress. They are burdening you and they are making you to where it feels a little overwhelmed if you’re listening to this and you’re saying, yes, this is me. I can totally relate to the S. There are some simple things that you can do to help overcome some of these struggles.

Most of the things that we do. When we are in a place in life where we have not intentionally created a healthy habit for us, we’re doing things out of habits, but those habits are not serving us. That habits are the order that we do things. All of that is out of habits. If you think about how your morning goes, what you do, when you have your coffee, when you take a shower, the order that you brush your teeth in, or get dressed or put makeup on, or do [00:04:00] your hair, or the time that the kids wake up compared to the time that you wake up, all of these things are just naturally occurring and we pretty much do them in the same.

Way every single day. Or we scrambled to do things as we can. And we grab one thing here and we quickly brush our teeth there and we’re putting on a pair of shoes as we’re running down the stairs and trying to get out of the house. We’re still, no, we have to get all of these. Data’s done. It’s a habit that has formed.

These are the things that we have to do each day. We do them without thinking about it. And that’s why I say that their habit. The goal with the routines is that the routines become habits. And if you have habits that aren’t serving you, we can call those bad habits. The routines, when those become habits, we want those habits to replace the bad habits with intentional routines that serve you and solve problems. So it replaces the old way, the bad habit with this new and original routine and the intentional routine was set up to make things simple, to make daily life easier.

To get you through tasks and through chores and through the things that you have to do those Monday, things that you have to do. That they’re not the things that you really want to spend your time and energy on. But you still have to do them. To live life, to run a household, to manage a family, all of that.

We want to make those as efficient as possible so that you have more times for the things that you actually want to do. Once you are in a position where you have this additional routine, that’s making life easier and it becomes a habit you’re using a significantly less mental energy because you get these things done.

Just by doing that, they’re just the way that you do that. It’s almost, you can think of it as something that is a ritualistic thing there it’s happening that way. It’s just [00:06:00] another part of your day and that’s the end the goal with her routines

You may be thinking, why do I want routines in my home? That just seems like something else that I have to do. It takes time. I’m already out of time. Where am I going to find the minutes in the day to actually come up with a routine that makes sense. For my family. And why do I even need this? Like, is this really going to benefit me? The truth is we want good routines. And again, I say intentional routines because what you’re doing.

Is essentially a routine. Anything that you do the same over and over again? It is a type of a routine. It’s the way that you do something. It’s that routine. It’s that habit. And it’s just the way that it is. If there, if what you are doing is not set up intentionally. That routine or that habit? I said we could call it a bad habit.

Because it’s taking away instead of giving to you, instead of serving you, instead of being helpful to you. So in the grand scheme of things, Routines, simplify everything. They make everything easier. And that is a very, a broadest. The statement to make, but he had good intentional routine that was set up to solve a problem. Bye. Increasing efficiency and making something easier, removing the decision fatigue and removing the problems from the situation because you are now solving that problem. So have you think of this common scenario? Would you. you pull in the driveway after school. Everyone opens their doors to get out of the car. Do you leave the bags in the car? Is it common to have your kids take off their shoes before they get out of the car? So once she falls out, when she was left in the car,

Is there anything that is sitting on the seat, like extra toys, things have been removed from the backpacks. A lunch box might be left in the car. Old [00:08:00] sporting equipment, old snacks. Do the water bottles and drinks not come out or does everything come out and go into the house when you go into the house?

Are there distractions in vehicle garage or the area that you walk through and bikes and bubbles and sidewalk, chalk and things that your kids start to play with instead of going into the house, do you. Do homework right away is snack time. The first thing that happens is it a complete free for all? When you walk into the house, is it Orderly environment or is there clutter everywhere? Is it obvious where you put things away or can anything be sat down on any surface and that’s okay. How does your home function visualize that part of your day and think about what happens on a regular basis? Because I can ask anyone what a specific part of the day looks like, and they could explain what happens in their home.

It’s very similar from day to day. The time might shift a little bit. for the most part, the actions that we do are going to be similar over and over again. If you, oh, set up a routine where your kids bring everything in from the car and place the backpacks on the table and put their lunch on the kitchen counter.

So that the lunchboxes can be emptied and cleaned out and a new lunch can be made for the next day. That is a routine that is helpful. It’s helping you and it’s helping them. And it’s making sure that the lunchbox is cleaned. it’s filled with food for the next day. You could take inventory of what was eaten that day. And there are a lot of benefits to that routine.

If there’s not a routine at the lunchbox, would I be left in the car? Maybe lunch, does it even get packed until the next morning? When you remember three minutes before you have to leave that you still have to make lunch. All of those things are happening because of the habits that we have gotten into and an intentional routine that we set up or the lack of a routine.

Making a routine does not necessarily mean a [00:10:00] sitting down with a piece of paper and figuring out exactly one through 10, the steps that have to be done in a certain amount of time. There are a little bits of routines and there are baby. But routines, depending on what we have to do, you can also think of routines in term of.

A new workout or if you are trading for a race or you’re trying to be a goal at work or in like a physical sense. Then you have a plan for that follow the steps. You need to be successful with that plan and to meet those goals. in one sense the routine simplifies. It makes things easier. You’re not having to boss your kids around and tell them what to do and looking for something, because it could be lost or you don’t know where it is.

running around and adding to the stress, trying to do things last minute. One routine is serving you and saving time. Giving minutes back And reducing the stress and the other routine is wasting time and adding to the stress. in that example or any example, we could come up with routines, save time.

They reduce your stress. And again, they make things easier. The reality is if you’re struggling in your home, you probably need to change a few different things that are the current habits, the current way you’re doing things. So you would need to change a few different habits to get back on track, to make your home and your life functions together for the benefit of you and the benefit of your family. It’s always best to start with one routine of, because. When you want to change a lot, it can be overwhelming to make all of these changes. And we don’t see success when we try to change everything all at once. So find one problem area, find one pain 0.1 area that’s really stressing you out. Or one part of the day that is just not working. And you want it to be different because you find yourself frustrated over and over and over.

When you identify that part of the day or that task that you’re struggling with, then you [00:12:00]move on and then next step is to come up with a solution. The solution often comes in the form of a routine. when you have a lack of routine and a lack of structure, a lot of times that is also accompanied by clutter and too much stuff. So this might be a multi-step parts where you have to remove some clutter.

And create a new routine because if you don’t have a good routine in place, Then that’s when the thing is the physical objects and the home become a clutter, they don’t have a place to go. The routine helps us put the things away. Or put them back or return them to the place that they go that eliminates some of the clutter. So you can see where these games kind of work together. They work hand in hand.

 It’s always more helpful when you can have an example. So if you are overwhelmed by laundry, let’s talk about laundry because laundry always comes up as a huge frustration. It is something that. Is made every single day. We are always having things that are dirty, whether it’s a dish towel, a bath towel, sheets, clothing.

There’s always laundry to do, even when we stay on top of it. But when you stay on top of it and when you have a routine around laundry, it’s not overwhelming because you know, That is going to be done each day or whatever your routine is says to keep up so that you don’t get behind. When you create routines, you stick with them.

You have to sit with them. Preferably for two or three weeks to see success. And if it’s a bigger routine, it probably is going to be something more like in month where you stick with it before adding in a second routine or creating another routine, you’re going to stick with this for an extended period of time. And then you build on from that first routine, you start to see success with that one.

And then you move on to the second one. So let’s go back to the laundry. If the laundry is the first thing that you need to [00:14:00] tackle, then address that issue. We have this new laundry habit, whether that means for you, that all the laundry is done over the weekend, or you put laundry in each morning, or you put laundry in EG.

Whatever is happening with your laundry situation. Once you have that tackled and you are having success with that routine, then you move on to the next one and you figure out what is the next pain point? My kitchen is always a disaster. I can’t keep my kitchen clean. What is happening with my kitchen? It’s driving me crazy.

I don’t like them. I said dirty dishes. I don’t like the clutter counters. I don’t like the piles of random stuff everywhere. This is making me crazy. The solution. Might be multi-steps again, it might be clearing out, cleaning off, putting things away, removing that clutter. Making sure everything has a home. And then once it, the clutter has been removed, then comes the second part. The second part would be the routine. And that’s the new routine that is going to help you.

Keep the counters free of clutter. The new routine is going to help you. With picking up, usually this ends with a evening or a nightly pickup. That’s the second part of the routine. So sometimes these are a multi-step process and that you can look at that. It’s great because you’re decluttering your home and you’re creating routines. These things work together to give you that a simplified stream aligned day-to-day that you are looking for. So you spend a few minutes each day.

Clearing off the counters, getting the kitchen back to a clean and clutter-free area. And now you have successfully implemented two routines. You implemented the laundry routine for a few weeks, and then you add onto that even if it’s a different time of day with the kitchen routine and cleaning and the counters and keeping [00:16:00] the kitchen orderly and organized so that you have these two routines, you both of those parts.

And again, 2, 3, 4 weeks practice that routine you have both of them. And then you can keep going. You identify the next problem and you come up with a solution. You activate those steps to get that solution. And you give yourself that two to three timeframe again and do this new routine. And these routines start becoming a habit by the time you’re onto the third or fourth routine.

All of the sudden you’re thinking back. And it’s hard to remember what it was like when the laundry was out of control and you were stressed out and burdened by the situation. With the overwhelming laundry, because now this routine is serving you. It’s saving you time. It’s saving you energy. It’s reducing the number of decisions that you have to make in a single day. Your stress is less because you have this under control now.

And you now have a kitchen that is clutter-free on a regular basis. It takes a minutes a day to get it back to what you like and what you want it to look like. And you can wake up to counters that are clear and a kitchen that is an awful or a sick fit is not full of dirty dishes. it feels good. So little by little, you are bringing in this peace into your home by creating efficiency with these intentional routines.

If this sounds overwhelming to you and you still are thinking, I don’t know where to start. I do have a simple home habits challenge. That’s a five week challenge. And what I did was pick five common problem is that come up in coaching sessions and with clients, or when you’re messaging me questions.

And I give you one task or one project each week to declutter. So you’re removing the clutter you’re purging, which is a short amount of time to get this done. You have that one project, and then we add a routine to make sure that the clutter doesn’t come back. each day you’re working on making [00:18:00]sure that you do that routine for a few minutes each day.

So you’ve decluttered and your establishing this new routine. Now this is kind of like a crash course because each week. For five weeks, we work on one project and these are usually pretty simple projects. They do not take a lot of time. We work on one project and then we add to the routine so that by the end of the five weeks, you’ve completed five de-cluttering projects and you have the five new components for your routines.

 That program is called simple home habits. You can click on the link in the description and sign up for it. It is very easy to do and it helps you see. How these routines. Make your life so much easier it’s great because you’re not coming up with them.

It gives you all of the instructions on exactly what to do. Each week and habit trackers and checklists and all kinds of things that you can do. To keep yourself on track and motivated to keep working through each of the five weeks. Now let’s go back to the laundry routine, your laundry routine. Might be all by itself.

or it might be another part of a big routine, in the morning. You might have four to six things that you need to accomplish before you leave for school drop off or before you leave to go to work. It doesn’t matter if the routines that you intentionally create are standalone routines. Or if they’re part of a larger routine. So if your morning consists of you grabbing a laundry basket or taking sheets off of a bed or gathering towels in the bathroom, putting those in the washing machine, then you go to make breakfast, fill up water bottles, put ice packs on lunches.

you get ready. The kids eat breakfast. And before you go out the door, the clothes go in the dryer. You do drop off and then you get home and then you have 15 minutes where the clothes are done or the load of laundry is done. You can fold those, put them away. That could be the laundry.

[00:20:00] In that part of the routine, that means. The. Act of putting the clothes in the washer, putting the clothes in the dryer, folding and putting away those are all part of the morning routine they’re happening at different times. Or the laundry could be a routine all by itself. Maybe you have a big chunk of time on the weekend where you’re home and you like to do a few loads of laundry. You bring all the clothes into one room.

And everybody helps fold them. And you watch a movie, you have a family movie time at the same time, and that is a way that you spend two hours. That would be when the laundry routine would stand alone. solve these problems.

In a way that fits your family and that serves your family. With the end, the goal of simplifying and reducing stress and making things easier. That is the goal. You want to make things easier. You want to be more efficient. You want to bring simplicity to your life at home. That’s why we create the Intentional routines. That’s why we replace the bad habits with these good routines. That were thought through to solve problems. If you need help coming up with the routines. this is a great time at the beginning of the school year when schedules and everything are changing.

We, can use this transition time to. Establish the new routines. It’s kind of a natural time of the year to do that. Take the struggle and the stress from your day. And let’s reduce the decisions that you’re making every single day. The decisions you have to make that you’re not even thinking about that you have to do. There’s thousands of decisions every single day.

Let’s reduce that number by setting up these intentional routines and making sure they eventually become healthy habits that run your day on kind of an autopilot type of thing. So you can reduce. The decision fatigue, and really have more time to enjoy.

If you’re interested in the symbol home habits, challenge that five week challenge to declutter and set up [00:22:00] routines. The link is in the podcast description. You can easily click on the link and sign up for that and join me In that five week challenge program they is for listening i will meet you back here next week for the next episode of the intentional edit podcast