Building Routines into Daily Life
Behind each organized life, you’ll find a posse of routines at work to keep things running smoothly. Yes, I know—routines sound about as exciting as housedresses and sensible shoes, but their mundane nature belies their power. Trust me, you’ll come to love them, homely or not.
A morning routine speeds parents of small children out the door (without forgetting the diapers, pacifier, or naptime blanket). A pretravel routine shuts off the hot water, stops mail and newspaper delivery, and alerts the neighbors to your absence so that you leave for vacation with an easy mind. Cleaning routines for each day, week, and season ensure that the house never slips too far from the happy state of “clean enough.” Routines are deliberately designed sets of steps, carried out at regular intervals, that automate household activities to make them easier.
You may be asking yourself, “What’s the difference between a habit and a routine?” While a habit always has a routine at its core, routines don’t always lend themselves to habit formation. Perhaps the activity occurs too infrequently to rise to the level of a habit. Other times, routines may involve more than one person, making it difficult to coordinate. While they aren’t quite as reflexive as a good habit, routines serve the same purpose—to bundle and speed repetitive activities in everyday life.
Routines are particularly helpful in multiperson households, especially homes with children. Because routines spell out the sequence of steps, there’s no need to stand over household members insisting that they first clear the glasses, then the plates, and then the serving dishes from the table. When clearing the table has become routine, everyone knows what’s expected of them and understands how to proceed.
Crafting Robust Routines
The secret to crafting a routine is to think once and act many times. Setting out the steps required to do an activity and then listing them to guide the family the next time saves time and mental energy from that day forward. Also, by crafting your routines intentionally, you can refine them as needed. Planning a routine makes it possible to zero in on bottlenecks and problem areas and solve them, once and for all, in a way that slapdash daily attempts are unable to do.
The simplest and most durable routines are based on time. A routine that’s triggered by the hour of the day, the day of the week, or the season of the year is easy to spot and easier to work with. To get organized fast, consider setting up these common routines:
• Morning wakeup
• Evening prebedtime
• Dinner preparation and cleanup
• Daily and weekly cleaning schedules
• Washing, drying, and folding clothing
• Shopping for groceries and storing food
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SPEEDY SOLUTION |
A tickler file tracks household routines easily. Write out routines on index cards and assign them a frequency. File cards behind calendar dividers in a file box. Each day, check for scheduled routines. When the routine has been completed, file the card behind the divider for the next scheduled interval. The job will come around again at the right time—all you have to do is check the file each day.
With routines that you don’t execute often, such as seasonal yard chores, auto maintenance, or travel, the secret to success is a simple checklist.
File checklists in your control center notebook, or add them as reminders to an electronic calendar. For example, when it’s time to put the yard to bed for the winter, you’ll know where to find the list of chores that have to be done. Consider adding these ideas to your checklist-based routines:
• Changing out seasonal wardrobes
• Throwing a dinner party or birthday party
• Scheduling auto maintenance
• Performing spring-cleaning chores
• Decorating for the holidays
• Planning a picnic
• Adjusting clocks for Daylight Savings Time
• Completing a pretravel checklist
Create your own checklists to meet your specific needs, and visit OrganizedHome.com for free printable checklists to organize checklist-friendly activities like travel, yard sales, or party planning.
Finally, think beyond simple time- or checklist-based routines to find new ways to automate the activities of everyday life. Thinking outside the box to combine or consolidate everyday chores saves time and is the hallmark of an organized life.
Batching activities can be as simple as establishing an “errand day” each week. On that day, you’ll handle all the week’s errands, from grocery shopping, to banking, to dry cleaning. Because you’re already out and about, each chore will take much less time than if you performed it singly.
Put the batching principle into action during the holidays to speed seasonal chores. Mix several batches of cookie dough on one weekend day, then bake all the cookies the next day to cut down on time and cleanup. Instead of weeding for a half-hour a day, recruit the family for a one-day yard-work session, and reward the crew with pizza. Whenever you can tick off multiple to-do items using the same tools and supplies, consider batching them to save time.
Simplifying activities means doing less and enjoying it more. Shave minutes off the morning tasks by doing away with bedspreads in favor of quick-make duvets that can be straightened in seconds. Replace a trio of kitchen cleaning products with a multiuse solution that can clean every surface in the room to cut time spent cleaning. Think lean, mean…and organized!
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SPEEDY SOLUTION |
In the old days, the milkman delivered dairy products to the doorstep. Today online subscription services offer the same timesaving solution for products as varied as dog food, vitamins, coffee, and printer cartridges. Schedule deliveries of consumables on a regular basis, and there’ll be no more need to remember the milk.