I think routines get a bad wrap as killers of creativity and squashers of all things fun.
School starts for us next week, so school-time routines are on my mind. What kid doesn’t need some kind of school-morning routine? And won’t routines make after-school nap time easier too? But more than making my life predictable and easier, routines have become something of a source of motivation, a drive to learn what is possible. They make sure my little details are covered, they help establish good habits, and, maybe most importantly, they free my mind to something more fun and even more important.
The smallest pieces and parts of my day-to-day are taken care of by routine: the kids are buckled into their car seats the same way every time, I brush my teeth after my morning coffee but before I get dressed, every other night I put the kids to bed with two books (Jason does it on my off nights). I take comfort in this. I can know that a lot of minutia is covered, and what a relief that is.
But because routine structures my day, I’m free to dream and create and do amazing things the rest of the day. My mind isn’t flattened and bogged down with details, so I can write the story that’s been pooling behind my eyes. And I’m not worried about how we will possibly get the kids to bed, so I can focus on photos I want to shoot or blogs posts I want to compose. And I’m thinking forward to what I can and will accomplish next.
So my routines don’t kill the creativity. Instead, they give me plenty of room to dream big.
Do you love or hate your routine?
Hi Anna Hartman,
Routine is very useful and necessary to become successful. It is nice to hear your story. I have listened to some motivational speakers recently and most of them focused on getting stuff done, that is we should not keep thinking procrastinating about the idea that is in our head, we must put it in action. So i have created a time table to follow my routine and do my work in time. As i made a routine of doing my work and other necessary things daily, so now i complete these tasks in very less time. This tactic has given me time to put my ideas into action. That is how making a routine helped me.
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