10 Routines that will upgrade your life
Morning routine
Your day is won in the morning. Waking up and lounging around until something pops up and having a set routine can be the difference between failure and success. Many of the worlds leading entrepreneurs and high achievers have a set morning routine. This helps them keep their life organised and before most people are still in bed they have achieved a great deal. This begins with a set wake up time. Make sure that is something you can stick to, waking up at 5 am is great but if you cant do it everyday then it is not sustainable. Once your body has become accustomed to that wake up time you will feel energised and ready for the morning.
Now you have blocked out a few hours before your day has officially started it is time to decide what practices will give you the most bang for your buck. Here is where a truthful review of your life and habits is needed. Once you have identified what you want more in your life you can start to work on getting it. If you lack organisation then keeping a calendar, to-do list or journal will help you keep your life more focused.
But don’t do them all at once, full throttle. This is what I do and always regret it. I will get motivated and overload my senses with that particular thing, in the end I can’t sustain such output and revert back to my old self again. If you want to keep a to-do list, first write out one thing a day you need to complete. When that becomes easy then add more. Over time you will be able to add things to your system and you will not be overwhelmed as you have built up a tolerance to it.
Example
More calm/spiritual=2 minutes of meditation each morning
No time for exercise=10 reps of a exercise you enjoy
Need more organisation=1 task on your to do list
Wanna learn a new skill=read or practice as much as you can retain
These are the bare minimum tasks that will make it nearly impossible not to perform. You need to decide what your threshold is that will keep you consistent.
Evening routine
Evening is in my opinion a lot harder to develop routines. Everyone is on leisure mode and the offers to waste the night away come hot and heavy. Before you know it you are well into the night, tired and full from gorging yourself. One bad decision has led to another and any hope of starting a productive morning has become twice as hard. To win the morning you must prepare the night before. You cannot have a monk morning and a rock star evening. One or the other has to take a back seat. You might be able to keep up a lifestyle similar to this with stimulants and alcohol but eventually you will crash. Getting the best out of productive routines means that you engrain it into your habits until you can do it effortlessly.
Example
Prep breakfast
Lay out clothes
Have laptop ready for when you wake
Write the next days to do list
Outline your writing
Skin care routine
Being to masculine to have a skin routine is a sure fire way to wrinkles well before you should have. Using a moisturiser on and off is better then nothing but it will not give you the benefits you would get from a consistent routine.
Example
Exfoliator
Eye cream
Moisturiser
Moisturiser with spf (for morning)
Building this into a habit and working out what works will not only help keep your skin looking young but will also save you time the more you do it.
Teeth routine
Having a pearly white smile makes you more attractive. Having dirty, yellow teeth will give off the wrong impression. It doesn’t matter if your face is pristine, it will all be changed as soon as you smile. As your mouth hygiene begins to get worse, your breath becomes a big issue especially in close quarters. There has also been a lot of connection between bad mouth hygiene and disease in the body.
This can be all solved with a cheap easy routine of brushing and flossing. Learning how to brush your teeth to get the maximum out of your toothbrush is a great way to maximise your results. Electric tooth brushes are excellent at cleaning your teeth in a fraction of the time. Flossing is something that should be considered as important as brushing, but many people overlook it. Over 30% of your teeth are in-between and without flossing these areas are left to decay. mouth wash is great to finish it off and leave mouth feeling clean. I tend to lean towards natural options of mouth wash as many popular brands alter your mouths microbiome. While your at it use your non dominant hand at get your brain working as well.
Example
Brush teeth (minimum 1 minute and a half)
Flossing
Tongue scrap
Mouth wash
2x a day
Bicarbonate of soda and charcoal are great way of naturally whitening your teeth. You can brush using these a couple times a week. Be careful as brushing to hard can become to abrasive on your teeth especially with charcoal. Another great way of getting rid of bad bacteria in your mouth is through mouth pulling. I use a small amount of organic coconut oil and swish it around your mouth for at least 5 minutes then spit it out. The science is open on this subject but I feel cleaner, so why not.
Hair routine
Reduce the stress and embarrassment of a bad hair day with a strict routine. The longer the hair the more you have to do to keep it good. For all the bald men out there, in some ways you don’t have to waste the brain power on creating a hair routine. If your hair is something you value then getting it cut from a trusted Barbour is very important. Perhaps even more important is the right hairstyle for your face shape. The cherry on top is keeping it healthy and free of dandruff.
Example
Quality shampoo and condition multiple times a week
Styling product that does not react with your scalp
Good quality or natural hair masks (once a week)
Hair protection if you use hairdryer a lot
Detangler if you have curly
There is a case to be made in leaving your hair, so it can produce its natural oils. This method is not viable if you use hair products. The last thing you want is week old crusty gel in your hair while you sleep.
Exercise routine
Working out what you want from exercise(no pun intended) is the first step you need to take in creating a routine that will get you to your goals faster. Once you have decided what your realistic exercise goals are then you can begin mapping it out.
Jumping between modalities is leaving gains on the table. Having a routine you can follow and see the progression will bring you closer to your goals and could possible save years of training.
Money routine
Routines can have a huge effect on your finances. A investing plan can be the difference in picking a winner and losing all your money. Having a routine you do every time you receive a pay check can be the difference between saving large sums and spending it all the first couple of days of getting it.
Example
30% bills
30% living
30% investing/saving
10% for yourself
Investing strategies are much more volatile but can pay off big time if done correctly. Here are some great strategies.
Job routine
We all have our own routines in work. Through repetition you have worked out how to do your job more efficiently. This creates opportunity to do more work or frees up time for you to do other things. By breaking down your work step by step you can begin to find where things can be tightened up.
Is there a better technique than what you are doing?
Are you using the best equipment?
Are you using the best courier service?
The best software?
The more you look into these things the more you will be able to improve your capability. Effective automation should always be the most ideal outcome. Taking away less important tasks, while leaving you more time for important ones can mean the difference between a small business and a 7 figure business.
Car routine
Cars have made our lives infinitely easier but not without its drawbacks. Keeping up with the maintenance and care of a car can quickly escape our memory until either something goes wrong or your driving around with no tax. If the maintenance is included with your monthly car payments then most of it is not going to apply, if you can afford it then that is great and is going to free up your time for other things. But for those of you that own their car then creating a routine is a great way to save time and make sure your car stays in tip top condition.
This is where alarms and calendars come in handy.
Creating a schedule for each of the maintenance and checks you do will serve you well.
Every time you change the oil, get new tires, new window wipers, valeted etc. you will decide how long until the next time you will need it and set a alarm on your calendar. That way you will be able to rely on the alarm and not on your memory.
Capture routine
Being able to capture your ideas and everything you learn is going to ensure you can come back to them when you want. Reading books is a great way of learning new information but over time your brain will forget about the things that you thought were important in those books.
Digital option
There are loads of capture apps and programs now. I have tried a great deal of them but I always end up back at apple notes. Its free, easy to use and for some reason (maybe the thumbnail) I always remember to click on it. If you want something better then apple notes then I personally like notion. A pre warning, notion has a learning curve and once you have got the hang of it, notion will serve you well. This is man to follow if you want to know about notion.
Analogue option
My favourite form of capture is the humble analogue. Physically writing out your thoughts and goals helps to engrain it into your brain. This is another thing where I have tried numerous different methods and have ended up with a kind of bullet journal hybrid. Whatever you choose it is definitely worth the effort as you will be rewarded with a trove of knowledge that would have otherwise been forgotten.
