Speaker 1: Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of iHeartRadio. Good Morning.
Speaker 1: This is Laura. Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast. Today's
Speaker 1: tip is to ask yourself whether your routines are routine.
Speaker 1: If they are not, figure out why not, and adjust
Speaker 1: as needed, or at least update your perception of your life.
Speaker 1: I often hear from listeners about their struggles with time management. Recently,
Speaker 1: one person said she wanted her routines to actually be routine.
Speaker 1: I get that so many people have visions of their routines,
Speaker 1: but a little time tracking reveals that the routine is
Speaker 1: the exception rather than the default. Sometimes people construct whole
Speaker 1: narratives about their lives based on routines that are not
Speaker 1: actually routine. I have written a lot about morning routines
Speaker 1: over the years, and I eventually started asking people how
Speaker 1: often their beautiful routines actually happened. Sometimes it was every day,
Speaker 1: but often it wasn't, even if the person would have
Speaker 1: told you the routine was a daily thing. This can
Speaker 1: go in the other direction too, by the way, a
Speaker 1: person can construct a woe is Me narrative of always
Speaker 1: spending their Saturdays on chores, and then I get a
Speaker 1: time log with a Saturday spent with friends and the
Speaker 1: person tells me this never happens, except it did. I'm
Speaker 1: sure you have some of these routines that are not
Speaker 1: actually routine in your life. You theoretically run every Monday, Wednesday,
Speaker 1: and Friday before work, but the last time this happened
Speaker 1: was a couple of weeks ago. Or maybe your weekly
Speaker 1: meal prep routine involves planning the menu, grocery shopping, and
Speaker 1: chopping veggies on Sunday afternoons, but that only happens when
Speaker 1: you don't have anything else to do on Sundays, and
Speaker 1: you almost always do have other plans. You call your
Speaker 1: grandmother every Sunday on the way home from church, except
Speaker 1: for those Sundays when you don't go to church, which
Speaker 1: turns out to be most of them. If you realize
Speaker 1: that some of your routines aren't routine, this doesn't need
Speaker 1: to be a gotcha moment. I think it is simply
Speaker 1: interesting data about your life and your interests and your priorities.
Speaker 1: It might be helpful to figure out why the routine
Speaker 1: isn't routine. It could be that you don't truly care
Speaker 1: about the routine. You may feel like other people meal plan,
Speaker 1: so you decide that you too should develop a Sunday
Speaker 1: meal planning routine. But the truth is that your family
Speaker 1: likes simple meals and you can get home at five
Speaker 1: point thirty and easily get dinner on the table by six.
Speaker 1: You like to do other stuff on the weekends. If
Speaker 1: that is the case, then feel free to let this
Speaker 1: routine go. Or perhaps your routines aren't aligned with your priorities.
Speaker 1: You might think it would be wise to aim for
Speaker 1: routine of unloading the dishwasher and starting a load of
Speaker 1: laundry while your kids are eating breakfast before school, but
Speaker 1: your top priority is being present and connected with your kids.
Speaker 1: You may find that you consistently sit down to have
Speaker 1: a more connected conversation. I don't think that's actually a problem. Instead,
Speaker 1: figure out some other time when you can unload the
Speaker 1: dishwasher and start the laundry. Sometimes the problem is that
Speaker 1: the routine is too ambitious. You may be trying to
Speaker 1: fit more into some part of your day than can
Speaker 1: actually fit, which is why the routine isn't routine. Perhaps
Speaker 1: you can pare down your routine to what is most important.
Speaker 1: If you don't have time to write a full three
Speaker 1: morning pages your journal in the morning, you could elect
Speaker 1: to just write a paragraph, and perhaps you would find
Speaker 1: that more sustainable. If your routines aren't routine, that is fine.
Speaker 1: Some things don't deserve to be routine. Sometimes routines can
Speaker 1: be simpler. Sometimes you just need to change your story.
Speaker 1: But it is good to be aware so we can
Speaker 1: make rational choices about life, rather than thinking something should
Speaker 1: happen more often, or thinking that it does happen more
Speaker 1: often than it actually does. In the meantime, this is Laura.
Speaker 1: Thanks for listening, and here's to making the most of
Speaker 1: our time. Thanks for listening to Before Breakfast. If you've
Speaker 1: got questions, ideas, or feedback, you can reach me at
Speaker 1: Laura at Laura vandercam dot com. Before Breakfast is a
Speaker 1: production of iHeartMedia. For more podcasts from iHeartMedia, please visit
Speaker 1: the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to
Speaker 1: your favorite shows.