Introduction
In teenage days, I got misled by some movie that we should live life free style. Perhaps that was not the main message of the movie, but I started chilling in life. But as everybody knows, life has to change its direction…
Importance of following a Routine
But now in life I have started to encounter that routine is important. It helps keep things easy and in manner.
- We don’t have to memorize certain things in life. Because we are already following a pattern.
- You are committed to a certain task which makes everything easy.
If you don’t follow a routine, you are probably aimless in life. That’s the harsh truth. Please consider setting a long-term goal and work for it. And if you are aimlessly doing stuff, you probably won’t have a feeling of accomplishment. And if you don’t have a feeling of accomplishment, you’re no longer motivated to do things. Even if you somehow manage to do things, you’ll feel exhausted and mentally burned out very.
Plan things and finish them
Plan things
You can consider writing down your pending works or things are suppose to do which will make your goal to https://trello.com.
What I personally have done is, created lists in boards with names such as:
- 2021 Q4
- Monthly Goal
- Weekly Goal
- Done
You can drag and drop your card/task (unit of work) among lists.
With that in place, what additional thing you can do is, restrict number of cards in those lists. E.g. the upper limit in my Weekly Goal is to 5 cards at most. This helps me focus on lesser things and keep things doing fast.
Other features of Trello includes:
- Setting Checklist in the task
- Setting Deadline to the task
- Write comments
- Color code tasks and add labels
- Ability to collaborate with other Trello users (paid)
Schedule things and execute them
Flowtime is a time management technique which I follow then I’m doing something serious. It is more forgiving than Pomodoro in term of time bounding.
Unlike Pomodoro, Flowtime affects your psycology. You are not forced to work in a bound time. You can take as many breaks you want. And of whatever length you want. But before taking a break, you have to specify how longer your break will be.
Start only things which you can finish
This will ease you in being committed. And will gently push you to not pick any random stuff.
If anything new comes to your mind, give it a thought, wait till next morning. Does it still resides in your mind? If yes, then proceed commiting time to it, otherwise not.
This is important to do because sometimes in life many thoughts come to your mind. Not all of them are important. I have experienced this personally, I have started a bunch of courses on Coursera in excitement and have never completed any of them.
How do I maintain a routine
I belong to Google eco-system so I use Google Calander to create reminders for a certain time daily, and weekly for weekly tasks. You can use other services that’s up to you. Alternatives could be Microsoft Calander, Apple Calendar, or other third party services.
In Google Calandar you can drag and drop remainders here and there; that’s kinda fun. I get a reminder on my phone. And I can always use the Google Calander web UI to check upcoming tasks.
This obviously does not forces me to do the work, but rather act as a guideline. It okay to feel bad if you are not on a routine because that is what routine is for.
Subscribe only to the Stuff you Consume
If you are not able to fit that newsletter you subscribed to in your routine, you probably don’t want that thing in your life.
This also applies to user groups or forums of which you are member of.
I keep my mail inbox as clean as possible. I instantly unsubscribe to newsletter I don’t want in life. They just create a distraction and waste time.
Conclusion
These are the things I’m practicing in my daily life. How do you feel about it? Do you do things differently? Don’t hesitate to comment or reach me on Twitter.
