The Importance of Routines to Energize Your Day

The day starts with a simple decision; what am I going to wear today? You have to decide, will it be too hot for pants or should I wear shorts?

In the afternoon you decide what you’re going to eat for lunch? Should I have a turkey sandwich or chicken salad? Which route should I take to the doctor’s appointment? What telephone calls do I need to make? Should I make the call before or after?

Have you ever thought about how many decisions you make on any given day?

The number of decisions we make each day is immense, in fact, the average person makes upwards of 35,000 decisions each and every day. Yikes! That’s a lot of decisions. No wonder it doesn’t take long for decision fatigue to set in and it’s exhausting.

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Decision Fatigue Defined

What is decision fatigue? I’m so glad you asked! Decision fatigue refers to the deteriorating quality of decisions made by an individual, after a long session of decision making.

Essentially, what happens is that the more decisions we make, the worse our decisions become. This is because our brains have a limited capacity. Each decision we make takes a certain amount of energy and with every decision, our brain becomes a little more fatigued. As a result of this fatigue, the quality of our decisions diminishes.

This is why it’s so much harder to exercise willpower at the end of the day. We can blame decision fatigue for the reason we gave into that bowl of ice cream at 9:00 p.m.

For every decision you make, you’re spending some amount of your mental resources. As we deplete our mental resources, our decisions become less wise and we become less productive.

Routines Reduce Decision Fatigue and Increase Energy Levels

Since we can’t increase our brain capacity, how do we overcome decision fatigue and increase our energy? Simply put, by creating routines.

Routines reduce the number of basic decisions we have to make each day. This frees our brains for more important decisions.

For example, Steve Jobs, the former CEO of Apple, was known for wearing the same outfit every day? He did this so he didn’t have to think about or make a decision as to what to wear. Mr. Jobs had a routine when it came to getting dressed every day. He knew the importance of eliminating as many basic decisions as he could.

While we may never need to make the types of decisions Steve Jobs made, establishing clear routines will help us reserve our energy throughout our day and ensure the decisions we do make are quality decisions.

As we develop routines, the routines turn into habits. A habit is defined as an acquired mode of behavior that has become nearly or completely involuntary.

Well established routines happen on autopilot, which means you no longer have to use energy thinking about the regular things you need to do each day.

Increase Your Energy With These Simple Routines

Now that you understand how routines increase energy levels, it’s time to set up a few of your own.

Evening Routine

I firmly believe that your day starts the night before. When you have an evening routine in place, it allows you to prepare for the next day before it’s even started. The more you can do the night before the smoother your day will run.

Seeing examples of other people’s routines is always inspirational for me. So to help inspire you, here is my very basic and simple evening routine. But first, please know that I don’t always hit each of these every evening. However, I generally do and find it incredibly helpful for my day when I get through the entire routine.

Write out a short to-do list
Set out clothes for the next day
Prepare lunches
Prepare for bed (shower, wash face brush teeth)
Write in Gratitude Journal
Read for 15 minutes

That’s pretty much it. This simple routine is all I need to get a jump on the next day and make sure my energy levels stay strong.

Morning Routine

To really keep my energy levels up, I also have a morning routine. I’m pretty ritualistic about my mornings, which is a good thing because it takes a while for my brain to wake-up! My mornings involve:

Hitting the snooze button (I allot time for this because I know I’m gonna do it)
Make coffee
Devotions
Make my bed
Get ready for the day
Eat Breakfast (okay, I confess this rarely happens, but it should and I’m working on it)

It’s a good idea to write out your routine and put it somewhere you will regularly see it. But, the most important thing to remember is that it’s not about what’s in your routines, just that you have one.

Although there’s not a single routine that works for everyone, to increase energy levels the best thing you can do is create YOUR ideal routines. When you do, your routines will give you the energy levels necessary to focus on what matters most throughout your day.

When you have set routines in your life, you leave yourself with more time and energy to work on the things that matter most to you!

I would love to know if you have set routines in your life.