Routines

Do you have a morning routine? I do.

Do you need to have a morning routine? Absolutely not.

In all likelihood, whether you plan your day or not, you have some routines.

A routine is just a series of steps you take, usually in the same order, and usually at the same time.

It’s not complicated. It’s not magical. It’s not a silver bullet.

But it can make your life simpler.

A routine is just a way to introduce abstraction into your day. Instead of thinking of the five things you do in the morning, you just think, “I’ll do my standard morning stuff.”

Or instead of thinking about having a snack, brushing your teeth, turning off the lights, reading for 20 minutes, and then falling asleep, you just think “I’m going to go to bed.”

Those are just two possible routines. You might have many routines, and not all of them happen everyday. You could have routines for:

Preparing for a night out.
Packing for a business trip.
Saturday chores.
The weekly work planning meeting.

Oftentimes, making routines explicit helps you build habits. Then you don’t need to think about them until they grow stale.

And routines always grow stale. So they also need to change occasionally. I mix up my morning routine every couple of months.

But I also mix it up every day.

Although I do the same things, I don’t always do them in the same order. Sometimes, I just go with how I’m feeling. Other times, I stick to the script religiously. The variety keeps me sane, and keeps the routine fresh for longer.

Because I see a lot of value in routines, Cue will have some easy ways to make routines part of your daily planning, without making them feel restrictive or stale.