Routine might not be the first thing you think of when you think about stopping burn out from happening, but it’s really important and it might just be the missing piece for you.
Having a routine in general helps life go a lot smoother, keeps things moving forward and just makes life a whole lot less stressful.
If the word routine isn’t the one for you – maybe replace it with rhythm or whatever other word suits you better.
It doesn’t need to be rigid, a flexible routine works much better anyway when we have children and life can be a bit unpredictable but having a flexible routine, that can be moved around or changed, helps.
Why is a routine helpful?
When things get busy, maybe you have an illness or a few weeks of a lot of appointments or events, or maybe its the summer holidays or the run up to Christmas or whatever it is – life sometimes can become a bit chaotic.
It might feel like you are just rushing around and you just aren’t getting a minute to yourself, and then that means that you can’t keep up with any of your usual things that need to get done – like managing your home and your family, keeping up with your todo list, knowing what to make for food, your workouts etc etc.
Then that can make things feel even more stressful than they already are.
So having a routine in place can be helpful because it means that in the background things are keeping on happening, so when things do finally calm down and you can get back to whatever ‘normal’ looks like for you, you can just carry on, rather than feel like everything is still extremely chaotic.
Maybe you won’t stick to the routine quite as closely or exactly as you would normally, but just having it there can be enough to keep things moving forward.
As an example, we have had an extremely busy few weeks with lots of extra physio and appointments for Anest and it meant that it felt like I was out of the house and rushing around most days, and everything just felt a bit chaotic – but when I was home I carried on with our routine – I did the things I normally did on a Monday, a Tuesday etc.
Some days I only managed to do one Monday thing.
Some days I got all my usual Wednesday things done.
Other days I literally got nothing done.
What this means was that this week, now that the appointments have calmed down slightly, and the kids are back to school after half term, I don’t feel incredibly behind, like I have to catch up with absolutely everything, because I just kept showing up for my routine.
So whilst in this example I am talking about our home, it applies to all routines – workout routine, meal planning etc.
I always exercise as soon as the kids have left for school, so when things are hectic, I just exercise on the days where I don’t have an appointment until later on, or for whatever reason I have time for exercise that day.
Then when things get back to normal, I just carry on.
It isn’t a massive overhaul of my life to get back on track, because I kept showing up so that I could keep up a bit more and feel less overwhelmed at the end of it all.
If you want to see more about what our routine looks like or want to make your own – you can read this post here –> Why Rhythms and Routines in your home will help you on your health journey. or maybe this one The simple way I keep on top of cleaning and decluttering our home.
How to make a routine
Grab a cuppa and when you have a spare 20 minutes, just have a sit down and make a list of all the things you need to get done every day, week and month.
Things like:
- cleaning & deep cleaning
- meal planning
- laundry
- specific things on specific days
- workouts
- paperwork/life admin
- changing the beds
- grocery shopping
- errands
Then make a plan for them, are you going to split it up?
Monday is cleaning the bathroom day, Tuesday is dusting day etc
Or maybe you prefer cleaning all in one day and a Thursday makes the most sense for you.
When will you move your body? Are there classes you go to on certain days? Add them in.
Is there a day you tend to be out of the house, can you add your errands in then too?
Maybe you have a slow Sunday morning, and you could flick through some recipe books and make your meal plan and grocery list for the week ready to go grocery shopping on Monday.
Work out what works for you and make a plan.
It might take a while to feel like it is your routine, but the more that you keep doing it, the quicker it will become routine and the easier it will be and suddenly you will be auto-piloting the routine and you know that Monday is your cleaning day.
This post might help you more – Why Rhythms and Routines in your home will help you on your health journey.
or this one The simple way I keep on top of cleaning and decluttering our home.
Final thoughts
A routine will make a huge difference to your stress levels.
Imagine a busy week coming up with loads of appointments and different things going on with the schools and life etc.
Imagine that instead of spiralling about how you are going to get everything done, and stressing about what you can cook for food that week, or when are you going to get this or that done you can just take a moment and breathe and think ‘you know what it’s okay as long as I stick to the routine everything will work out’.
Can you feel your stress levels going down already?
I hope this helps!
Let me know in the comments if you have a routine or if you are going to try making one!
Beth x
