Why You Struggle to Stick to Your Freakin' Routine

by Tiffany Walking Eagle | 3-minute read

Have you totally given up on sticking to any sort of routine when it comes to your day-to-day life? Do you time and time again set up a to-do list each day only to fail over and over?

If so, I feel ya, and I’ve been there time and time again myself. Read on if you’d like to know a few possible reasons why it’s been so hard to stick with a routine, and some ideas on how to stop making to-do lists you hate and start making ones that you actually want to do!

1. You fill your schedule with obligations.

Who wants to have a day filled with boring obligations and lame responsibilities? Even the word “schedule” or “routine” gives off a connotation of mundane drudgery, especially if you don’t think of yourself as organized or you like to be spontaneous.

Instead, try putting together a day you’d actually enjoy.

I love the way Jordan Peterson puts it: “Design your day.” Think of how you could make tomorrow a good day, realistically. Of course, you’ll have to include some responsibilities in your schedule. Even so, productivity has its own rewards. But also schedule in time for the activities you enjoy, like quality time with a friend, going on a bike ride, listening to your favorite true crime podcast, or a doing face mask while watching your favorite show on Hulu.

Make your schedule something you’d actually want to stick to. Why keep torturing yourself with this endless feeling of obligation when it comes to a routine?

2. You put way too many things on your to-do list.

You know the drill. You act like when you finally do write down a to-do list, you’d better make up for all those other days that you weren’t productive and didn’t have a to-do list. So you write down approximately 1298129 items on that list as if you’ve somehow acquired superhuman productivity powers to get it all done in a day.

Then what happens? You get maybe 2 of the 8197128 items actually done. Maybe you do a couple more things halfheartedly. Then you look over your ugly giant of a list in shame and frustration and think, this is why I don’t write to-do lists.

And on and on the cycle goes.

Instead, try being realistic about what you can get done by picking the top 5 most important things and sticking to those.

And 5 is a completely arbitrary number! Pick any number you like, but keep it realistic. Seriously. Maybe just 3 items.

Or maybe you just need to have literally one item on your list and get that item done. And then tomorrow, put one item again and get that done. And keep on doing that until you’ve figured out that you can do what’s on your to-do list and that to-do lists aren’t evil, you’ve just been turning them into monsters. And when you’re ready, add one more item.

Incremental improvement is exponentially better than no improvement at all!

3. You act like schedules are prisons.

Who can blame you for not wanting to create a schedule when you act like they’re prisons? No one—or I guess I should say most people don’t want to subject themselves to a schedule that is so darn inflexible that it leaves no room for spontaneity or, you know, fun!

Instead, try treating your schedule like a guideline for a good day instead of a rigid plan.

It’s okay to grab a last-minute coffee with your friend and skip deep cleaning the fridge for today. It’s all right if you ended up having to work late and you have no energy to go for a run. Real life is a thing that happens, and when you remember that your schedule is designed by you and for you, you also have the power to change it and let it be flexible when necessary.

I hope you found this post helpful! As always, if you have any questions or would like to start a discussion, drop me a comment below! I love chatting with you-all. As always, thanks for reading. <3

Related post: The Unsexy Truth About Self-Care