What Are The Benefits Of Having Habits & Routines And How Can You Implement Them In Your Life?

ELLEASH

3 years ago

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This post will detail everything you need to know about the benefits of having habits & routines and how you can implement them in your life. Forming new habits and having routines in your life are beneficial to your mental health and your personal development. Highly successful people will always tell you that having a strong scaffold of habits and implementing them to form routines will be positive for your time management and productivity. This post will be answering the questions of what are the benefits to having habits and routines, how can you implement them in your life, and what is the difference between a habit and a routine.

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What Are The Benefits Of Having Habits & Routines, And How Can You Implement Them In Your Life?

Last Updated on July 27, 2021 by ELLEASH

This post may contain affiliate links, which means that I earn a small commission with every purchase you make through my links, and of course, at no additional cost to you. I do greatly appreciate it, as it helps me run my blog and post content that will help you in your daily life. Please read the full disclosure here. Oh, and just in case — I am NOT a mental health professional! What I write are my experiences, tips & personal advice. If you are in need of help, please don’t hesitate to contact a professional! Please read the full disclosure here concerning that point. Okay, that’s out of the way – READ ON!!

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What Are The Benefits Of Having Habits & Routines, And How Can You Implement Them In Your Life?

Hey hey my lovely entrepreneurs,

what are the limits to your decision making?

When it comes to making a decision, it becomes harder to actually make a good and impartial one at the end of the day, right? Is it just me, or does this happen to you as well?

Tell me you haven’t ever experienced that total brain-numbing sensation at the end of your day, when you need to make quick and intelligent decisions, but for the life of you, you can’t.

I hear ya and frankly, we’ve all been there before.

Figuring out what you’re going to make for dinner or what you actually need to buy at the grocery store, at 8 pm isn’t going to have the same outcome than if you had actually thought about it the night before, or even made a dang grocery list, right?

That’s because we all have a limit as to what types and amount of decisions we can intelligently make in any given day.

In essence we need to free up brain space!

How can you free up brain space?

So, how does one really go about not stressing out, when having to make these “hard” decisions at some un-Godly hour?

Well, most of us have already set-up routines and created habits that enable us to not have to take such decisions when unprepared or at least not without any contingency plan!

Thankfully, having these habits and routines helps us prioritize, what are important-decisions and what can be put on the back burner. And if they were to arise at that ungodly hour, you’d still be able to make an informed decision, because your brain isn’t completely saturated!

Let me give you an example.

Imagine you have a habit of running through your to-do list the night before going to bed and you routinely go grocery shopping on Friday evenings.

Now, imagine you’ve had a super long week and it’s Friday and you’re stuck in line, waiting (impatiently) for your turn to pay. You’re tired, annoyed and just want to get home. The last thing you want is to have to make some super important decision – because, hey it is Friday evening!

But, your phone rings and it’s your boss – yup, the nerve! They want your opinion on something highly important and it can’t wait Monday.

Well guess what?

You just breeze through your answer, without even lifting up a perfectly sculpted eyebrow, because you haven’t totally reached your quota of highly important decision-making yet! Even on a Friday evening.

The reason being is that we can cut out a lot of decision-making by having habits and creating routines.

So you going through your list the night before and doing your grocery shopping like every other Friday, helped!!

We save out decision-making for the important stuff.

It also frees brain space for more creative and productive thinking.

Routines are a great tool that simplify our lives and cut out a lot of our daily stress.

If you’d like to learn more about the secrets to starting a new habit and actually sticking to it, check out this post where I share with you great ways to crush your goals and really stick to your new habit.

You might also be interested in downloading this free printable below, where you can literally just dump what you have in your head and get rid of excess stuff!

Really useful when you want to clear your brain space.

So I’ve been talking about routines and habits. Is there a difference? What is it you ask?

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is there a difference between a habit and a routine?

So both terms, habits and routines refer to the different, repeated and regular activities we do during our day.

A habit is something you would do regularly, and repeatedly in your life, without too much thought that you’re actually doing it!

A routine is made up of several habits.

Confused much? Don’t be, let me explain in more detail.

What is a habit?

According to the American Journal of Psychology (1903) a habit is “a more or less fixed way of thinking, willing, or feeling acquired through previous repetition of a mental experience.”

The way you act is made up of habits, things that you do pretty much on auto-pilot, without really thinking about them.

For example, you may bite your lower lip when you are nervous, or you may brush your teeth before going to bed, or first thing in the morning. You don’t really think about it, you just do it.

As we highlighted in this post on creating new habits, there are both good and bad habits. And bad habits are super hard to get rid of. Nail biting, smoking, unhealthy eating, bad money management are all bad habits, and it can be really hard for some to kick them to the curb!

It may be hard to break bad habits, it is equally as difficult to break into new habits!

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What is a routine?

As stated previously, a routine is made up of different habits and it often has a particular sequence or order of doing these different things. It is best described as the different steps to getting a particular job done.

For example, I often talk about my skin care routine and the things I do to stay on top of my mental health. These are made up of particular actions that I take in order to get healthy looking skin, or to be more productive in my work-day, or just to keep my mental health in check.

We know that routines are made up of habits, so if you want to change your habits, sometimes it can be beneficial to change-up your routines a little bit!

Once you have a routine down-to-a-tee, you feel great. I know that having things in my day that I don’t have to think too much about, creates a sense of security and leaves certain parts of my brain “blank”, so I can concentrate on more important-decision making!

So there you have the basic differences between a habit and a routine. But what now?? Are there benefits to actually creating habits and having routines?

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are there benefits to having habits & routines in your life?

Abso-freaking-lutely there are benefits to having habits and routines in your life!

I have chosen to outline 4 benefits and explain why you can definitely profit from forming daily habits and creating routines for your day.

benefit #1: Your day runs more smoothly & reduces stress

I bet you already have a morning or night routine, right?

Chances are you definitely do!

I know I do and it helps calm me and get myself into Mommy-mode and work-mode!

The things I do when I get up are all aimed to make my mornings so much easier.

Living with anxiety, there are days that are harder than others.

Most days, my mornings are easy-peasy thanks to my habits and routines, that I have down to a tee!

I go about my morning doing the things I gotta do to avoid making my anxiety spike and also to ensure our household runs smoothly.

Any extra-stress can definitely be avoided when I run through my routine smoothly.

I’m on-time, which in turn makes hubby and little C on time as well.

Yes! All winners here. Benefits ALL the way baby!

A habitual morning for me is to smack the alarm off, get up, turn the water on for my shower, brush my teeth while the shower water heats up, shower, jump out of it, dry off and get dressed in the clothes I have laid out the night before.

By laying them out beforehand, I double check there are no stains or creases, or whatever gross thing that could possibly be on it! This avoids un-needed stress!

Once I’m ready, I go wake up little C and then we go through her little morning routine.

As soon as we are downstairs, we go through breakfast, then we go off to school / work and hopefully we are not having to rush or feel stressed-out because something didn’t go right!

The reason it goes so well, is because we each have our own little habits and routines and it just makes life so much easier when we are all out the door on time!

Yes, even little C has her own habits and routines that we have instilled in her ever since she was little.

Having them has helped my anxiety SO much!! It has also been super positive and beneficial for little C to see us do certain things every day and night, pretty much at the same time, and showing her that having these types of actions, helps being organized and a lot more relaxed, even if there are always unexpected things that can happen.

Little anecdote: I had just started back at work when little C was about 9 monts. I was still breastfeeding her and slowly getting into my morning routine. I was all ready to go and drop her off at daycare, when I went to pick her up and leave, when the inevitable happened – she threw up ALL of her milk and breakfast on me!!

Oh yeah, for those Moms out there who have ever been covered in the smelliest of curdled milk and what-not, you know that it was impossible to NOT shower after!

Anyways, the only reason I actually managed to keep it together, is because of my morning routine!!

I’m telling you, knowing exactly what I had to do out-of-habit, saved my sorry-A and despite feeling utterly flustered, I didn’t have a complete meltdown – which may have happened, had I not had these good habits and routines in place!

So, there is definitely SO many great benefits to having a good routine and habits down pat, don’t you think?

If you are not convinced, think of the crappiest way your morning can start off and imagine how to get out of it if you have absolutely NFI what you’re actually doing that day!!

If you want to reduce your stress, I highly recommend taking this 7-day mini email series that will give you great tips to naturally reduce your stress levels.

Click below or here if you want 7 more awesome tips to naturally alleviate stress.

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Benefit #2: you clear up headspace

Whatever your routines and habits, they can be as equally as beneficial for your work day.

Firstly, when you start off your morning without stress, you are bound to be so much more productive and mentally prepared for what the work day can throw at you!

Secondly, by implementing some routines into your workday wherever possible, you are also freeing up so much headspace.

If you’re a meal planner, you don’t have to think about what you’re going to have to prepare or buy for that evening.

If you actually have a cleaning schedule, you’re able to stay on track with your household chores, without you having to waste any valuable decision making skills you’d use for your work, by thinking about the pile of washing/ironing you have to complete!

Obviously, all this comes down to being a tad organized, which may not be your forte, but seriously no woman I know, goes through her day without a schmick of organization – if she didn’t she’d never be able to achieve all that she accomplishes in her day!

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benefit #3: You’re getting prepared for the next day

When you finish your day with an evening, or bedtime, routine it not only is beneficial to help you relax, but it actually will help you show the example for your kids.

What works for your toddler works for you as well!

Also, when you finish up your day, by doing a few chores, you’re actually getting prepared for the next day – basically you’re making the next morning so much easier.

Some examples of these are ensuring your kitchen is tidy and ready for breakfast the following morning, because who hates waking up to the smell of dirty dishes, instead of brewing coffee?

Ensuring the kids’ school things are in order for the next day, so you’re not rushing or stressing out because they can’t find their library book due that day! (Yup, totally happened last week in our household!)

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Benefit #4: you are actually practising some self care!

By actually doing a few calming things that help you wind down and get ready for sleep, you’re actually practising self care.

Yup, you are treating yourself to some relaxation and “me-time”, in order to get a restful sleep.

Why not read a book, instead of looking at your phone?

How about listening to some music while you go through your evening skin care routine?

Or slow down with a cup of herbal tea?

One way I actually know that having routines and habits is beneficial is that it gives me time to practise some self care.

If you have been following me for a while, you will know that I am a die-hard fan of looking after myself!

Being able to have my next day prepped and organized as not to be stressed in the morning, then I have time to do things that I truly enjoy and that really help with my mental health.

One of those ways is to sit down and think about what parts of my day and week I can turn into routines.

Journaling about these and creating daily to-do lists for myself, is actually quite therapeutic and healing.

More importantly, it relaxes my mind and helps my anxiety.

By writing things down and having a clear path as to what I actually need to be doing the next day, or even few days, I know that my anxiety can be simmered to a minimum.

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The Takeway

If you take the take time to actually create some habits and routines, you are bound to help your daily activities run a lot more smoothly, than if you didn’t have any and just winged it!

Doing this will undoubtedly reduce your stress and be so much more productive during your work day.

The most beneficial aspect of having your habits and routines, is that it creates headspace and leaves you room for the funner decisions in life!

Like figuring out what show to watch on Netflix, or what cocktail you’re going to prepare for your girls night in (all in moderation of course!).

I hope you enjoyed this post and please let me know what you think about this topic.

Do you have specific habits and routines that help you in your daily life?

I’d love to hear from you!

Elle Ash xo

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