172 4 Steps to Reestablish Routines

If you were off your routines for 2 - 4 weeks, it can take 2 - 4 to get back on track!

After the holidays, it's time to take on what can seem like the daunting challenge of getting back on top of your routines, while learning to navigate the central conflict between your pre-existing routines and your new goals.

This episode is about the steps you can take to get back into routines and even add in new ones! I share the most important trick I've learned over time of getting into the habit of any routine and you'll walk away with tips to make it easier to get back into your routines in a calm, intentional, and peaceful way.

When you have the right systems and tools to plan and manage your time, you can live a life of harmony!

Tune in to:
1. Learn four steps to help you get back on track with routines you may have stepped away from after the holidays.
2. Discover how to create a morning routine that serves you based on your unique personality type and schedule.
3. Find out how to set yourself up for success by reintroducing routines one at a time and making sure they are present in your weekly plan.

After listening in, let's connect on Instagram over at @megansumrell. DM me and let me know what routine you are bringing back this week so I can cheer you on!

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FULL TRANSCRIPT:

[00:00:00]
All right? All the holiday festivities are over. New Year's Eve parties, all of that stuff. If you have kids are probably back at school, and chances are this is the week that you may be thinking that it's time for me to get, like, back on the wagon here, right? We've all probably stepped away from a lot of things that we normally do.

[00:00:18]
So before you jump all in, I want you to listen to this episode, because today I'm going to be covering with you four steps to go through to help you kind of return back to some of your routines that maybe you walked away from after the holidays, all right? And this is going to be an easy, non crazy, and we aren't going to change 8000 things all at once. All right? So let's go ahead and jump in.

[00:00:50]
Welcome to the Work Life Harmony podcast. I'm your host, Megan Sumrell. I'm the creator of the top program and top planner, teaching all things time management, organization, and productivity for women. I'm also a mom and wife, and just like you juggling hashtags all the things while running multiple businesses and a family, guess what? You don't have to feel constantly overwhelmed, exhausted, and stressed out.

[00:01:11]
There is another way. When you have the right systems and tools to plan and manage your time, you can live a life of harmony. This is your show to learn from me and other amazing women how to master your time, planning and organization, to skyrocket your productivity so you can have Work Life Harmony. If you're ready to stop feeling overwhelmed, this is the show for you. And if you're new here, I'd love to get you started with my Work Life Harmony assessment.

[00:01:35]
All you have to do is DM me on Instagram at Megan Sumrell with the word Harmony, and my team will send it right over.

[00:01:45]
Hey. Welcome back to work life. Harmony. So here we are. We are over the hump.

[00:01:50]
The new year has started. We're starting to settle back into, quote, normal routines, and I know for a fact that for a lot of us, myself included, usually those last few weeks of the year, sometimes even the entire last month, creates an environment where we really get away from a lot of our regular routines, right? We're taking vacation time. We may be doing travel. We may be having visitors.

[00:02:17]
If you've got kids, they've been out of school for a while. You've got older kids, sometimes they're home for over a month right between semesters in college. And usually it is this time of the new year where this is the week where we're kind of like, okay, God, I got to get back. I got to get back into my routines. And so I wanted to spend some time today giving you some tips on how to get back into routines that maybe you have stepped away from for a while, because I want you to make sure that you avoid one of the biggest pitfalls that I see women do.

[00:02:52]
And it is namely this. We will maybe on a Sunday night, maybe you just did this a couple of nights ago. You're like, okay, this is the week. It's finally my first full week back into the year. I'm going to get back on top of everything.

[00:03:03]
I'm basically going to change 15 things at once, right? Maybe I've stepped off of my morning routine. Maybe I've stepped away from my fitness routine. Maybe my resets routine. Maybe you've got a processing your notes every week, all these little mini routines you've had, and you decide, this is the week I'm going to bring all of them back.

[00:03:23]
And when we do that, we are setting ourselves up for failure. Too much change all at once. While it might feel exciting in those first couple of days, your body and your brain just can't keep up with that. So I want to walk you through a couple of things to think about as you are trying to shift back into some routines that maybe you have stepped away from. All right, first and foremost is this.

[00:03:52]
Pick one. I want you to start with one routine that you maybe have stepped away from that you find most valuable to yourself and make the commitment this week that this is the week you're going to bring that back in. But here's a caveat that I really, really want you to listen to. You may need to tweak or change your routine from what you had been doing to what you might need to do now. I want to repeat that just because you had a routine that you were doing maybe three, four, five weeks ago, doesn't mean that that exact same routine is going to continue to serve you exactly as it is.

[00:04:40]
Something happens in life that causes me to step away from a routine before I just blindly say, all right, I'm going to get back on that horse. I'm going to start doing it again tomorrow. It's really important for you to take a few minutes and review it to have that honest dialogue with yourself of is the routine that I had been doing as it stands still in service to me now. Now, I'm going to walk you through an example of this. So if you've been kind of walked away from your routines, I will tell you the first routine that I would encourage you to bring back if maybe you have five or six to choose from, is if you've stepped away from your morning routine.

[00:05:22]
I firmly believe that your morning routine, whatever it looks like for you, is the foundational routine that can really set you up for success for the entire day. I believe so strongly in the importance of morning routines. I have an entire mini course that my students go through inside the Top program that guides you through a process to help you create a morning routine that actually is based on your personality type and your schedule so that it really serves you. A morning routine is a game changer. So let's say maybe over the holidays I spend several weeks and I've just been enjoying sleeping in or whatever, and I've completely stepped away from my morning routine.

[00:06:07]
And I'm now realizing, okay, this week it's time for me to get back on that. You start setting the alarm earlier and bringing that morning routine back in. But before I do that, I'm going to take a few minutes and actually write down what was my morning routine, what was the routine that I had been doing prior to stepping away. And then as I'm looking through that, I am going to then look at what is my plan for this week? Do I have any new constraints?

[00:06:35]
Do I have any new things that are coming into my life that might make the existing routine no longer the right routine for me? And the reason why this is especially important at the new year is chances are you may have a goal that you've started on, right? And maybe that new goal and that new action plan that you've created to achieve your goal might actually compete a little bit with your morning routine. So if I'm using morning routine as an example, maybe you have a desire to run a five K race and you've got one scheduled in March or something. And what this is meaning for you is that now you are going to be getting up and running in the morning.

[00:07:15]
And maybe that had not been part of your routine before. Well, you running in the morning and what your existing morning routine was, they made together, kind of battle each other for time. So this is what I mean by it's really important for you to sit down and look at that morning routine. Look at the realities of what are any new constraints or changes in your schedule or routines you have right now to make sure that the morning routine that you're going to step back into is one that still serves you. Now, sometimes when I go through this quick review, I may find that, yes, my old routine is exactly what I want to go back to.

[00:07:50]
Other times I might realize, oh, you know what, I'm going to need to change that up a little bit. So we've got to do that after the step one, which is pick the one routine you're going to bring back in. That step two is let's review it and make sure that it is still serving you. Let's make sure that we're just not blindly doing something that doesn't make sense anymore. Now step three in this process to help you get back on track with your routine is to create either an accountability process or a really easy way that makes it a gentler kind of introduction back into it.

[00:08:26]
Let me explain what I mean. I realize that doesn't sound super clear. So the first option as we're looking at bringing a new routine back in is to say, is there something that I can anchor this to that I'm already doing to make it easy for me to ease back into that routine? Okay, so maybe with your morning routine, there is something that you want to bring into it, and it's an additional five minutes, and you just decide, you know what? I am already today getting up and making a cup of coffee when I get up in the morning.

[00:08:59]
So I can now anchor, meaning connect this routine to the activity I'm already doing. Anytime we're bringing something new in, if there is the opportunity for you to say, I'm going to do this right after this activity I'm already doing on autopilot, it's going to set you up for a little bit more success. Now, there may not be that. Okay. So, for instance, you may be bringing back in a routine that requires you to set your alarm a little bit earlier.

[00:09:28]
So there's nothing really to anchor it to, right? You're sound asleep. This is an opportunity where you may want to reach out and find a buddy to say, hey, this is what I'm doing. Are you working on getting up a little bit earlier as well? Let's check in with each other each day as kind of that partnership.

[00:09:44]
Some people would call it an accountability partner. I struggle with using that phrase of accountability partner only because I believe you can really only be accountable to yourself, right. But sometimes when you have that partner in crime, it can help motivate you a little bit easier to get up and do that work. I have two friends right now that I'm in a group with where we are checking in each day and encouraging each other on some of our fitness goals as well. So we've picked our routine.

[00:10:09]
We've reviewed it to make sure it's okay. We've looked for opportunities to anchor it or to find that a buddy system with that. And then the fourth step in here now, you knew I was going to go here, right? Is to make sure that this routine is present in your weekly plan. So we need to it's one thing to say, I'm going to get back to doing this routine.

[00:10:31]
It's a whole other one to make sure that we have actually accounted for that time in our weekly plan. Because the secret to actually getting stuff done again, that's why I always say a task list is not a plan. Saying I'm going to do it does not set you up for success. Actually looking at your weekly plan and knowing when specifically these routines are happening is what will make sure that you have the time that you need to do it. All right?

[00:11:01]
So those are the four steps that you can go through to really help you get back on top of that routine. Pick one to start with, review it to make sure it's still okay. Then third step, look for a way to anchor it, or maybe get a buddy system where you guys can support each other on that. And then number four is making sure it's actually showing up in your weekly plan. Now, you may have a number of routines that you want to get back into.

[00:11:28]
I would encourage you to just reintroduce one each week, and if it's one that is feeling really hard for you, you may need to sit on that one for a couple of weeks before you introduce a new one. All right, let's avoid that common pitfall of saying, I'm starting everything over from scratch, right? If you listen to last week's episode where I was talking about my disfavorable view of the phrase new Year, new you, this is kind of an alignment with that, right? We don't want to do that. I'm throwing everything away, and I'm starting over.

[00:12:02]
No, let's set ourselves up for success. Let's just get back into routines and habits in a calm, intentional, peaceful way that will actually set ourselves back up. All right, so here's what I would love for you to do. If you are realizing there are some routines that you need to get back into, I would love for you to come DM me and let me know. You can just find me at the outside.

[00:12:28]
Megan Sumrell, let me know which one routine you are bringing back in to your planning for this week. And, hey, maybe the routine for you might be doing your weekly planning. That's another great one to pick as well. All right, have a great week, and I'll see you guys back here again next week. Getting on top of all things time management, organization, and productivity doesn't have to stop just because this episode is over.

[00:12:56]
If you want one, tap access to all of my training and current top podcasts, go to the App Store or Google Play, and download The The Pink Bee asks one word The The Pink Bee. It is jampacked with simple yet powerful tips and strategies to get you out of overwhelm and into harmony. And if you have a question you want me to COVID on a future episode, go to iTunes and ask your question in the Podcast reviews section. And while you're there, don't forget to leave a five-star review.