The Power of Routines: How to Boost Productivity and Simplify Your Life

Productivity expert and top management coach at Google, Laura Mae Martin, believes that productivity is not measured by time and the number of planned tasks. In her book "Uptime," she offers her own concept of working with plans.

"If there's one thing I've learned from conducting productivity workshops, coaching executives, and being a mother, it's that people love traditions and rituals."

An annual holiday tradition, a monthly movie night, a weekly favorite dish, or simply a bedtime ritual - such habits create a rhythm of our lives, and we can use it to our advantage.

A Duke University study showed that approximately 45% of our daily behavior is habits. Nowadays, there is a tendency to form habits (actions that occur without thinking) and abandon them, but I prefer to focus on creating routines. Skills require motivation, while routines are performed naturally.

If you start the week with the phrase: "I have to cook dinner every night," it seems like an impossible task, which you do not know how to approach. However, if we think in terms of guidelines: Monday - meatless, Tuesday - pasta, Wednesday - soup, Thursday - a new recipe, Friday - delivery, then the task seems not so scary. I narrow the scope of activity, and now I have a certain structure that helps to understand what to do. I still have creative freedom, I do not have to strictly adhere to this system: for example, on Tuesday I can cook noodles instead of pasta. Or, maybe the week will be particularly difficult, and on Thursday I will not have the strength to try a new recipe. But, as I said, even strict adherence to the schedule will help make cooking calmer.

Think about how routines can benefit your work and personal life. They contribute to the observance of daily settings, every day and every week organize the work process and schedule. When you have a task that you want to fit into your schedule, such as learning to play the piano, do not expect that you will choose a convenient time yourself and find a way to implement the task. Create a routine that will help you easily free up the necessary space.

Securing the Ritual

The biggest obstacle to productivity is placing a task on the to-do list without specifying the time when it should be completed.

I call routines the "when-then" principle. To implement a new behavior, we must create a trigger for it - otherwise it will remain an abstract task that we "were going to perform."

I have been playing the piano for 20 years, but I have a goal - to learn new pieces. If I signed up for lessons, I would have to attend them and be guaranteed to succeed. But since I had been studying with a teacher for over 10 years, I did not need new lessons - I could learn these pieces myself! I just needed time and an impetus to do it. For many people, this "when" never comes and turns into "I would really like to" or "I have been going to for a long time." Often, big goals, creative projects, and taking care of oneself move into the category of "I want to do." These are the things for which it is most important to decide "when," especially if they are always hanging in your main list.

Determining when to learn new pieces, I decided that it is best to do it in the evenings, because the children are asleep at this time and do not require attention (my piano, fortunately, is equipped with headphones). Next, I needed to find a "when" that would remind me of the need to practice. I decided that every evening, when I send the children to bed and leave my daughter's room (I put her to bed last), then I will immediately approach the piano. I applied the "Swiss cheese" technique: I reduced the task to a minimum action that seemed feasible to me. My only goal was to get out of the room and sit down at the piano.

At first, I just came, played an already familiar melody and left. Sometimes it took no more than five minutes. I did not allow myself to do anything else. Soon it became a habit. I behaved like my own assistant and put new notes in the morning, hoping that it would push me in the future (in the evening) to learn something new. Seeing the new notes, I sat down and learned a few bars. Sometimes I got bored, I played for 10 minutes and finished. And sometimes I noticed that a whole hour had already passed. My husband realized that I was going to play every evening, so he began to do his own thing immediately after the children went to bed, knowing that I would not watch a series with him or play a board game until I finished. It became a routine and entered the daily rhythm. Progress occurred only because I initially tied the new routine to putting the children to bed every evening.

The results of a study published in 2009 in the European Journal of Personal Psychology showed that the average time it takes for a new action to become automatic is 66 days. But when applying the "when-then" principle, this happens much faster. I, for example, had the same trigger every evening (the time of putting the children to bed).

"When-then" exercises work in any situation. As "when," you can choose a day of self-care, for example, Sunday. A sufficiently free approach will allow you to easily make a choice in favor of a simpler action (for example, paint your nails or take a bath) or a larger one (go to a spa!).

In the case of the piano, I started small, playing pieces that I already knew and loved, and as a result, I mastered new works. If I had started with unfamiliar music right away, it would have been much more difficult.

You can also choose a specific time, action, or trigger as "when." Perhaps you will be inspired by some of my routines:

• When the monthly meeting takes place - then I dedicate half an hour to making notes in the folder with a review of projects that I have been working on throughout the year (I wanted to do this monthly).
• When Monday comes - then I wash all the laundry in the house and leave it right on the bed so as not to go to bed until it is sorted.
• When the second Saturday of the month comes, then my husband and I go on a date with each other.
• When I go grocery shopping, then I hand over the waste to the recycling point next to the store.
• When dinner is almost ready - then I set a five-minute timer and ask the children to clean up toys and books before dinner.
• When Friday evening comes - then we eat pizza, the whole family plays a board game or watches a movie.
• When Tuesday comes - then my family and I adhere to the technology-free regime after dinner.
• When there is a week left before my birthday, then I plan all the necessary annual visits to the doctor, such as an eye check, etc.

Routines relieve you of chores, and the brain of overload, because you assign an exact time and place for them. I am not bothered by the thought that I need to wash the sofa cushions. I spend a minimum of energy and remember this only twice a year, because I assigned an exact time for this once every six months and trust my system. I do not catch myself thinking: "When did I last check my eyesight?" I know that it was last December, because it always happens a week before my birthday. Such sequences of actions and routines make life easier and more enjoyable.

Knots for Remembrance

You can also use the "when-then" association as a mnemonic "knot for remembrance." For example, I lie in bed at night before leaving and remember that I forgot to put some thing in the suitcase. I imagine how in the future (in the morning) I perform an action that I know for sure I will perform at this time, and then I immediately see how I from the future remember that I need a charger for the phone. I repeat to myself several times: "When I take the keys off the hook, then I will remember that I need a charger for the phone." The next morning, when I go for the keys, the association will be so strong that the image of the charger will arise in my head. Tying one object to another guarantees that you will not forget about it. I invented this way of remembering things, use it almost every day and taught it to others.

The "when-then" method can also be used when you need to decide where to place things in the house or in the storage system. Suppose you do not know where to store the cassette. Imagine that it is lost, and the first place where it seems reasonable to look for it is the place where you should store it. Imagine that a roommate says to you: "I can't find the cassette, do you know where it is?" What is the first place that comes to your mind? 

This should be the place where you keep it! Your brain will make the connection, and you will use it to your advantage to put the cassette in its natural place.

Starting Monday!

To make life easier, you can take advantage of the Monday effect. In his book " টাইমহাকিং," Daniel Pink talks about how to avoid a false start by using the power of temporal landmarks to start all over again.

This can be Monday, the first day of the month, the first day of a new job, or the first day of a new year. Our brains are wired to perceive such dates as days of new beginnings. You will have a much better chance of adhering to a new routine if you implement it on Monday, and not on Thursday or Friday.

Introducing routines into your schedule and using the "when-then" model relieves the stress and anxiety associated with having to remember to complete tasks. It helps you find the time and place to do what we wanted to do "one fine day." By performing routines and maintaining a rhythm, you are less distracted and create more space for yourself to do what you want and what you need to do.