Embracing Routines for a Stress-Free Life

Setting routines is essential for a balanced and fulfilling life, especially as we approach 2025. In this episode, we explore the benefits of routines, including consistency, efficiency, and stress reduction, and share tips on creating and maintaining a successful routine. 

• Discussing the importance of routines for the new year 
• Identifying the mental, physical, and stress-relief benefits of routines 
• Exploring consistency and how it fosters healthy habits 
• Understanding efficiency in reducing decision fatigue 
• Highlighting focus and prioritization of important tasks 
• Sharing strategies for daily planning and time blocking 
• Emphasizing the need to celebrate small wins for motivation 
• Talking about breaking tasks into manageable steps 
• Reviewing and adjusting routines for ongoing effectiveness 
• Encouraging flexibility in schedule to accommodate life's unpredictability 

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Chapters

• 0:00 Benefits of Establishing Daily Routines
• 8:06 Breaking Down Tasks for Success

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

Hi, my name is Sherry and welcome to my podcast, silver T, and this episode is about routines. So 2025 is here and I fell ill the last couple of months into 2024. And during that time, I stopped doing a lot of my routines and now that I'm feeling better so thank God for that I'm feeling better I want to get back into routines, because they are so important and it added a level of stress free in my life. So I want to talk about some of the benefits of having routines in your life and maybe you might want to consider it for 2025. Stay tuned, welcome back. So we were talking about routines for 2025 and I want to talk about some benefits of having a routine and how they are beneficial to you on so many levels of mental, physical and stress. It's less stress and less decision fatigue. So let me talk about some of them. The first one I want to talk about is consistency.

Speaker 1: 1:45

Consistency A routine helps you build healthy habits. When you do something regularly, it becomes second nature, so routines turn into habits, healthy habits. You create these habits by starting with routines. Efficiency Knowing what you need to do and when to do it reduces decision fatigue and saves time. So a lot of times, when you know what to do, it's like things seem to go faster. When you know what you want to do, it's like driving to somebody's house for the first time and driving it feels like it takes forever to get there. It's because you've never been there before. Over time, you continue to drive. You'll notice that, wow, this is, I know where to turn. I know what light is, what light I want to be. Focus A structured schedule helps you prioritize tasks and focus on what's important. I don't know about you. I have a tendency to kind of go off down a rabbit hole and forget what I'm supposed to be focusing on. So I try to focus on what is most important to me before I go down, if I go down that rabbit hole.

Speaker 1: 3:26

Stress reduction Having a plan can reduce anxiety because you know what to expect and can prepare accordingly. So stress reduction is going to be something. Or let me say it this way you want less stress in your life, okay, so why not try to do things that will reduce your stress? So you do that by being prepared. You want to be prepared. You want to be prepared Like I like to get all of my. Be prepared like I like to get all of my my gym gear out at night, so in the morning I'm not running around looking for, oh no, what am I going to? What pants am I going to wear? Do I have any clean pants? You know, I would know that the night before. So I will, I will prepare. So that will be a part of stress reduction by preparing accordingly. So sometimes I like well, I do, I used to I was starting out by putting a lot of my exercises on my schedule because it seemed to.

Speaker 1: 4:40

It seems to bring a level of accountability when I see it on my calendar, because now do I have an excuse as to why I can't do it when there's obviously time to get it done? So, um, I put it on my schedule. So that's something you might want to do and and be ready for it. Do you know? You know that day you you might want to do and be ready for it, you know that day you're going to the gym. So get yourself together and you can go to the gym. So I want to touch on setting up a successful routine. How do you think you're going to build a successful routine?

Speaker 1: 5:22

Daily planning, and let me tell you, daily planning for me is like OK, I'm going to do my food, my meal planning for the day I am going to. That's going to reduce some decision fatigue, because I have started my day with figuring out what do I want to eat. So I write down my food and sometimes I actually plan out my meals for at least three days because I try not to, I try not to go past three days because I, after three days, I really don't want to eat that same food again. So I, I, after three days, I'm pushing it, but day one, day two, day three, I, I just I'm done. So sometimes I'll plan out my meals up to three days and that will help me with time, saving time and knowing that I have these ingredients in my refrigerator. So definitely like to do some daily planning.

Speaker 1: 6:34

Time blocking this is also this is still a part of building a routine for success Time blocking. Just like I talked about with the gym, I blocked out time to go to the gym, so I like to block out time for taking a walk. I like to block out time for if I decide I want to go somewhere and do something, spend time with my family, I'll block out time for that because sometimes I get. How can I say? I feel like I feel like I'm not always present like I should be. So I just said, you know what, let me not do that. So I would try to put things on my calendar to say, okay, I'm gonna go see mom on this day or go spend time with donna at her studio on this day, and I'll put time in there for that, because then, um, again, that level of accountability and you, you're blocking out time. So you see, you do have time and no excuse for why you're not doing it. Hi, I hope you are enjoying the podcast so far, and the way you can help my podcast is by hitting that subscribe button below and you'll be notified when I release new and exciting podcasts. Thank you and enjoy the rest of the podcast.

Speaker 1: 8:06

Break tasks down, okay. Divide larger tasks into smaller, manageable steps. This makes them less daunting and more achievable. Well, I agree with that. You want to do the small things to get to the big thing. So if you're planning on working on trying to, there's a program out there that I really like. It's called um, it's not I'm, it's not the name of it. I like the, the motto of this, this particular program and it's called food for your medicine, and I really do like that program. I discovered this program after after I've been through cancer and then then I ended up with diabetes afterwards. So so they sent me this thing saying make food your medicine. So let's break down the foods and figure out what it is that you're eating to control your A1C, so you can get rid of the medicine and the diabetes. So, breaking them down, breaking them down, your A1C comes down. Next thing you know you're off the medicine. No, diabetes comes down. Next thing you know you off the medicine no diabetes.

Speaker 1: 9:32

Celebrate your small wins. To take a moment to acknowledge and celebrate your achievements, no matter how small they are. This reinforces positive behavior and keeps you motivated. Yes, that is true, because I feel like when I celebrate those small wins, I feel good, I feel more confident, and it does, it does encourage these same type of behaviors, these. It helps you, it encourages positive behavior. So I I really feel good when I achieve a small goal Because, wow, I'm like, wow, I feel good, I don't have to worry about that. Today I'm done, I don't have to worry about today I did what I needed to do, so next, what's next? So, yes, celebrate your small wins, because they make you feel good, confident and they they encourage positive behavior. You reward yourself with positivity. So, yeah, keep keep doing that.

Speaker 1: 10:41

So break these goals down into smaller, manageable tasks. Down into smaller, manageable tasks. So don't forget to do that when you're breaking down, when you're creating your routines for 2025 and beyond. Prioritize, prioritize task, determine what tasks are most important and tackle them first. Yeah, so make sure, if you're looking at trying to eat to control a disease or lose weight, you're going to tackle the first thing you need to do, and that's probably let's look at what I'm eating every day and what kind of exercise am I doing. Let's tackle those. So, that way, the next step will come Create a schedule. That way, the next step will come. Create a schedule. Allocate specific times for each task. Be realistic about how long each task will take. Okay, I did talk about creating putting something on blocking out time. You block out time on your calendar. You see, you can do it. There's no reason why it's not done. Well, let me not say not done. There's no reason why you don't think you can do it. Or, if you thinking you don't have time for it when it is Look right there, it's on your calendar, it's there, so you can. You can go, do it. Stay flexible, life happens. Be prepared to adjust your schedule as needed. Now I don't want you to be too rigid when you're taking the time to create these steps for routine because, yeah, I know we get into a routine. You're just in a routine and something comes and knocks you whatever you had for that hour, knocks you right out of your schedule, and now you're kind of irritated and annoyed. And don't be too rigid. Life happens. You can do it again later, at a later date, or you can do it tomorrow, depending on what it was that came and disrupted your schedule. But don't be too rigid, because life does happen. So allow that to be a part of your mindset when you're creating these successful steps that you need. So just remember, don't be too hard on yourself. So stay flexible. So stay flexible. And the last thing you want to do, once you set these goals, these steps for creating a successful routine review and adjust Regularly. Review your routine to see what's working and what isn't. Make adjustments as necessary. Reason make adjustments as necessary. So I went, I decided I wanted to go to the gym, because I haven't been to the gym in a couple of months and I want again a routine I want to get back into because I was. I was out for um some, some medical reasons. I wasn't feeling good so I couldn't go to the gym like I normally do. So now I want to get back into the gym, but it's cold outside. Normally I go to the gym at five o'clock in the morning, but I'm not going out there and it's dark. I don't want to go out there when it's dark. It's dark and cold at the same time. So I decided let me go. Let me try to make it to the gym at um 10 o'clock. So I went to the gym at 10 o'clock and I get into the parking lot. Let me. The whole parking lot was full and I am driving around trying to find a parking spot. I'm like, who is at 10 o'clock in the morning? Who's here? Shouldn't you people be at work? So I get out and go into the gym and it was the retirees. They out there getting their workout on and I'm not mad at them, right? So why are you mad at them? That's an encouragement to me. So I decided I'm going to try to change the time that I go to the gym to maybe 11 o'clock. I think 11 o'clock I might go. So I'm going to see how the parking lot and gym is at that time. Is it going to be too crowded? Well, some people have already completed their workout and left and now starting to slow down. So I don't know. Or I might just stick with 10 o'clock because, honestly, even though the gym was crowded, the parking lot was crowded, the gym was not. I don't know where everybody was at, but they weren't in the park that I went in. So I might stick with 10 o'clock. So we'll see if. If it doesn't work, I can just adjust to another time. That that's, that's it. So I'll review and adjust. So, if you like what you heard, please hit that subscribe button, that follow button and that notification button and you'll be notified when I release new and exciting podcasts. So until next time, my listeners, you know what I always say early detection is the best detection. So please get your mammograms done. If you haven't got them done, get them done. If you got them done, schedule them for next year. So until next time, enjoy a nice cup of tea.