Do you ever feel like life is just hard? Things always seem to be going against you, and you never seem to be able to catch a break from it. 

Well, guess what, life doesn’t feel hard because you’re failing. It feels hard because everything requires decisions, and decisions take a lot of energy to make. But there’s a way to make life feel easier, and that is through the introduction of invisible support systems… or as most people like to call them: routines. 

The word ‘routine’ might invoke a lot of worry in your mind. You might picture 5am miracle morning wake-ups or 18-step skincare programmes. But this isn’t that. Done correctly, there are a few daily routines you can inject into your day which will make life feel easier. 

This is perfect if you’re feeling overwhelmed, mentally cluttered, or constantly ‘behind’. This isn’t about keeping you busy and stuck to a tight schedule. It’s about creating automated support systems that take away the energy-zapping decision-making and make life flow a lot easier. 

By the end of this post, you’ll understand why routines help and have practical routines that you can start today to make your life feel a whole lot easier. And you will understand that you don’t need more motivation, you just need fewer decisions. 

What Are Daily Routines Really?

We’ve all heard of daily routines. You might see influencers on social media talking about the rigid exercise routines that helped them get washboard abs. Or after a quick scroll on LinkedIn, you’ve probably come across some numpty that swears blind their 4am wake-up is the root of all their success (it might be, but just do it in silence, yeah?)

But all this does is make us feel like we’re not doing enough. And let’s face it, these routines aren’t realistic for the average person. If you have a 9-5, or a partner that doesn’t want to wake up at 4am (hello, they can hear your alarm too!), or children that take up a lot of your time, you’re just not going to be able to do these things. Therefore, the whole idea of a ‘routine’ feels unattainable.

So, let’s rewire what the word routine actually means. It doesn’t mean schedule, for starters. Routines are simple, repeatable actions that we (mostly) subconsciously perform throughout the day. And guess what? Whether you realise it or not, you’re already IN a routine. Just not the one that’s optimal for making your life easier. Routines are supposed to be energy protectors. Those quick, quiet actions that just get things done without you realising it. Like brushing your teeth in the morning, or making a cup of tea.

Why Daily Routines Make Life Feel Easier

Here we’ll cover all the reasons why introducing some constant daily routines in your life will make your life flow so much better, removing that decision fatigue, and allowing you to feel more energised. 

Routines Reduce Decision Fatigue 

This has been mentioned a few times now. Essentially, if you have a routine rehearsed and repeated constantly, you don’t have to think about it. Knowing that you generally perform ABC task at roughly XYZ time means you don’t have to make a decision about it. You just do it.

They Lower Baseline Stress

Think about when you’re making a new meal using a recipe you’ve never used before. You might have instructions in front of you, but the new recipe is unpredictable, and you’re not 100% sure what comes next, because you’ve never done it before. You’ll likely feel on edge, nervous, have heightened senses, and perhaps feel a bit overstimulated. 

Now think about when you’re making a meal that you’ve cooked hundreds of times before. You know what comes next. You know when to put the pasta on to boil. You know how much smoked paprika to add. Everything feels effortless because it’s familiar. And the likely result is that the dish is perfect. 

Predictability might seem boring, but it calms the nervous system. Building routines into your life that you can rely on is going to make you feel more peaceful and in control. That doesn’t mean you can’t have any spontaneity in your life, but you can apply this to other, more fun areas, like holidays, days out, and birthday presents. Not what you’re having for dinner that night. 

They Create Momentum Without Motivation

The good thing about most routines is that they’re pretty mindless. You don’t need to want to ‘feel like it’. You just know it needs to be done. You know exactly how to do it, and you don’t need to think about it. Therefore, you can push the needle forward, making your life feel easier, more organised and more productive without actually using much mental capacity.

They Make Hard Days Softer

If you have solid routines in place, helping to shape your day, it doesn’t matter if something else comes up, because your day already has a strong structure holding it in place. If you have a daily small cleaning routine, and your Mum, Dad, Brother, Sister, Neighbour [or insert any other person] decides to show up unannounced, you know your home is going to be clean and tidy, all thanks to your little cleaning routine, which takes no time at all. 

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How to Create Daily Routines That Actually Stick

Before we launch into all of the daily routines that you could implement into your life, we need to first clarify that none of these routines are better than the other, and if you already have a routine similar to any of these that suit your current life or situation better, then absolutely stick to what you already know. These daily routines are designed to make your life easier, be easy to stick to, and reduce your decision-making throughout the day so that you can focus your energy on other areas of your life. 

Start Small

Implementing 1-2 new routines in your life is still going to make a big impact, but it will be easier to maintain than trying to start them all at once. Then, as you start to become more comfortable with these new routines, you can slowly add more. 

Anchor Routines to Existing Habits

If you haven’t heard of the term ‘anchoring’ before, it essentially means using an existing habit to assist you in leaping to the next (new) one. Anchoring helps tie your routines together in a way that makes sense, and help you start a new habit or routine whilst still keeping the familiarity of the existing one.

You can anchor something by saying ‘after [current existing habit] I will [enter new habit]’. E.g. after I brush my teeth, I will go and pack my lunch for the day. Doing this makes it easier to maintain the new habit because it’s tied to something you already do. 

Build Routines Around Energy, Not Time

Sometimes, when we’re making plans, we forget a couple of things. 

1. This routine is actually for you, not some mystery person. Have you met you? You’re not suddenly going to change overnight because your new routine says so, so make sure you’re putting a routine together that you know your current self will actually be able to stick to. 
2. How we’re going to feel in the actual moment. If you’re creating a new evening routine, remember that you’re sometimes tired in the evening and find it hard to get motivated after you’ve eaten dinner, so don’t start planning a 10K run for every evening, because you won’t do it, and then you’ll feel like you failed. If you build routines that are busier when your energy is higher, and then more chill when your energy is lower, you’re more likely to stick to them. 

Give Yourself Permission to Change Them

With the best intentions in the world, we sometimes don’t do what we think we’re supposed to do. Or sometimes, something happens which thwarts our plans, and means we have to pivot. Occasionally, we create routines or plans that we think are going to work well, only to start living them in the real world and realise that they’re not working! All of this is absolutely fine, normal, and human. Give yourself permission to change a routine if you feel it doesn’t work for you. 

Daily Routines That Make Life Feel Easier

Now that we’ve discussed what routines actually are, how they make life easier and how to create habits that actually stick, we will move on to the various daily routines that you can start introducing into your life that are going to make your life feel easier and less overwhelming.

These daily routines aren’t set in stone. They’re designed to cover most bases of average life, to ensure you have the basics covered, and they’re more like guidelines that you can apply to your life to fit your needs and wants. Routines aren’t about discipline. They’re about reducing friction and allowing automation into your life so you can start worrying about the important things, rather than ‘do I have a clean outfit to wear tomorrow?’. 

Morning Routines

Everyone has a morning routine, whether they realise it or not. Some people choose chaos and stress in the morning, and some people choose peace and preparation. Proper morning routines are designed to reduce mental noise, start your day positively and ease you into the day gently. 

Depending on who you are, people tend to have weaker decision-making skills first thing in the morning, particularly when it comes to anything that involves discipline. Who wants to run in the cold for 30 minutes when you could stay tucked up in your warm bed, right? If you leave that decision until the morning, you’ll likely not do it. 

So, create a routine that flows nicely for you, fits within the time parameters you have, and provides you with as much quiet, reflective time as possible. Even 5-10 minutes is more than most people give themselves here, and it makes all the difference. 

Here is an example morning routine that you can fit to your schedule and preferences, which will give you a great start to the day:

• First and foremost, set your alarm for 15 minutes earlier than you usually do. This extra 15 minutes is going to be a reward for you in the morning, and that reward is peace and a stress-free environment, giving you time to eat, get hydrated and get ready without feeling like you’re fighting for your life the whole time. Yes, 15 extra minutes is all it takes
• When you wake up, instead of springing out of bed, stare at the ceiling for 60 seconds (not your phone). This allows you a small amount of time for reflection about the day ahead, and allows you to ease into the day
• Get out of bed and open the curtains or blinds (if it’s daylight outside). If it’s not, do the next best thing and turn on the big light (yes, the dreaded big light). This will help to regulate your circadian rhythm, signalling to your brain that it’s daytime, and helping with alertness
• Go to your kitchen and get yourself a big glass of water, and boil the kettle for a hot drink, whether that’s tea or coffee. Make your breakfast too. Sit down and actually eat it calmly
• Whilst you’re sitting down, after you’ve eaten, review your schedule for the day – whether that’s looking at your calendar, or reading through your priorities in your notes app. Don’t have any priorities for the day written down? Take the time to make some now. A lot of people advise against checking their calendars in the morning, but this actually gives you more time to mentally prepare, problem-solve, and plan
• Next, do one thing for your future-self – whether that’s taking something out of the freezer to defrost for later, unloading the dishwasher, or loading some laundry into the washing machine. This thing should take less than 5 minutes, but free up some of your mental load for later instead of worrying all day, ‘oh crap, what are we gonna do for dinner tonight?’

Next, continue with the rest of your morning as usual: brush your teeth, shower, and get dressed. But your day has already started on a much calmer, more organised and more helpful start. And the best part? Everything above should take no longer than 30 minutes, but the positive impact of it will ripple through the rest of the day. 

This is the amazing thing about routines. We put so much weight on them, but they don’t have to be complicated or long; they just need to be smart and low-maintenance. 

Midday Routines

The midday routine isn’t about changing your life; it’s about preventing burnout. Midday is around the time that our morning energy has worn off, we start getting a little tired, and decision-fatigue starts to set in. What we need at this time is a little midday reset routine. Here are the things you might want to check:

• Am I hungry, thirsty, or mentally overstimulated? This can be fixed or at least alleviated very quickly and easily. Grab a big glass of water, get yourself something to eat, and get some fresh air, or at least away from your workstation for 15 minutes. Ideally, not on your phone
• Review your to-do list: What have you accomplished already, and what still needs to be done? Do you have enough time in the day to complete the rest of your list, or do you need to reprioritise for the day? Rewrite the ‘new’ list if necessary
• Perform a ‘micro-tidy’: clean up your desk and wash up after lunch. This isn’t cleaning. It’s just making sure that you have a blank canvas when you finish work

The above isn’t designed to be excessive. It’s just there to ensure you remain energised and that you take a break. Sometimes, we can forget how effective a break and a re-evaluation can be. It also makes the second half of your day feel easier and more organised.

Evening Routines

Evening routines are designed for two things: to help you mentally and physically wind down for bed so that you can be your best self tomorrow, and to help you be more organised for the next day. It shouldn’t require willpower. It should just be a series of actions that are easy to perform. Our focus here should be on 3 things: 

1. Closing the day mentally
2. Resetting your environment for tomorrow
3. Signalling rest

Closing The Day

This particular element of the routine is designed to put your mind at ease about what the day looked like for you. Now isn’t the time to start trying to cram in your goals. It’s about evaluating what you did do, what you didn’t, and writing out a plan of action for tomorrow. Making some quick notes on your phone or in your calendar is fine, and shouldn’t take more than 5 minutes whilst you sit on the sofa with a cup of tea. This quick action will stop you spiralling at 3am. 

Resetting Your Environment

Do you know what’s worse than doing the dishes right now? Doing them in the morning when you’re trying to find your coffee mug and your breakfast bowl has last night’s spaghetti in it. Resetting your environment in the evening doesn’t mean you need to do a full house clean. Instead, it’s about ensuring things are put back where they belong, and you’re not wasting your morning routine dealing with issues that should have been fixed yesterday. 

A great way to reset your environment and prepare for the morning tomorrow is to:

• Load the dishwasher or do the washing up (5-10 minutes)
• Pack your bag for the next day / prepare your lunch (10 minutes)
• Pick your clothes for tomorrow (5 minutes)

This little routine takes 20-30 minutes but saves you tonnes of stress and chaos in the morning, and starts your day off on the right foot. 

Signalling Rest

This part is a bit more personal and depends on your preferences, but try to curate an evening ritual that signals to your body and mind that it’s time to ‘wind down’. 

This could be having a bath and putting on comfy clothes or pyjamas. It could be making a herbal tea or hot chocolate, turning the lights down and reading a book, or it could be getting under a blanket and watching a movie. 

Try to avoid doing anything stressful, or anything that crashes your dopamine (like scrolling on your phone). This little routine, if done every night, will start signalling to your body and mind that it’s almost time for bed, and you may find yourself falling asleep faster and having a more restful night’s sleep. 

Weekly Planning Routines

I know what you’re thinking: ‘this isn’t a daily routine,’ and you would be correct. But this weekly planning ritual helps support your daily goals, so I couldn’t leave this post without including it.

To do a weekly plan, set aside 60 minutes. Yes, it may feel like a lot, but this is going to save potentially hours during the week, and most importantly, it’s going to make each day of the week so much easier. 

We want to break this weekly planning routine into 4 blocks. Give them roughly 15 minutes each. 

• Calendar & Appointments
• Meal & Food Planning
• Home Reset
• Setting Priorities

Calendar & Appointments

• Check your calendar for the upcoming week, and make sure you add any appointments or meetings that aren’t already there
• Flag anything in your calendar that needs preparation beforehand – like report meetings, having people over for lunch, sending birthday cards, etc. 

Meal & Food Planning

• Decide what dinners you’re having this week
• Check your freezer and fridge to see what you’re running low on
• Write a shopping list so next time you’re near a supermarket, you don’t have to think about what you need

Home Reset

This isn’t deep cleaning, this is just resetting your home to ‘neutral’ so that deep cleaning feels easier

• Put a load of laundry on
• Empty the bins
• Wipe down key areas like the kitchen and living room
• Quickly hoover high footfall areas – these get grubby quickly

Setting Priorities

• Make a little list of things you absolutely need to get done this week, but do not overwhelm yourself. 3 priorities (maximum) priorities are perfect
• Take some time to reflect on what matters most this week, and what would make this week successful. You can write this down, too if you want, but if that’s not your thing, just setting the intention in your brain is enough

What If Routines Feel Hard or Trigger Resistance

Picking up any new routine is going to feel challenging at first. It’s new to your life, and the habit of doing certain things isn’t ingrained yet. 

If you feel anxious, burned out, or have any ADHD tendencies, it may feel very difficult, or even impossible, to pick up a new routine and stick to it. So if you’re struggling with a routine on any particular day, remember firstly that just because there is some resistance, it doesn’t mean routines are not for you, and that you always have to live in chaos. You just need to prove yourself wrong a few times first, and that takes just a tiny bit of discipline to do the hard thing. Once you’ve performed your new routines enough times, they will start to feel like second nature, and you will start trusting yourself more to do different things. 

Secondly, if you are someone who always places your identity around your abilities or lifestyle, try to reframe it. Every time you fail, you might usually tell yourself, ‘well I knew that was going to happen, because I’m someone who just has no discipline.’ Instead of doing this, talk to yourself more positively: ‘I’m someone who might struggle to do hard things at first, but I always push through for myself’. This isn’t kidding yourself. It’s letting yourself know that you might be someone for whom this doesn’t come naturally, but that you believe in yourself enough to make it happen. 

How To Choose the Right Routines for Your Life

At the start of this post, I mentioned that picking up 1-2 new routines might be best to start with. But how do you know which is the right routine for you?

Start by asking yourself a couple of key questions:

In what aspect of my life do I feel most overwhelmed?

Do you run late to work every day? Are you always feeling burnt out at lunch time with a massive slump in the middle of the day? Do you struggle to wind down at night? And if you feel all of these types of emotions, which ones are strongest and need addressing first?

What would make tomorrow 10% easier?

Would it be better if you had packed your lunch for work the night before? Would it feel easier if you had a bit of time to yourself in the morning to relax and eat breakfast before the day starts?

If you start to notice a pattern of where you struggle the most, then this is where you need to start.

Final Thoughts

If you’ve always struggled to implement structured daily routines that make life easier, then one key thing to remember is that your life doesn’t need fixing. These routines are there to support you, not to make you feel bad. They’re acts of self-trust, and make the day flow more smoothly. Things don’t have to be perfect for you to ‘start’. Just make a couple of changes today that will impact tomorrow positively, even if it makes tomorrow only 1% better. That 1% over time will compound and improve your life exponentially. 

If you want some help with setting routines, check out this printable planner.