Routines for success!

What system could you set up which you could do everyday that would take you small steps closer to what you want to achieve?

For the past 2 weeks I have been on Jury service and this has completely knocked me out of my normal routine; I have to go somewhere different, with different people. I have none of my normal infrastructure and as a result my ability to get things done has dramatically dropped. I have to be honest; I was feeling pretty down about it last week as everything was taking twice as long. I couldn’t go to the gym as often, I couldn’t check my emails, I couldn’t even get a cup of tea when I normally had one.

This got me thinking about routines and how once we are in a routine it requires very little conscious effort to do the thing we need to do as we are almost on autopilot. A good example is getting to work in the morning: How often do you arrive at work feeling like you’re still asleep? But in reality you have done a significant amount of things to get to work: You got up, had a wash, chose your outfit for the day, had breakfast, left the house, drove or got on public transport, found your way to work, and then arrived with very little conscious effort or thought. That’s an amazing amount of actions and process you have gone though. To allow your morning routine of getting to work to go so smoothly you have other routines which support this routine. An example is that you might do all your washing and ironing over the weekend so everything is ready for the morning so you don’t have to think ‘what am I going to wear?’

We all have routines; routines at home, routines at work, routines with our family and loved ones.

What I am interested in is forming routines for your success. If you follow the steps below you will be well on the way to setting up your own routine for success!

First thing would be to identify your goal. Do you want to speak another language? Learn a musical instrument? Get promoted? Change job? Gain a better work life balance?

Once you have identified this goal think about how you will know when you have achieved it. So if you want to get promoted, think about the exact point at which you will know that you have achieved this goal. It could be the first day in your new role, for example.

Now think about how you will feel when you have achieved this goal. Picture the exact moment when you know you have achieved it and imagine how that would feel. So, keeping our example of the goal being promotion at work, how fantastic would it feel that all your hard work has paid off?

Now think about when you want to have achieved this goal. In a month? 6 months? 1 year?

Now work backwards from the date you have set for achieving that goal and think what you could do everyday that would take you one step closer to that goal. Make a list of all the possible things you could do.

Now pick from that list the things you are going to do. So, how can you integrate these actions into your existing routine or do you need to create a new routine?

Now once you have set up this routine you need to stick with it until it becomes part of your normal activity. Then it will stop being a conscious effort and just become something else that you do.

Congratulations, you have raised your performance by setting up a routine for success! Why not think about starting up another?

To your continued success

Joseph Smart

www.career-and-development-coaching.com