The Beauty of Routines for Simple Living

What comes to your mind when you hear about routines?

Something mundane, boring? Or are you one of those people who loves routines? For a long time, I used to consider myself as someone who thrived without routines. But as I grew older, the positive impact of knowing in advance what to do with my time duly amazed me. Now I can firmly say that I schedule parts of my days with an enthusiasm that even Monica Geller would have approved of.

The reason why I swear by this practice is that it has made following my simple living lifestyle so much more achievable.

Before I write about how routines help in simple living, let’s look at a few basics.

Routine vs Ritual

A routine is a habitual practice, a list of “to-do”s that we repeat over and over. A ritual, in contrast, is a sequence of behaviors that are performed with a zealous effort. Usually, rituals are part of the routines in our lives.

For example, I go to a writers’ meet every Friday evening. That’s a part of my weekly routine. This meet takes place at a local coffee shop and every Friday I arrive 15 minutes before the stipulated time, get a coffee and spend some time reading a book. This is a ritual that is part of my afore-mentioned routine.

The word routine dates back to the 1670s and has its roots in French vocabulary.

What to put in a routine?

Well, almost anything actually. Usually, routines comprise of repetitive tasks. Also, routines are interchangeably used with schedules and refer essentially to the same thing in common parlance.

You can make routines out of anything that you do. And that’s the beauty of it. Morning routine, getting dressed for work routine, pre-workout routine- you name it and you can have it.

But I am sure you know all of that. Let’s talk about how it works in the context of simple living.

Routines and Simple Living

The basic premise of simple living is to have a lifestyle that is devoid of frills and intentional. Having a routine helps in achieving that in the following ways-

Takes out any potential decision fatigue when it comes to the everyday, dull but essential activities that we all have.
Keeps us mentally prepared in advance about our tasks.
It helps us make use of our time efficiently. After all, we all have the same 24 hours in our day, what changes is how we spend that time.

Routines that Helped Me

So, here are the routines that I currently practice in the context of my endeavor to have a simple lifestyle.

Weekly Cleaning Routine

A cleaning routine is the most common one that you will encounter while reading about this topic. And there is a reason for its popularity. They are nothing short of wonderful.

I have a fairly minimalist lifestyle and thus the cleaning required around my house is quite straight-forward. And even then, I have a schedule of what I have to do on which day of the week. Mondays are for vacuuming and dusting, Tuesdays are for laundry and so on.

Because I know what chores I need to do on which day, I can easily plan for that and get it over with as soon as I have the time to. For someone who is a bit prone to procrastination, this is the miracle solution.

Daily Work Routine

When I started working from home, one of my major worries was to be able to be productive in the home environment. Lapses happen sometimes, in spite of my self-disciplined behavior. And these slips end up impacting my rest of the day and sometimes the following day as well.

Having both a time table that dictates the periods where I should be working and a sort of to-do list that outlines the tasks that I must be done helps me to have streamlined workdays. Needless to say, this also ups my productivity.

Simple Living is all about being intentional with our actions and having a work routine is an efficient way to implement that, especially when being self-employed or working from home as a freelancer.

Meal Planning Routine

After reading numerous blog articles and watching videos vouching for its effectiveness, I recently started meal planning. And I can safely say that I am a convert after only a month of doing so. Pre-planning the family meals has not only saved me from being lost in the grocery store’s produce section but also reduced my procrastination time before cooking dinner.

Every Sunday evening I take out my trusted notebook and pen and jot down the next week’s meal plan. Once I have that in place, I create a list of items I need to buy from the store for that week’s grocery shopping. And voila- 15 minutes of planning saves me so much time over the course of the week.

I love to cook but I do not enjoy the process of deciding what to cook every time I am in my kitchen. Having a meal planning routine has simplified that part for me.

What to Wear Routine

This is an interesting one. When I first read about the fact that some people like Zuckerberg wear similar attire every day, it amazed me. While I am no genius like him, I found the daily task of choosing a nice outfit every morning quite tedious when I worked my corporate job. And as an HR, I had to look presentable and put-together always. I knew that 5 TShirts of the same color won’t do for me.

So I came up with a color scheme plan like below-

Mondays- White/Grey/Off White
Tuesdays- Pink/Orange/Red
Wednesdays- Green
Thursdays- Yellow
Fridays- Blue

And this worked brilliantly for me. Getting dressed now required choosing between an orange or a pink blouse.

Looking back, I can say that this color scheme routine was my first foray into the world of simple living.

Adapt Routines to Simplify your Life

Give this strategy a try if you want to have a slightly more smooth sailing day in your life. Maybe start off with something very basic like a morning routine. A lot of people follow those and reap huge benefits out of them. Afterall there is a certain solace in sometimes being on the autopilot mode and not having to worry about what tasks to tackle next.

Try it and maybe you will find simplicity

Till then, Peace.

Do you have any related experience or story to tell? Please share in the comments below. I would love to hear from you.