How to Organize Your Daily Routine for Effective Healthy Habits
This post may contain affiliate links, which means I’ll receive a commission if you purchase through my link at no extra cost to you.
The secret to a fresh start? Getting organized with your daily habits and routines!
Whether you are looking to make changes in your physical health, mental health, relationship or financial goals - it ALWAYS comes down to what your day to day life looks like.
Why a daily routine
In this post, we will discuss how to organize your daily routine for effective habits that will help you reach your goals.
I know you may have clicked on this post hoping to finally get a handle on that elusive work-life balance everyone talks about. However, if there is one thing I’ve learned on my own journey to a more peaceful and organized life - it's that balance does NOT exist.
In order to set realistic expectations, it's important to understand that we can never do all things equally. My goal in this blog post is to help you come up with an action plan with achievable goals for your own daily routine. I know you have a busy life and an intentional daily routine will change everything!
I encourage you to understand that it's not about perfection. Instead, I hope this post helps you create daily habits that are in alignment with your long-term goals. Learning to prioritize the most important tasks that have a positive ripple effect on your life is life changing!
Bottom line - if you don’t even know what your goals are, its really hard to create a good daily routine!
Step 1: Separate the NEED, NICE, and NUTS to-do’s.
When I was in nursing school, my pharmacology teacher taught me a life skill that I have carried with me since hearing it for the first time.
Pharmacology is notorious for being the most difficult course in nursing school, for good reason.
Her solution was to break down the info on each medication into what was NEED, NICE, and NUTS to know.
When it comes to planning your to-do list - let’s take the same approach!
What do you NEED to do? These are the most important daily tasks and additional recurring tasks that need to be part of your daily habits. You may need to show up for certain meetings, feed your family, take a walk outside (yes, self-care/healthy habits should absolutely be on your NEED list) - figure out what you NEED to do and start there!
What would be NICE to do? These might be smaller tasks that make life easier or more enjoyable, but not absolutely necessary. As much as I enjoy making my bed - the world is not going to fall apart if I skip it one day!
What would be NUTS to do? Your nuts activities are things you could fit into your day, but should ONLY be done if you have EXTRA time/energy for them.
Let’s be honest, some days are just about getting through the day and that’s where you need to know how to prioritize and spend your time wisely!
The first thing you want to do when creating your daily schedule is to prioritize the NEED to do tasks and work from there. These are your non-negotiables that will have the greatest positive impact on reaching your goals. And they need to go on your calendar.
Step 2: Time Management - Creating your schedule
When it comes to creating your daily schedule, there are 2 very important techniques that make creating good habits easy. You can apply both of these simple habits to personal and business life.
Time blocking
Reset routines
For the exact organizational tools and resources I use to stay organized, check out this blog post on How I Organize My Life.
Time blocking
A quick google search will give you thousands of articles and videos on time-blocking, but the concept is pretty simple. I’ve found it's truly the best way to structure my calendar.
Time blocking your day means taking blocks of time (anywhere from 15 minutes to 4 hours) and focusing your energy on one task/theme during that time. For example, blocking off time to make all your phone calls and answering emails without interruptions creates efficiency.
The most successful people use this technique to limit distractions and focus on deep work.
If you want to have a productive day, I highly recommend creating time blocks throughout your day!
Reset Routines
In a nutshell, your reset routines are personal tasks you repeat on a daily, weekly, and monthly basis. It is a great way to create consistency with your workouts, healthy eating/meal planning, household tasks, and personal goals.
You can also create reset routines to start and end your work day. I always start my day looking at my google calendar. I end my work day by time blocking for the next day.
Getting in the habit of starting and ending your day with a set routine is life changing! These types of routines are an integral part of my daily life and I would be lost without them.
You can learn more about creating your own reset routines here:
I’m a big believer in using your morning routine to tackle the most important things first. Your self-care is the most important part of your day and the best morning routines prioritize things like a workout, a healthy breakfast, and review of your daily priorities.
Daily Schedule Template
Here’s an example of what an ideal day of reset routines/time blocking looks like for me.
Keep in mind my morning routine includes things like emptying the dishwasher, throwing in a load of laundry, making breakfast, feeding the kids (and dog), driving the kids to school, making the bed, etc.
Within each reset routine there are recurring tasks - many of them taking less than 2 minutes each, but having a positive effect on the rest of the day.
5am-730am: Morning Routine
730am- 830am: Workout + Breakfast
830am-9am: Shower
9am-10am: Walk dog (I run my robot vacuum while we are on our walk)
10am-12pm: Business Hours (Blog Post)
12pm-1230pm: lunch
1230pm-1pm: quick clean-up + household chores
1pm-130pm: 1-1 client meeting
130-4pm: Business Hours (Blog Post)
4pm-6pm: pickup kids from activities, make dinner
6pm-7pm: dinner and clean-up
7pm-10pm: Evening Routine and family time
The secret to your success is found in your daily calendar. Good routines are the heart and soul of creating realistic plans that help you reach your goals in all aspects of life.
I hope you found this post helpful in creating your own personal daily routine for healthy habits. Make sure to check out the Feel Your Best Formula Podcast for more useful tips on topics like this!
