Developing a daily routine can help us to feel more in control and help us to make room for all that is important in our lives. Routine can aid our wellbeing and help us to cope with change, form healthy habits, and reduce our stress levels.
Routine can be an anchor. The certainty of a routine can help us to manage the uncertainty that life can often evoke. Coping with unpredictable periods of time can feel more feasible when we have a little structure in place to guide us through it.
Having a daily routine can help to reduce our stress levels. When we have a routine, a lot of the things we do day-to-day slot into place and we don’t consciously have to think about them. For example, we don’t have to remember to clean our teeth, because we know from habit that cleaning our teeth comes after breakfast every day. Routine can take some of the guesswork and uncertainty out of our day, which can allow us to feel more in control and less stressed.
Having a routine can help us to cultivate positive daily habits and prioritise self-care. Organising our time gives us the opportunity to make space for things that are important to us and can help reinforce a sense of meaning in our life. Routine can allow us to create daily habits that help us with our wellbeing, such as exercising first thing in the morning or scheduling time to relax at the end of he day. When these routines become a regular part of our day, it is much easier to maintain them because we have the time to do them and they become our ‘new normal’.
One of the things that having a regular routine can really help with, is sleep. Sleep is really important for our mental and physical health, going to bed and waking up at a similar time most days allows our body to repair and regulate itself. By having a regular sleep routine, especially if we build in some time to wind down before we go to bed, we should begin to find it easier to fall asleep, stay asleep, and wake up rested and refreshed. It may also prevent future sleep problems. Why not visit the Sleepstation website for useful tips and information to help promote rest and relaxation https://www.sleepstation.org.uk/articles/
Creating a routine allows us to build in time for the important things in our lives. There are always going to be days when something overruns, a job takes twice as long as we expect it to, or someone arrives unexpectedly. But structuring our time to include some downtime increases the likelihood that we’ll manage to have that time most days. Downtime will mean something different to each of us, it might be spending time with loved ones, playing and bonding with a pet, or simply sitting and reading for a while. For many of us, it will be something else entirely, our daily routines are individual to us.
The predictability of routine can offer some comfort in an otherwise unpredictable world. We have to be a little bit careful not to get stuck in our routines so as not to cause us stress, or stop us from doing the things that we want to do. As long as we are finding our routines helpful and feel able to flex and change them as our life changes, they can be a great thing to build on and develop over time.
Check out Dr. Travis Bradberry's '11 Tips to Transform Your Morning Routine and Make Your Entire Day More Productive'
Steve Race
Manager - Student Wellbeing Service