Routines
““Never mistake motion for action.” -- Ernest Hemingway”
You have one.
Successful people have one.
Your favorite grifter has one.
Even your mom has one.
A routine.
But with all the opinions out there, is it even worth it?
On one hand, some say routines are pointless—but they often struggle to handle stress over time.
And on the other, some people turn their morning rituals into a borderline religion—and aren’t actually building anything meaningful.
So, which is it?
It’s both and neither.
Ugh, great.
No but seriously, your routine is meant for you to manage stress consistently.
That’s it — that’s all it’s there for.
For me, creating a healthy morning routine brought me out of a legitimately dark mental space — creating a solid foundation to make positive changes in my life.
However … I used to spend hours on my morning routine when I wasn’t working on anything meaningful — mental masturbation, tricking myself into feeling productive.
Then, when I finally got excited about work, I ditched routines completely and worked non-stop — until I burned out.
Okay … so if that doesn’t work either … what does?
Here’s what I learned:
- Start with experimentation, then develop efficiency.
- And if your routine prevents you from doing the work required, it’s a crutch.
It’s true that routines can get you in the right frame of mind and build momentum to take on the rest of the day — that’s fine.
But usually, adding a complex regiment can create unnecessary hurdles that just slow you down.
So, here’s how I built a routine that works:
- **Eliminate: **Start from scratch. Work backwards from the time you actually need to begin human maintenance (hygiene, commute, etc.).
- Guess: What activities do you think will help lower stress?
- Test: Try one activity for a period of time — a week to two weeks.
- Review: At the end of the week, check if it’s actually helping or holding you back.
- Remove: Eliminate activities that get in the way of work.
- Reuse: Stick to what helps you move forward sustainably.
There are plenty of different activities you can do for a morning routine, so I won’t list them to avoid information overload, but the important part is to experiment with:
- Result — did this help me manage stress this week? Y or N.
- Intensity — how much do I really need to do to achieve the result? Instead of 60 minutes —> 20 minutes?
- Frequency — how often? Instead of every day —> weekly?
Good habits aren’t bad, until you’ve over indexed on habits in place of progress.
Use your routine to manage stress and set the stage for meaningful work—not to avoid it.
— And, if you’ve added reading to your morning or evening routine, head over to readar.ai to find the right book for you to read next.
Keep Seeking,
Michael
readar.ai
