Habits or Routines… Which Do You Need?

 Habits or Routines to Be More Productive and Intentional

As I am writing this post it is Wednesday, October 30th, in the year 2024 and there are only 61 days remaining in this year. This got me to thinking about how we can all be a lot more intentional and productive in our life and for our business, and in ways that will make a difference for us and for those around us. Are you developing habits or routines that will benefit you now and over time?

Where are you going and where have you been?

Are you creating a schedule for each day, based on your to-do list from the previous day? Our to-do lists can be a mile long and make us feel that we aren’t accomplishing very much each day. But on closer examination, you will most likely discover that you did tackle and complete, or at least make progress on the one or two items of greatest importance on yesterday’s to do this.

So no, this is what I want you to do…

Take a look at your to-do list from today. Think of each item on this list and decide if it is something you no longer wish or need to do, if it is something that can be delegated to someone else to do, if it can be postponed until a later date, or if it is something you must do yourself today.

The goal is to choose no more than four items for today and then move these things from your to-do list over to today’s schedule. I combine personal and business tasks and activities, so for today my schedule consists of writing an email message to send to my list of subscribers, answering an email from someone I am an affiliate for, and accompanying a family member to a doctor’s appointment.

I do not include things like brushing my teeth, turning on my computer, or refilling my water bottle, as these are things that have become habits, even though they are a part of my morning routine.

Now, I want you to think about the difference, in your mind, between habits and routines. I have a writing routine I use for my blog posts, and a different routine for the movie script I am currently working on. The routine I have recently created for writing and publishing blog posts is one that I hope to soon turn into a habit, while my script writing routine will most likely remain as a routine until I become more confident with this style of writing.

What are your goals for the next 30 days? Write them down and then look to see if you will need both a routine and habits to make these tasks and activities come to fruition. The answer depends upon what you have been doing on a daily or regular basis in each of these areas.

For example, beginning in 2020 I got into the habit of eating with a focus on intermittent fasting. I did not have to think each morning about what I was going to eat because I already knew the period of time I would be eating and exactly what I was going to eat that day.

At the beginning of 2024 I let my intermittent fasting practice go, and with it the powerful and effective habits I had cemented in my thinking during those previous four years.

Now I have gone back to intermittent fasting as a way of life, so I needed to create a new routine that would work well for me. Because I had done this four years ago, there was some “muscle memory” that kicked in, but it was still like starting at the very beginning. In some ways, I am grateful for this fresh start. I am choosing the foods I eat and the time of day I will be eating them with the knowledge I did not possess years ago.

Now I’ll share with you an example from my business. Over the past fifteen years or so, I have created more than fifty products and courses to teach and sell in my business. At some point, I stopped creating anything new and simply began teaching new “seasons” of my most popular courses so that the people who had purchased them years earlier would continue to be included in the new information I was teaching.

Now I am ready to begin creating new courses and products, but they will be different from what I have done before. Why? Because I have new knowledge and experience as to what is most appealing to today’s audiences, as well as with what brings me to most joy and satisfaction.

I’m bestselling USA Today and Wall Street Journal author Connie Ragen Green, making the most of the habits or routines I have put in place for my life and business and helping others to do the same. Perhaps my Mentor Program is right for you as you navigate the waters of online entrepreneurship, marketing, content creation, authorship, and more.