Is Your Routine Like a Good Waiter?
You shouldn’t really notice them!
Like good umpires and waiters, your routines shouldn't disrupt your, er, routine! You shouldn’t notice a good routine!
There are so many stories on routines, and the creativity of many people astounds me. Seriously! I get super excited when I see how other are managing their time and resources. It tempts me, often, to look into the approach a little more.
And now, a little less. I need to stick with a routine to get the full benefit. Maybe you might too?
🦺 Hand-me-down clothes.
Other people’s routines can be like hand-me-down clothes. They provide a solution for a time, they may give us ideas about what we do want, but eventually, we know we need to find our own.
This doesn’t mean we don’t try what others create and produce. You don’t make your own shoes do you? (Well, I guess there may be a few cobblers out there! 😉)
👻 The best routines are invisible.
It’s like driving the same way to work every day, at first you notice everything. And if you’re learning to drive, the instructions seem impossible to put together all at once. This is why I didn’t learn to ride a motorbike until I was in my 40’s. It just looked too complex. (Plus my dad putting the fear of God into me about motorcycling accidents!)
But we know through the simple art of driving a familiar car, to a familiar place of work that routines become so second nature, we often wonder if we paid any attention on the way to work and have left a path of destruction in our wake.
Side Note:
Many years ago, I was driving along a familiar road in my home city and saw the traffic lights, about 400m ahead, were red. I surmised in my mind they’d be green by the time I got there. I sailed through, not slowing down, as I heard my new wife say, “You knew the lights were red, didn't you?”
Each time I take that road and go through those lights, I remember that day when my routine didn’t help me. No-one was injured, nothing happened. Very fortunately!
😉 Our Problem with Routines
We are always trying to fix them, improve them, tweak them, change them. The best thing to do, in many cases, is just to follow them.
Just follow the routine.
It is very boring. It is not exciting. There is no new app to try, no new notebook or pen to combine, no trips to the stationery store to “smell the paper” (or is that just me? 😬). There are so many shiny new things out there. Each one promising nirvana and relief from all our productivity ills.
As I said in my post about OneNote:
It’s not rocket science, and I don’t want it to be.
Routines, excepting my car episode above, can be the liberation we are seeking. But it requires using a familiar tool (e.g. car) to get to a familiar place (e.g work/home) without too much thought … over and over and over again. That is what routines are for.
I want as little friction as possible. 🤷♂️
So we develop timelines, processes and checklists to breeze through the day on the regular items and have brain capacity for the testing issues we are bound to face.
My routine for note taking has remained with OneNote. I have been tempted to put my notes elsewhere. I even bought a very nice, bright yellow Leuchtturm1917 notebook. It was still wrapped in its plastic when I handed it to my wife who starts a new job on Monday.
The ability to capture notes in one place (at work, on my phone and at home, all in the one application) provides many benefits:
- the same application to capture notes — I know where to put my notes
- the same application to find my notes — I know where to find my notes
- integration with Outlook (work) for meeting notes — share the meeting invite to OneNote
- learning one mode of capture — not flicking between apps for this and then that (see quote below)
- peace of mind that I can retrieve the notes I have taken at any moment because, if nothing else, I know for sure, they are in my application of choice.
- less stress — see point 5: peace of mind
- less time taken to retrieve that important note
Mark from Minimlr makes a fair point when your information is across multiple apps unnecessarily… (key word: unnecessarily)
“It got to a point where I was typing up notes in Google Docs, tasks in Todoist and events in Google Calendar …”
Stick with the routine you have, whether that be note taking or meditation or heath and fitness, no matter how clunky it may be now and continue to refine it.
Because, like the points above, even if you have time to think about it, is it worth your time to think about where you put your notes or what to do next? If it is in a set routine you won’t have to.
For example, imagine, for a moment, the sheer ecstasy of knowing, with 100% surety, where to find all the notes you have on a topic … every. single. time!
🚘 The Car Keys Metaphor
Most people I know put their keys in the same spot each time when they get home. This means the routine for going to the car is a mindless. As it should be. And we all know the frustration when you go to grab the keys … and they are not there! 🤬
Why would you do that to yourself with things like important notes, reminders and calendar events. You put all your calendar events into your calendar … assuming!
Our routines are successful when they are not noticeable.
3️⃣ The Three Month Challenge
Look at your routines, apps and tools for productivity. Decide, now, or within a week, what you want to change or what you need to change.
Then, using your chosen tools, maintain a routine for three months. No changes of tools or applications.
Tweak as much as you want … but no changes.
After three months, I believe and I hope for you, that you don’t notice your routine, you just get the best from it.
Thank you for reading! 😊
My purpose in writing on Medium:
- Personal Development — writing helps me articulate my own thinking. I find trying to create an “argument” for a perspective on paper, quite revealing and at times challenging and I can be more critical of my own thoughts: “Why DO I think this?”
- Developing Others — my passion to help others develop themselves, to help people make better choices and help them think critically to realise their potential.
