NewsBeat

12 NewsBeat March 2019 You can't be productive without routines and rituals. Here's why: T here are few things that impact your daily productivity, career trajectory, and overall well-being as much as your routines. As Will Durant writes in "The Story of Philosophy" (a quote often misattributed to Aristotle): "We are what we repeatedly do." Today, we know the true extent of those words. According to research, up to 40% of our daily actions are powered by habits — the unconscious actions and routines we've developed over time. Yet our routines aren't the only thing we need for a balanced life. Most of us spend our days bouncing between tasks. We're a designer or developer for the morning, and then a professional emailer and meeting attendee for the afternoon. And it's our rituals–those symbolic actions performed at key moments– that help us move through the day smoothly. As Maria Popova, founder of "Brain Pickings" writes, though very different in practice, routine and ritual seem to be two sides of the same coin: While routine aims to make the chaos of everyday life more containable and controllable, ritual aims to imbue the mundane with an element of the magical. The structure of routine comforts us, and the specialness of ritual vitalizes us. So how do routines and rituals fit into the modern workday? And how can we develop ones that maximize our ability to do meaningful work? HOW TO BUILD A DAILY ROUTINE YOU'LL ACTUALLY WANT TO FOLLOW First, let's start with our routines. In their most basic form, a routine is a series of regularly followed actions. You can have a morning routine comprised of the things you do when you first wake up (shower, make breakfast, plan your day, drive to work). Or an evening routine that helps you unwind and disconnect from work. We all have routines (whether we recognize them or not). Yet not everyone consciously crafts their routines to maximize their time. That's why so many people are interested in the routines of successful entrepreneurs and creatives. We think following the same steps will bring the same results. But blindly following someone else's routines won't make you as productive as them. For one, correlation isn't causation. And just because Apple's CEO wakes up at 3:45 a.m. every morning doesn't mean that's the reason for his success. Instead, the most successful daily routine is the one that works for you. At work, this means understanding your body's natural ebbs and flows of energy. Planning meaningful work when you're best suited for it. And protecting your time and attention from interruptions, distractions, and too many meetings. What's important isn't the exact nature of your routine, but that you have one and stick to it. RITUALS HELP US SHIFT OUR ATTENTION TO WHERE IT'S MOST NEEDED While routines keep us grounded, they don't always do much to help us get through the day. While you might routinely spend the first hour of the day writing before your morning meetings kick in, your brain doesn't always allow for such a clean break between tasks. This is thanks to what's called "attention residue." As Deep Work author Cal Newport writes, while you might quickly switch from Task A to Task B at work: By JORY MACKAY We all have routines. But not everyone crafts them to maximize their time.

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