Take a look at our tips for creating a daily routine that’s productive and tailored to your demands. Also, make a note of our recommended apps and gadgets.
1. Take Care of Your Sleep Patterns
Some people’s biggest problem is waking up in the morning. If you’re one of them, you need to find a solution, or your daily routine won’t improve. Firstly, your bedtime should ensure you get a good seven to eight hours of sleep every night. Start by identifying your sleep chronotype.
Based on that, create a sleep routine that has you in bed and relaxed by a specific time. Your biological clock will adapt, making it easier to wake up at a time that benefits from your new schedule.
2. Set an Alarm to Start Your Day
Besides improving the quality of your sleep, set a specific time on your alarm clock to ensure you wake up when you need to. An early start is advised if only to get more done in your daily routine. But this doesn’t mean you have to dive into work straight away.
In fact, a 2017 study on the best times for cognitive functioning, published in Front Hum Neurosci, found that there’s no one-time-fits-all when it comes to ideal working hours. That being said, 10 a.m. achieved an 80% optimality score, one of the highest in the study.
So, if you wake up at eight, you have time to eat breakfast, get a cup of coffee, and start work by nine or later.
Consider buying a sunrise alarm clock like the Philips SmartSleep on Amazon for a gentle and effective wake-up, but there are also several alarm clock apps to force you out of bed.
3. Use a Calendar for Planning
Once you’ve sorted your sleep patterns as part of your daily routine, think about how to plan your days, weeks, or months better.
Calendars are one of your best bets. Physical ones are very useful as they give you a hands-on representation of your schedule, which you can annotate, highlight, and so on.
Digital options are far more efficient, though. Howbout, for example, is one of the best calendar apps for organizing your life. Just using your phone, you can add all upcoming work and social events, set reminders and your availability, manage other participants, and more.
Here's an even more impressive fact. You can integrate Google Calendar with your smart home device. Then, Alexa can help you stick to your daily routine by reminding you of upcoming events and scheduling new ones.
4. Carefully Organize Your Routine
Simply having a calendar isn't enough. To develop an effective daily routine, thoughtful and detailed planning is crucial.
Look into Routinero, Do It Now, and other top task management apps for building routines. Think about all the tasks that need doing and sort them into your organizers.
Be as precise and creative as you can. Use color coding, images, special fonts, hyperlinks, and any trick up your sleeve that will motivate you and keep you focused on completing your to-do list.
5. Set Reminders for Everything
Whatever apps you use, don’t ignore their reminder tools. At the very least, make sure you get an alert leading up to every important event on your calendar.
It may not seem like much on a light schedule that’s easy to remember, but as your weekly tasks add up, you’ll likely forget things. Setting reminders from the get-go can save you a lot of trouble.
6. Use Project Planners and Concentration Tools
If you need a daily routine that accommodates your workflow, create a schedule that realistically combines professional and everyday tasks without burning you out. Think about how many hours a day you need to work and what jobs need doing, starting with the most urgent ones.
Add these timeslots to your daily calendar. But also use apps like Trello and Slack on your computer and phone to specifically organize and stay on track with your work schedule.
And don’t just count your career as work. Any project that takes effort and focus, from cleaning to writing a book, is tiring and time-consuming. You should incorporate it into your routine with just as much care.
To help you concentrate on any project at hand and not fall behind schedule, consider deep work tools for daily routines. Your iPhone’s Focus Mode is handy, as is the Cold Turkey desktop app that blocks distracting web pages, YouTube channels, keywords, and more.
7. Include Breaks, Exercise, and Fun in Your Routine
What ruins routines the most is a lack of personal time to chill and rebuild your energy. Make these moments official by adding them to your calendar and setting reminders.
Think about your upcoming week and what you’d like to do for fun. Account for any travel, bookings, or other arrangements. Add as much detail as is necessary to your schedule.
In the same way, give yourself time for a walk, a gym session, or just to chill at home with a hair or skincare routine. Doing such activities at the same time every day or week will also help them become second nature and a standard part of your habits.
Make Your Daily Life More Enjoyable and Productive With Technology
Keep these tips and tools in mind as you create a schedule that works for you. Make sure you combine personal and professional activities in a way that doesn’t burn you out. Taking time to breathe, sleep well, and have fun can help with that.
Calendars, task management apps, and website blockers are major assets when it comes to organizing your time and staying focused. But keep exploring what technology can do for your routine.
Look beyond your PC and smartphone for products like smart sheets, notebooks, and home gym equipment, for example. Tech can really streamline your daily routine.
source: MUO
