Real Happy Mom

Practical tips and encouragement for moms

Can’t Get Your Routine to Stick? This is Why Your Routine Isn’t Working For You

I love routines. I know that I wouldn’t be able to handle life well without them. But when I talk to some moms about routines, I get eye rolls and comments like, “routines don’t work for me.” Or “Routines are too restrictive. I like to be free.”

I know you want motherhood to be easier. And maybe you have tried to implement some new routines, but they didn’t stick.

So why aren’t routines working for you? There are a couple of reasons why I think this is the case. Check out this episode to learn why your routines aren’t sticking and what to do about it.

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Episode Summary with Timestamps

0:00 Routines make life easier.

1:27 Why are these routines not sticking? How can you get them to stick?

3:04 Three main reasons why routines aren’t sticking.

4:40 Routines that you already have in place.

5:39 How to make a routine that actually serves you.

6:50 Your routines aren’t fun if they aren’t enjoyable.

Links Mentioned in This Episode

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Transcript of this Episode

I love routines so much. I talked about them here on the podcast. And if this is your first time listening to me, you may have heard me talk about my Sunday routine, which is something that I absolutely love to talk about. And the reason why is because routines just make life so much easier. And honestly, I wouldn’t be able to handle life well, without them. I actually tried an experiment on myself where I did the Sunday routine, to the tee everything that I outlined in that episode. And then the next week, I went ahead and did nothing on the Sunday routine. And let me tell you, not doing the Sunday routine left me feeling pretty frazzled, very stressed out, and I didn’t really like my week. So the Sunday routine has been something that I consistently do, just so that I can ensure that my week runs smoothly, even when life happens. Because I love routine so much and I love talking about them. I share this a lot with other moms. And it is funny because I usually get one of two reactions. One, I get a mom that’s really intrigued and wants to know more. Or I get the arrows in the comments like oh, well, routines don’t work for me or routines are too restrictive, it won’t allow me to be free. And the truth is routines really do help you to have more time and to have more freedom. And I want to share some of that here with you today. I know that you want motherhood to be easier. And maybe you’ve tried to implement some new routines. Maybe you have heard about doing a really awesome evening routine, which I talked about in a previous episode, or maybe trying to implement that morning routine so that you can have a really awesome start to your day. But you just can’t seem to get those routines to stick. So why are these routines not sticking? And what are some things that we could do to make it a little bit easier so that we can get these routines to stick and start to see some of the benefits in our lives. That’s what I’m going to share with you in this episode. So make sure that you grab a notebook and pen and write this down. And if you are driving, doing laundry or out and about and you cannot write this down, make sure you head over to Real happy mom.com/ 196 to get the show notes so that you can know how to fix your routine if it is not working for you. Now before we jump into this episode, I wanted to make sure that you knew all about home life Trello. Home Life Trello is a all in one systems and tutorials that are going to help you with the various systems in your life so that you can show up and be organized and productive at work and at home. And the best part is that how my fellow uses a free app called Trello, of course, and it costs way less than that brand new planner that you’ve been having your eye on. So make sure you head over to Real happy mom.com/trello or head over to the show notes. Now there’s three main reasons why I feel like routines aren’t sticking just from my own personal experience in seeing other moms and talking to other moms. And the first reason that I have found that routines aren’t sticking is because we’re making it way too complicated. I know when I first started doing my morning routine, it had about 50 steps, it had so many things that you had to do, and it was just too much. Or maybe you’ve tried to implement a laundry routine. Because I know for me, sometimes I struggle with laundry, I just don’t like folding clothes y’all. Like, I really don’t like folding clothes. So maybe you tried a laundry team, but you just can’t get it this thick, because you’ve made it so complicated trying to do various different things. And the thing is that many times we’re trying to do too many things in our routines instead of making it a lot more simple. So when you are looking at implementing a routine, how about looking at how you can implement two or three steps versus nine or 15 steps. And then if you want to take your routine to the next level and really make it that really complicated thing that you’ve probably seen on YouTube or on social media, then you can implement a new thing each week instead of trying to do all of the steps in one week. So that was number one. Number two, the reason why routines aren’t sticking is your routines aren’t really serving you. So remember how I was telling you earlier that some moms just don’t like routines because they feel like they’re not free or they feel like routines are too restrictive during their day? Well, if you think about it, you already have routines that you’re doing every day. Really just look around. What are you doing every day when you wake up? What are you doing everyday before you go to work? What are you doing everyday when you come home from work? These are routines that you already have in place. Now the question is are the routines that you have going on right now? actually saving you are Are these routines actually benefiting you so that you can show up and be your best each day. Now, let’s take a look at one routine in particular that I have been trying to get down pack. And that is the after school routine. So if coming home from work, and the kids are coming home from school or from their after school program, and it’s stressing you out, because the kids are dropping off their stuff at the door, run into the kitchen for a snack, making a mess in the kitchen, and then you unwind and watch TV for a few minutes. And then only to find out that the few minutes turned into a couple of hours and you have not started dinner. Now you’re behind on dinner, you’re even more stressed. Because you have to hurry up and get dinner ready, there is one area where we can start to make a routine that actually serves us. So instead of letting the kids go on a run into the kitchen to have a snack, which is totally fine. Instead, show them where you want them to put their backpacks, their lunch boxes. So that things go into the right place. There Indian out those lunch boxes, because I know for me, my kids, they don’t always remember to empty out their lunch boxes, and sometimes things think in there. So first things first, take your stuff, put it in the right place, put your shoes where they’re supposed to go put your backpack where it’s supposed to go, take your lunchbox, empty everything out and put it where it’s supposed to go. Then from there, you can either have some snacks already ready to go for them, or have a set area where they can go ahead and grab those snacks, and go. So this is one way to kind of eliminate that stressful routine that you have now and start to implement a routine that it’s actually serving you. So just look around at your day and see what routines you already have going on in place and seeing how you can change things around so that your routines are serving you. Now, the last one that I am finding that is the reason why we’re not having these routines stick is your routines aren’t fun, let’s just be real, you’re not going to do something if you don’t enjoy it. So how can you find a way to make your routines more enjoyable. So for me, I love to do laundry while I am listening to podcasts. And if you’re listening to real happy mom, I highly recommend you listen to it while you’re folding up some clothes, or while you are running some errands because, you know, I know we talked about multitasking, but at least you’re doing something that you enjoy, you’re listening to something that you enjoy, it’ll get you motivated to actually do the thing that you’re not really excited to do. So here is a helpful tip. Like I was saying, while I’m doing laundry, I listen to a podcast, or I listen to an audiobook. So take a look and see are there some podcasts are there some things that you wanted to learn about that you haven’t had time to sit down and do so that you can do those things while you’re doing whatever routine it is, so you can make it a little bit more fun and make that routine stick. Those are the three things that I wanted to share with you that I have found that prevents us from having routines that aren’t sticking. And I hope you found some ways to make these routines stick that you have going on or you want to have going on and start to notice that things are a little bit easier throughout your days and weeks. Now that’s it for this episode. Make sure you head on over to Real happy mom.com/ 196 to get the show notes and to get any links that were mentioned here today. And do me a favor. Stay tuned for next week for another episode. Take care and with lots of love

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