Personal routine – where do you begin?
From a scientific point of view, it is health-promoting to integrate a personal routine into your daily life. Here we give you tips on how to get started.
“All roads lead to Rome.” - This common saying is very appropriate when it comes to personal routine. For example, if you search online for the perfect morning routine, you will find a huge range of examples from countless “experts”. You’ll find everything from drinking a glass of water and breathing exercises or morning exercises to tips from the world of ayurvedic medicine.
Many of these elements appear to have a positive effect on how some people start their day and therefore encourage them to follow this routine. But we have to ask ourselves whether there is any scientific evidence of how they impact on the start to the day? In other words: Is this impact guaranteed?
There are however some common elements to the various daily routines:
- One step at a time
Humans are not necessarily persistent by nature. So it takes more energy and time (Lally et al., 2009*) to get accustomed to new routines. Therefore, focusing on one individual element or goal is the recommended approach.
*contrary to the popular theory postulated by Maxwell Maltz (“Psycho Cybernetic”, 1960) in reality, it takes more than 21 days to get used to a new routine
- Gradual increase
Positive habits don’t develop over night. We are therefore advised to start with small steps and then regularly increase them.
- Link into the familiar
Existing habits provide an excellent anchor point for new ones. Because we are already used to doing something regularly, this allows us to add a new element to it and maintain the regularity.
- Excusing mistakes
Even if we break our routine every now and then, this shouldn't result in us over-analysing the negative experience emotionally and convincing ourselves that we are not capable of sticking with the routine.
It also helps if we tell people (especially people of significance to us or who we consider as role models) close to us about our plans (Klein et al, 2020) or even work with them to establish a goal and thereby encourage one another.
In order for us to help as many alumni as possible to establish their own personal routines, we are grateful if you share your experiences and advice. And if you have not yet managed to get into a routine yourself, remember: it takes at least 21 days to form new habits.
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