🌞 Routines 101

Hey there! Welcome back to The Flow by Flocus. If you’re new around here, welcome! 👋  You can catch up on our previous editions right here.

This week: We’re digging into your routines — why your “ideal” daily routine might not be as ideal as you think, plus 4 ways to rethink your routines and release some of the guilt you’re holding. Let’s explore!

🥵 The Problem with Rigid Routines

Ever made a journal spread or digital calendar with your “ideal” daily routine sketched out in neat time-blocks?

…only to feel crummy every time you wake up to expired reminders for stretching and journaling?

This kind of structure can be super helpful for people who have trouble managing their time. But it can also be a bit restrictive.

If you’re trying to follow a routine like this, you have 2 options when you fall off track:

1. 🙇 Scramble to catch up, while beating yourself up for being behind

2. 💆 Accept where you are, and ease into an adjusted routine without guilt or judgment

Which option sounds more appealing? Probably the second one, right?

But the first one is probably your default response, if you’re like most of us.

Before we walk you through how to shift to a more compassionate response, let’s talk about one of the most common mistakes people make when crafting their routines.

🏗️ The Biggest Mistake with Routines

Ever heard of survivorship bias?

It comes from a WWII survey of Navy combat planes returning home.

Engineers wanted to reinforce the most damaged parts of the planes.

But it was actually the intact parts that needed the most attention. They were the most vulnerable — planes hit in those spots didn’t return home at all.

In other words, the engineers didn’t even “see” the real problem, because their only reference was the planes that survived.

The concept of survivorship bias has since been applied in all sorts of areas, from finances to cat care.

And you likely apply it to your own routines, too.

In other words, you only plan for your best days, assuming you’ll always perform at 100%.

There’s a good chance you don’t even “see” your bad days. Your routines are likely built for your most productive self, not your least.

This makes sense to some degree, but it’s also part of why you feel double crummy on days you can’t stick to your routines — because you’re not factoring in those low days.

With this in mind, how can you craft routines that work better for you? Read on to find out.

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🥗 4 Fresh Ways to Think About Your Routines

If you’ve struggled with routines, try these tips instead.

🎢 Plan for change

Your “ideal” routine won’t stay fixed throughout your entire life.

If you’re in school right now, you’ll eventually graduate. If you’re job-hunting, you’ll eventually find a role. If you’re working, you may end up moving to a new company or industry.

And that’s just on a professional level — that’s not even including the personal stuff, like family, athletics, or community.

Your needs and circumstances will change at some point. Stop fighting this natural flow, and try your best to be gentle with yourself as you ease into it.

🤹 Create multiple alternative routines

This one seems obvious, but it’s something we’ve only recently done here at Flocus — and we’ve been at this productivity stuff for a long time!

Check out some of these alternative planning methods to prevent survivorship bias:

• 🪫 Energy — Focus on creating routines for days where your energy is medium to low. You might also include alternative routines for your high-energy days to switch things up. Peep this week’s Flocus Picks for more tips on managing your energy levels!

• 🪣 Buckets — Pick a life “bucket” (like home, work, or health) and create a routine for it. This will help you understand how much time you spend on various activities and whether batching your days in this way works for your brain

• 🥧 Slices — Think of each day as a “pie” that you can slice into whatever sized pieces you’d like. The standard morning/afternoon/evening split might work for some, but your slices might also look like “before work” or “after dinner”

😎 See your routines as guidelines, not rules

You won’t always be able to reschedule things like school or work — so ease up on yourself outside of your unmovable obligations.

We know you want to do healthy, fulfilling things with your free time. But pressuring yourself to stick to a schedule 24/7 will likely keep you operating from a place of constant stress.

Refer to your routines when you need some extra structure, but honor your mind and body, too. Every moment is a new opportunity to start again!

🌀 Put a spin on your perspective

There’s a wonderful variety of experiences and adventures on offer in this world. Opening yourself up to a bit of randomness can give you a new zest for life.

Think back to your favorite memories or experiences. We’re willing to bet one thing that made them so special was the fact that you didn’t follow your usual routine.

So one of your “ideal routines” might even include days where you don’t follow a routine at all. Give yourself time to explore and see where this wild and wacky life takes you!

🪅 Flocus Picks

A curated list of things worth sharing.

• How to Plan According to Energy (The Flow Archives) — We’ve talked about energy a lot in past newsletters, like this oldie but goodie from May 2024!

• Survivorship Bias in 2 Mins (Video) — More thoughts on how survivorship bias shows up in life and productivity

• summer lofi haze (Playlist) — Mellow lofi beats for warm days and easygoing focus as many of us ease into summer mode!

✨ Flocus: Your Personal Productivity Dashboard

Your routines don’t have to be rigid, and your workspace doesn’t have to be boring.

With Flocus, you can create flexible routines using our reorderable task lists, focus one step at a time with our clean dashboard view, and unwind with ambient sounds and aesthetic themes. Whether your day is high-energy or low-capacity, we’ve got a dash for that.

Go to Flocus

One of our favorite things about writing The Flow? Reflecting on the productivity challenges we’re facing in our own lives, finding real-world ways to solve them, and sharing it all with you!

What did you think of this week’s newsletter? Let us know with a quick reply — we read every one!

Until next Sunday,

Flocus Team