Inevitably, when you start adopting the plethora of productivity techniques ever created, something will happen: your life becomes rather routine. So, let me show you how you can stop being bored with the same routine every day.
Techniques such as the Pomodoro technique, time blocking, as well as the highly praised morning routine all get plenty of attention. What is more, the spectrum of time management techniques is spectacularly diverse.
Although, take the majority of these techniques, and you will find that they all have something in common:
Those productivity tips all add structure to your life in one way or another.
(Structure, here, is the key concept — without it, you would not get bored with your day-to-day dwellings.)
Indeed, I encourage the use of the Pomodoro technique and such, but please don’t mistake me for being contradictory.
Mixing structure and variety is a balancing act. Nonetheless, it is certainly something you cannot afford to ignore when conducting your daily planning.
insert_linkFind Some Way to Vary Your Day-to-Day
Just like butter, your body wants to constantly adapt — day in, day out.
A pillar of successful muscle training? It’s progressive overload, hence, variety.
A solid way to inject continuous excitement into your life? It’s looking forward to something new, hence, variety.
A common-sense tactic to reduce the decline in motivation? It looks like the secret is going to be variety because that’s how you’ll avoid getting drowned doing the same routine every day.
As a result, reconsider your idea of the “perfect” morning routine. Is it something you could get bored with doing every day?
To clarify, I do not recommend throwing all sense of structure out of the productivity window. Conversely, you can create “structured variety” in your life to keep yourself always doing something new.
(But, of course, even this structure must have a limit somewhere.)
A flexible way to structure time: How to Organise Your Time at Home (with Compartmentalisation)
insert_linkA Weekly Schedule is Better Than a Daily Schedule
So, what do I mean by structured variety?
Well, in order to prevent the boredom of the same everyday routine, it seems obvious to simply not have an invariable daily routine. Accordingly, your routine would differ with each day, without eliminating the structure of a routine altogether.
For this reason, it makes a lot of sense to look at things from a weekly perspective: introduce variety by setting down different routines on different days of the week.
This is a superb technique because you maintain structure (hence obedience hence productivity) whilst benefitting from the joys of variety.
Moreover, don’t forget to get creative! Working well for alternating morning routines, this could equally be applied to an exercise plan.
For example, I make sure that the sequence of exercises I do as part of my morning routines is unique for each day of the week. (I will also switch them up entirely every so often, but we’ll discuss this later.)
insert_linkGo Cyclic and Switch Things Up Occasionally
Imagine a comprehensive database of templates outlining the activities you partake in throughout the week. Now, realise it!
While the short-term weekly variety will certainly go a long way in mitigating depression, there’s still something missing. Thus, it is with content that we take the next step closer to sheer randomness.
In addition to weekly variety (which is common to many people), why not think on a bigger scale? Why not follow a different style every quarter of the year?
If you can pull this off, good on you. However, I think I’ll have difficulty in planning unique routines and lifestyles for each quarter.
Alternatively, you could be simpler: take a break from your usual rhythm of work at occasional intervals to break up the larger monotony.
Over time, your workflow will inescapably become familiar. Weekly variations can prevent burnout, albeit for a limited time.
So, consider something like a week off and a break from any rigid structure like the Pomodoro technique. Of course, I must caution you here: it can be easy to destroy your progress by stepping back too far.
You don’t want to step back, but rather take a temporary rest.
Accordingly, you should continue getting good sleep alongside non-negotiable regular practices such as exercise and meditation.
Hopefully, this less-than-optimal productivity will leave you itching to get back to the real rhythm. And if not that, then you’ll regain the energy to keep on going anyway.
Never compromise on sleep: How to Sleep Easily for More Happiness and Better Focus
insert_linkHow Compartmentalising Your Day Makes Variety Easy (Like Butter)
Additionally, you could employ the time management strategy I love: compartmentalisation. Henceforth, the power of time blocks allows you to take an abstracted view of the time you have in the day.
With each purposed block of time, you could prepare modules to switch in and out. To exemplify, alternative morning routines would be the interchangeable modules for your morning routine time block.
Then, it would be effortless to change up certain areas of your life without sacrificing your end goal.
After all, there is no such thing as the perfect routine, because, as they say, variety is the spice of life; if you’re getting bored of doing the same routine every day, nobody cares how “perfect that routine is — it’s worn out!
insert_linkWhat You Can Change in Your Life (for Variety)
When incorporating variety and randomness into your life, it is imperative to change the right things in the right way to achieve the right effect. Inconveniently, this method is highly specific to the circumstances.
Nevertheless, here are some ideas of what to switch up in your life every so often:
- Length of routines and other activities. Also, think about the length of intervals such as the time between a rest week.
- Order of routines and activities
- Types of activities and work tasks (e.g. working on different projects each day)
- Variations of similar things that produce a similar outcome (such as muscle-specific exercises)
- Frequency on a weekly, monthly, or yearly basis
- Environment. Yes, you could also change up your surroundings — and I actively recommend it! Whether it’s your workspace or walking a different route today, the unfamiliar is often exciting.
- You tell me — give additional suggestions in the comments!
Struggling? Do this: How to Increase Your Work Efficiency Right Now: Set a Timer!
insert_linkOn the Other Hand…
With that said, let’s not get too carried away with embracing randomness in our lives.
Obviously, consistent effort gets the work done, and it is easier for many people to make a small but frequent effort rather than large herculean ones.
And, indeed, randomness is great to unleash our creativity to subsequently allow us to produce our greatest work. Although, it can be taken too far.
Firstly, you should always be challenging yourself. In other words, do not take a week off productivity when you don’t really need it.
When you find that you are spending a disproportionate amount of time in a less structured, less productive stage, you’re in trouble. (But then again, I can’t speak for everyone — maybe total randomness suits you best.)
Regardless, remember to be honest with yourself.
Secondly, learning to work well under what seems to be monotony is an essential skill for ambitious people; to illustrate, look at all the successful entrepreneurs!
Look at everyone who worked the same days in the office, each day of the year, sleeping under the desk!
Did they have it wrong? Should they have thought more about variety? Clearly not, and I’m going to speculate as to why that is.
insert_linkAccepting a Repetitive Lifestyle (if Necessary)
At first, the grind is a step you can’t skip if you want to achieve great results, evidently.
Therefore, living a repetitive lifestyle and doing the same routine each day is inevitable. But did the successful people get bored of the same routine every day?
Maybe. Although, something else was at play here:
Passion in what you do is a critical ingredient. If those entrepreneurs did not have the drive they had, they would not have been able to suffer the way they did.
When you truly believe in the cause, you will stop at no point to sit down and take a break.
However, this may involve building up to. So, if you are bored of the same everyday routine, think about the millionaire entrepreneur success stories:
If you plough through the resistance, could you toughen yourself up to have the drive of a billionaire entrepreneur? That’s for you to choose.
Furthermore, another point worth mentioning is that there may still be variations in the work of a repetitive lifestyle. Creativity can still be implemented, depending on the type of work.
Some routines may not feel routine.
Think about a start-up company, for example. I’d imagine the company would be facing new challenges every day.
Based on the culture of a rapidly growing business, challenges are what make your life spicy!
The productive lifestyle: Avoid the News! 5 Tragic Reasons Why It's Wasting Your Time
insert_linkConclusion
To conclude, it is important to recognise that everyone has a distinctly different style.
That is to say, what works for me might not work for you, and vice versa. Therefore, the practice of experimentation becomes as important as ever!
You could read this page and understand all of it — but don’t take my word for any of it!
For instance, if consistent, small, daily efforts on a project are why you get bored of the same thing every day, try working more infrequently for longer stretches at a time. On the other hand, if the latter is not floating your boat, try the opposite.
No matter what, if you do not incorporate variety into your life, your body will bite back at you; thus, there is no such thing as sustained monotony.
I can attest that it takes a great deal of drive and passion to overcome burnout.
Variety in your life is not your choice. Whether it happens on your terms, though, is your choice.
insert_linkBook Recommendation of the Week
Of course, this week’s book focuses on the importance of challenges and discomfort in our lives; in Taleb’s book, you’ll realise that it may not be healthy to do the same things over and over again.
After all, humans have evolved to not only withstand — but gain from — variety. Then, you’ll understand why one might get bored with the same routine every day!
Antifragile: Things that Gain from Disorder by Nassim Nicholas Taleb
Now, it is time for you to tell me a bit about your daily routine:
Do your daily routines have enough variety for you?
