The Power of Routines

I love routines. They may sound boring and monotonous, but in reality they’re the exact opposite. Routines facilitate experimentation and improvement.

As a human we only have so much energy, so much mental bandwidth to work with in a given day. If we use up that capacity re-making the same decisions and re-evaluating the same problems we end up standing still.

A routine frees up mental bandwidth by putting some things on autopilot. We can then use that freed-up energy to experiment and refine.

A routine should be dynamic, constantly modified and tweaked, but slowly – at the margins. As elements of a routine prove themselves, those elements become more stable, move towards the core and form the foundation for further experimentation and improvement at the margins.

Slow, mindful routine building is a powerful tool for achieving long term gains.