Why Boring Routines Make You a More Successful Person
Every day, retired U.S. Army general Stanley McChrystal wakes up at 4 a.m., shaves, exercises for 90 minutes, takes a five-minute shower and then goes to the office. He doesn’t eat anything until dinner because, “It just makes me feel better,” he says. “My body has gotten used to it, and so if I eat before dinner I get kind of sluggish.”
But that type of routine is for military types, right?
Being Boring Is Your Key To Success
Actually, leaders from regimented to creative fields love their routines. Successful leaders like Oprah Winfrey, Tim Cook, and Howard Schultz each describe in boring detail the precise timing and activities that comprise their routines. I use the word “boring” not in a negative sense but because that’s what it is. It’s not exciting or varied. It’s consistent.
Glenn Carstens Peters via Unsplash
Boring routines do not make you a boring person. They make you a consistent person. Being consistent raises the probability that you’ll do the things that result in making you the person you want to be.
James Clear, author of the best-selling book Atomic Habits, affirms the value of boring routines with this: “The only way to become excellent is to be endlessly fascinated by doing the same thing over and over. You have to fall in love with boredom.”
This is true because of how your brain operates. As David Rock writes in Your Brain at Work:
The basal ganglia are four masses in the brain region driving routine activities that don’t require a lot of active mental attention. From an evolutionary perspective, the basal ganglia are an older part of the brain. They are also highly energy efficient, with fewer overall limitations that the prefrontal cortex. As soon as you repeat an activity even just a few times, the basal ganglia start to take over. The basal ganglia, and many other brain regions, function beneath conscious awareness.
Once you repeat a pattern often enough, the basal ganglia can drive the process, freeing up the stage (your conscious thinking) for new functions. The more you use a pattern, the less attention you will need to pay to doing this task, and the more you will be able to do at one time.
Less Routine, More Worries
Let me give you an example. I recently returned from a trip with some friends. There was nothing routine about this trip. Our agenda was packed with different activities from the moment we woke up until the time we went to bed.
We got home late the final night, and as a result, I slept in later than usual the next day. After being off routine and staying up late, I found myself consciously thinking hard in the morning about what to do. Should I wake up now or snooze the alarm? Do I have time to read the news or should I start making breakfast for the family? Should I bring my exercise clothes to work since I didn’t make time this morning?
Consequently, I was mentally draining and distracting. I wasn’t as present for my family. I needed to get out of this constant decision-making mode and work from my basal ganglia.
The Six Essentials for Your Routine
Interested in developing a consistent routine in order to become who you want to be? Here are some of the most important activities to include in your routine:
- Read every day. Whether it’s books, news articles or blogs, reading provides great exercise for the brain and equips you with relevant insights for your daily responsibilities.
- Prioritize health. With a group of people to hold you accountable or alone while you listen to podcasts, get your body moving every day. This could be walking your dog, doing yoga, or joining a fitness class.
- Review your day. Nothing can send a day on the wrong course like not being prepared or just reacting to whatever comes at you. Take time to think through the day’s events and how you’ll approach them.
- Keep your goals front of mind. I have my goals, values, and behaviors I’m working on all written out in an app on my phone. Every morning, I review what’s written in that app to re-focus myself on what I want to do and who I want to be.
- Slow, quiet, and listen. Prayer and meditation provide perspective on your life and train your brain for metacognition: thinking about your thinking. This is particularly important so that you can be more intentional and less triggered as life unfolds.
Routines don’t make you boring. Boring routines make you consistent. They build you into the person you want to be.
What do you love about your routine?
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