finding freedom through structure and routine
One of the hardest things for me to master as a leader was routine. I am a free spirit at heart and to be quite honest, strict schedules and routines go against my very nature. I much prefer to fly by the seat of my pants and go where the wind blows me. I struggled early on trying to make this work for me as a professional, and I got by with it for a while. I was able to achieve a decent level of success, through hard work and a little luck, but it was much more difficult than it needed to be because I wasn’t organized. What I finally realized is that if I really wanted to be successful I had to find a way to structure my life.
The danger of “flying by the seat of your pants” is you’re letting your day happen to you. You’re not in charge, so instead of having a plan and being ready for what the day holds you spend most of your time reacting to what comes your way. You spend more time “firefighting” than actually getting things accomplished. You also end up relying on mostly memory to ensure things get done, which causes things to slip through the cracks or get done at the last minute. Having a plan makes life easier. This is what eventually caused me to realize my need for routine and structure. Why make things harder than they need to be? Instead of living in the ease and freedom I wanted, I was constantly stressed and anxious because I didn’t have structure. It took me a while but I now realize that freedom is the result of structure and discipline.
So I had to shift my mindset on structure. Routines were not my enemy if they would eventually get me the result I wanted- freedom and ease, time to disconnect, peace of mind. Instead of fighting structure and routine, I learned to love them.
I started with the basic structure- a daily checklist. If you don’t have a solid routine, this is a good place to start. Make a list of the tasks you must complete each day and use it as a daily template. Each day use this template and then hand write additional tasks you would like to take care of if time allows. It even helps me to number the tasks in order of urgency. It’s important to begin each day with the understanding that you probably won’t complete your checklist. This is why it’s important to distinguish the tasks that can be pushed to the next day and the ones that cannot. This also makes it more manageable in our minds as we tend to look at an extensive checklist and feel defeated before we even start.
Every bit as important as the checklist itself is the timing in which tasks are completed. It may sound simple, but it honestly changed the game for me once I realized how to manipulate my day to get more accomplished. Analyze what a typical day looks like for you and give some thought to how you can better use your time. Are there any periods of “free time” that you could utilize better to make room for more real free time later in the day? For example, we tend to waste more time in the mornings because nothing feels as urgent. A while back I realized I was wasting too much time during the “slower” part of the mornings, and therefore having to push more tasks than I would like to the next day. I made a point to start getting two to three of my miscellaneous tasks completed during that part of the morning. I found I was able to get so much more done that I began running out of miscellaneous tasks to push to the next day. As we learn to be more efficient with our time, the days become easier and easier.
Over time, this mindset of structure began to bleed into my home life as well. And I began to notice my house was more tidy than it used to be and I was able to make it to the gym more consistently and call my mom more frequently. And then it bled over into my finances and I noticed my money going further than it used to. Structure = Freedom and I wish I had learned that sooner. What I thought would constrain me actually ended up being the key to my freedom. If you are like I was and are letting your day happen to you, I encourage you to find a routine and introduce some structure into your life. We only have 24 hours each day. The more intentional and efficient we are with our time, the more we will accomplish and the more free time we will have to just live.
