Why Your Daily Routine Isn’t Working (And A Possible Solution)

How do you structure your day?

Back in 2019, I was in my fourth year of college. And I felt so lost. I wasn’t sure what to do after graduation or what my purpose was — suddenly my whole life was ahead of me and I didn’t know how to spend it wisely and live it fully. That was the year I dove into the rabbit hole of personal development.

One of the “life-changing lessons” I kept hearing about was building a daily routine.

So I kept watching video after video, reading books and blogs on everyday rituals of thriving and successful people. Eating the frog, calendar blocking, time boxing — none of them worked for me. Each tip was like a pair of sneakers one size larger than what my feet are used to.

But I forced myself to keep looking for and adopting other people’s routines, hoping to find one that would stick.(If it worked for Marie Forleo or Amy Landino or Aileen Xu, it should work for me, right?)

Wrong. And I think it’s because I was setting up rituals based on other people’s needs, personalities, and values. To confirm my hypothesis, I’m starting a 30-day challenge for myself to spend my days based on my values, not other people’s routines.

In case you’re thinking about creating a daily routine that feels right for you — one you’ll stick to without being frustrated with yourself — here’s how I’ll be doing it.

1. List your top 5 life values. If you’re unsure how to identify what those are, you can reflect on it or take a test online (there’s a lot of ‘em).
2. List all your day-to-day tasks. This includes your current responsibilities as well as the habits you want to cultivate.
3. Categorize all your tasks under your life values. This can help you see which of your current tasks are actually in alignment with your values.
4. Make sure you do at least 1 task under each life value. Doing 5 things that fully express your values is so much better than rushing around and ticking todos that leave you drained, purposeless, and frustrated. Life is too short to spend the bulk of your finite hours on things that do not matter to you.
5. Track your progress — not by how much you got done but how you feel at the end of each day. You know you finally built a daily routine you love and can stick with when you go through your day with more ease, grace, and flow, and with less guilt, resistance, or beating yourself up over unfinished tasks. You found your dream daily routine if you start getting less unaligned things done and making progress on the right ones.

If you’re up for the challenge, you can download your free Notion template here. Here’s to building routines that work for you, not against you. 🥂

Grab your free Dream Daily Routine Builder here.