Having a daily routine could sound like it would make life rigid and inflexible. Maybe we imagine a routined life to feel like prison and not allowing for any spontaneity. Our day to day seemingly could be trapped within a program that allows for no freedom or adaptation.

But the truth is the opposite. Having a routine actually builds freedom.

While having a structure to the day may sound inflexible, it actually gives your mind more space to be free.

It’s sort of like the rules in a game. They aren’t in place to make the game less fun but to provide a framework of how to play the game. Imagine a game without any rules. It would be chaotic and somewhat pointless.

What rules are to a game, a routine is for the day. It allows you to navigate it with purpose and direction. When our minds are without guidelines, every thought could pull us in any direction. Time seems to slip away if we allow random thoughts to dictate our attention. This is why sometimes you may look up and it’s later in the day then you expected, having accomplished little of what you wanted to do. Repeat this type of day enough, and you wake up one day wondering how you ended up where you are. You wake up living a life that you didn’t want, feeling trapped and lost, hoping that something will change.

As counterintuitive as it may be, the change to free yourself from a trapped life begins by building a routine.

With a routine, we define the type of day we want, give it a structure to stay in our designed lanes and keep moving forward. We move with purpose and start to reclaim our life.

Start setting a routine by beginning with waking up and going to bed at the same time every day. It may sound simple, but it will be difficult in practice. If that’s too difficult, start with something else that may already have a set time, such as meals.

Then start to add in blocked times for specific things you want to get done. Have a blocked time for your morning ritual. Set aside time for prepping and eating meals. Block off time to take care of the most important thing each day. And don’t forget to block off time for entertainment and relaxing, guilt free.

Blocking time for specific activities allows you to be present and eliminates the hardest part of taking on any task, which is the decision to start, especially if it’s something we do not want to do. By eliminating the decision to start, we save ourselves mental bandwidth and save time by not procrastinating. It’s those precious moments between tasks where we seem to get distracted most easily.

When in your time block, give your full attention to what you are doing. A good time block could be set to 25 minutes. Our focus tends to dip around that time, so reward yourself with 5 minute rest periods between blocks to recharge, and then get after the next block. Some tasks may require multiple hours with high focus, so it’s best to break those up into smaller blocks with rest periods in between.

Building a routine will take time. Remember to start small, and add to it as you go. As the routine develops, you’ll find that it will give you more freedom to pursue other things in life. It will save you time, give you a sense of accomplishment, and keeps you moving forward. In a way, you are designing your own freedom. You will no longer be trapped in a loop created by others, but enjoy your free life that you’ve designed.