Ashley Brown 0:00 [Intro]
Routines my absolute favorite word, but you either love them or you're working on getting there. But either way, I strongly believe routines can be a springboard for improving your home, yourself and your life. I'm Ashley Brown. And this is the Routine and Things podcast. In each episode, I'll share practical tips and simple ways to help you consistently live your happiest life, one routine at a time. Trust me, you're going to want to keep listening, because you're well on your way to getting and staying happy.
Ashley Brown 0:49
One of my least favorite memories as a mom happened when I was a stay at home mom. This day in particular, I had so many things to do. I was behind on laundry I needed to schedule my daughter a doctor's appointment, and the house was a mess. I mean a hot mess. And funny enough, even though it's not funny, when I got to the end of my day, nothing had been done. You know those days. Thankfully, I had a God moment and realize I have fallen out of routine. Yes, this routine oriented girl had fallen out of routine. And honestly, it took me a while to get back on track. Because routines are always naturally falling into place for me in the past. But this was very different. I had to intentionally rebuild my routines one by one. And although it took time and patience, the impact routines had on my life was incredible. And I learned so much along the way.
Ashley Brown 1:44
This is why I'm so excited to share with you that your girl did a thing. I wrote a book, The Routine Building Handbook, you're all in one habit builder for increased productivity, inspired work, and lasting success. The Routine Building Handbook is an easy to use Practical Guide for starting creating and maintaining routines to help you decrease stress, improve your sleep, and build a productive, joyful life. It gives you all the tools you need to introduce structure predictability, and stability, including a customizable habit building roadmap, ideas for weekday, weekend, morning and night routines, plenty of examples of realistic daily and weekly routines, and advice for staying flexible. You can now preorder the book which comes with some amazing bonuses for a limited time to preorder the Routine Building Handbook, you can go to routinesandthings.com/book, or click the link in the show notes.
Ashley Brown 2:48
Hey, girl, welcome back for another episode. Today, I am so excited to talk about this. This is one of my favorite things to talk about when it comes to routines. And it is ways that routines really helped to benefit your life. When I was writing The Routine Building Handbook, what kept coming up for me is that I really wanted the book to basically I wanted to ensure that anyone who bought the book understood the true impact routines have on their life. And sometimes what happens is that we only are looking at routines in a very limited way, or we're looking at routines and a linear view. And it's really important to expand that view to see the ways routines affect your life on a deeper level. Sometimes we can stay very superficial. And it's like yes routines helped me to be organized. And it helps me to have structure. And it helps me to know what I'm doing, which is all great things.
Ashley Brown 3:57
But also routines have a deeper impact, right because being organized and knowing what to expect and having structure leads to some very impactful changes in your life in really beautiful behavior that you may not even recognize or be aware of at this moment. Because routines have a return on investment. And that's what I love about them so much is that when you put time into routines, you will get a return on your investment. Because routines give to you, okay is the gift that keeps on giving. And today I want to share with you the ways in which routine improves our lives that we aren't aware of or don't pay too much attention to those invisible ways that routines help us, that routines allow us to improve our lives ourselves. And so beyond the fact that they help you to stay organized and less stressed, I want to share with you a few invisible ways that routines really help you beyond that.
Ashley Brown 5:11
So let's go ahead and get into it. The first thing that comes to mind when I think about this is, they help you to build self trust. This was something that I saw very much so when building routines and maintaining them is that it really helped me to trust myself more because being able to be consistent with something, being able to consistently show up for yourself, your home, your family, it really helps to build confidence that you can stick to what you said that you can trust yourself to do the things that you need most in your life, to show up for yourself in a way that is really healthy. And so that is one thing that dramatically impacts your life. Because when you can, when you can trust yourself, do you know how many doors that opens, you know what that unlocks for you when you have self trust? You feel like you can do anything you feel like you know what I feel okay to try something new because I trust myself enough that even if it doesn't go as planned, I'm gonna be just fine.
Ashley Brown 6:25
Unlocking that self trust the fact that routines give you this and give all of us this is something that I definitely love about routines. Another invisible way that routines impact your life is they improve your relationships, you know, relationship with yourself, relationship with your family, with your children, they can improve those relationships, they can improve the relationship with your partner. I mean, think about it like getting your kids to bed on time through a bedtime routine. What does that do for you having me time? What does that do for you and your partner having lovey dovey time, you know, what does that do for even you and your kids relationship because you not fussing at them to get they but in bed.
Ashley Brown 7:16
These kids especially the older ones, right? So routines impact your relationships on in a major way because even if your partner is always like getting on you because because maybe they're like, you need a routine you need to be more organized like that can really shift your relationship by having routine be a part of your life still being you and still having routines meet you where you are and really still helping you to be yourself but it can really impact that like even consistent date night like think about that, you know, having a routine where you and your partner can go out or can stay in the house or have some time that on a consistent basis man that does the world of good. The next invisible way that routines help you is they move you closer towards what you desire. Hands down, I know routines have done this for me, specifically the planning routine. I think that just having that routine. For me it is such a peaceful thing for me like planning is my peacekeeper plan helps me to have more clarity of mind.
Ashley Brown 8:40
And yeah, moves me towards my desires, the goals I have in my life. And so routines definitely give me this. And they give you that right like the fact that when you have a routine you have less of a mental load. Because you know what to expect you know how you're going to do something you know the process of getting a certain thing done. And you also know when that routine is usually going to take place you may not have a definite time, which is definitely not necessary for you to have a definite time. But you have a ballpark around when this routine is going to take place which helps to lighten your load mentally. And so when you can have less mental load, right and that weight isn't on you mentally, you do have more clarity of mind. You also have time to give to your dreams. You now like having routines are part of your life. If your home environment is being managed well, then maybe this gives you the space to branch off in.
Ashley Brown 9:49
Have a creative outlet or start a business that maybe you've been wanting to start right or start to volunteer in a place that you want to volunteer. Routines move you closer towards what you desire and your dreams and those things that you want to accomplish and be involved in. And this is something that really is impactful from my life. And that has really moved me towards having a routine always be a part of my life because it has been that beneficial. The next invisible way is that routines help you to practice boundary setting. And I'm here to tell you boundary setting is huge. I've recently got the book it was some months ago, but I'm still reading it. And I've recently got the book, set boundaries, find peace. And in this book, she just goes through boundaries and stories about boundaries and tips about how to set boundaries, what to say how to go about it. And it has been teaching me so much about how boundaries setting and also maintaining your boundaries is so important for your life.
Ashley Brown 11:01
And so the fact that routines help with boundary settings, this is a way that I practice setting boundaries is by having my routines and it's like, no, like, my routines are here, I'm setting this boundary where my time and energy is going. And that's what it's going to be. And I'm not going to do anything different unless I specifically have to. But this is a boundary that I'm setting, this is the way that I clean my kitchen, this is how I put the children to bed, like I'm setting that boundary. And we're not going to shift that the fact that you can practice boundary setting with your own self, because really, that's what it is. you're practicing setting boundaries for yourself. Because you're telling yourself these are the limits, like I'm doing this routine in this specific way. And I'm doing this routine in this specific way. And so you're setting limits for yourself.
Ashley Brown 11:55
And limit setting definitely helps you to use your time in a more efficient and healthy way. And use your energy in a better and healthier way. And so the fact that routines allow you to put boundary setting into practice, what this will do is it can likely pour into other areas of your life. So the fact that you can set a boundary with yourself, then this could lead you to setting a boundary with someone else in your life, setting a boundary with your kids with your family. So that's definitely a highlight for me that routines really help in that way. And it's like that invisible way that we don't even know that we're setting boundaries with ourselves. And then when you find yourself being like, I need my me time, right and nobody interrupted my Me time, when you get to that point, you realize that Dang, I haven't set a boundary. And I didn't even know it by having this routine.
Ashley Brown 12:53
But it's bringing me peace. And it's helping me to feel grounded and stay connected with myself, which is important. And the final invisible way that routines impact your life is through role modeling healthy behavior for your kids. So this has been so major for my girls and just in my life in general because seeing them grow is the is the most precious thing to me. Like if I could just be with them and just be a fly on the wall just watching them all day every day. I probably would because I just love seeing their development. And one thing that I'm noticing about my children is they do like a freakin' routine. I mean, for real and they thrive with it and even how they go about things like oh my god is so cute. And this is for my youngest, right, my youngest girl is two my baby. And that's my boo. And when we come into the house, you know what this girl does?
Ashley Brown 13:59
She goes to the couch, takes off her shoes and put in and goes back to the entryway and puts them in the basket where we have shoes. clockwork. What does this do? First of all, what does this do for her life? She's learning how to practice boundary setting. She's learning how to build self trust. She's learning how to improve relationships because she's definitely improved her relationship with with me. When she does that. I'd be like go Mama, go girl. You are helping me out. You are helping me clean around this house. How much do I love you? right and so just seeing her model, my behavior and model the routines that I have in place is so beautiful and that's for both of my daughters. Like they like a routine and they like to know what to expect. Sometimes it gets on my nerves because I'm like we don't need to eat breakfast as 730 every morning that's just on school days, okay?
Ashley Brown 15:06
But yes, so it is just so beautiful to see how routines not only impact my life but they impact in the lives of my daughter. And so that's the same for you having routines a part of your life will impact your children in a tremendous way. That's what I want to share with you today. Because routines Yes, they provide those superficial benefits but I wanted to go a little bit deeper and really get you to understand that routines are the freakin' bomb. like are you kidding me? They're the bomb like they really help you in your life in so many amazing and abundant ways. So why wouldn't we want to have routine a part of our life so beautiful in The Routine Building Handbook I share I think six stories of women where routines have impacted their life in such a beautiful way. And in their own words, they say how routines have impacted them. And some of the invisible ways that spoke about today have come out in their stories, which is so beautiful.
Ashley Brown 16:20
The book right now is available for preorder for going to routineandthings.com/book or click the link in the show notes. When you preorder you get some beautiful bonuses, which I absolutely love, and I think you're going to enjoy. So like I said, you can preorder the book right now by going to routineandthings.com/book or click the link in the show notes. But before you leave here some routine wisdom for you today. Routines have a return on investment routines have a return on investment. So anytime you're putting into a routine you are going to get whatever you put into it back plus more.
Ashley Brown 17:02
Be sure to write and review the show five stars and leave a thoughtful review. I would definitely appreciate it and share this episode with someone you love today. Someone that you feel I may need routines a part of their life. And if you feel like they need routines that bad go ahead and preorder them a book as well. But until next time, continue to enjoy wherever you are, whatever you're doing, stay happy, and I will talk to you next week.
Ashley Brown 17:32 [Outro]
Thanks for listening. If you enjoyed today's episode, take a screenshot and share it on social I would love to know you're listening and for tools to help you start maintain and enjoy your routines. Be sure to head to routineandthings.com. Here's to staying happy.