It’s a new year which usually means you are thinking about the big goals you want to accomplish, the new habits you want to form, and the many routines you want to make stick this year. But how do they all work together? In this episode of the Routine and Things Podcast, you’ll learn how goals and habits fit into routines and how routines can be the driving force behind the things you want to accomplish most this year. This is going to be a good one so tune in to learn how to incorporate your goals and habits into routines.
Word for Word
Ashley Brown 0:00 [Intro]
Its the New Year which usually means you are thinking about the big goals you want to accomplish, the new habits you want to form, and the mini routines you want to make stick this year. But how do they all work together? In this episode of the routine and things podcast, you'll learn how goals and habits fit into routines, and how routines can be the driving force behind the things you want to accomplish most this year, this is going to be a good one. So tune in to learn how to incorporate your goals and habits into routines.
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 realized 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 in patiences, the impact routines had on my life was incredible. And I learned so much along the way.
Ashley Brown 1:43
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 your 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, improves 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 pre order the book, which comes with some amazing bonuses for a limited time to preorder the Routine Building Handbook, you get to routine and things.com forward slash book or click the link in the show notes.
Ashley Brown 2:46
Hey, hey, welcome back for another episode of the Routine and Things podcast. Happy New Year. Oh, man, oh, man I'm super excited about this year. Can you tell is 2022 and it just feels so so good to my soul. I'm really praying that this year is amazing for all of us and that it is filled with light and love and ease. Ease, ease. Honestly, I feel like that's my word for this year is ease. Because I really want this year to feel not easy, but that it flows with ease. So I'm super excited. Thank you for listening today. So today we're gonna be talking about how to incorporate goals and habits into routines. I was asked to talk about this. This was a question that I received on our end of your questionnaire from one of our community members, which I absolutely loved this question. And so that's why we're talking about this today. And I think it's the perfect time, right? Because it is the new year is like fresh, we are all making goals. We are all thinking about maybe some habits that we can start to form. And of course, I know you're thinking about some routines that you can get up and going this year.
Ashley Brown 4:14
And so this is a time for a lot of aspirations, a lot of dreaming, a lot of setting goals. And that's for myself as well, of course, like I'm a huge goal girl. So I'm talking about that I'm thinking about that. I had been planning out a lot of things for my life, my personal life. If you listen to the episode last week, then you'll know some of the things that I'm really thinking about doing in my personal life this year, but also things for the business right Routine and Things. I want it to grow. I want it to blossom and so I have a lot of great goals that I want to meet, meet and make happen this year. So super excited about the year. So excited for you as well. And so we're going to be talking about basically how this works. How do you incorporate goals and habits into routines? Now when I think about this, I'm going to share with you how my brain works when I think about how you can incorporate goals and habits into routines, right routines are just a set of steps that you do to reach a certain outcome, right to make something happen.
Ashley Brown 5:17
So as I think about it that way, I think about it like this. So when it comes to goals, I see routines as helping you to reach your goals, okay, because when you set a goal, what you can do is build a routine that helps you accomplish that goal. Right. So if you have the goal, which a lot of people have this goal of exercising more in the new year, and like I want to exercise more, I want to exercise exercise, right move your body, then you can create a routine that actually helps you accomplish the goal of exercising more of moving your body, right a set of steps that's going to help you move your body. Or you can build a routine where you have exercise a part of that routine, for example, maybe having a morning routine, where exercise is a part of that routine. Moving your body is a part of that routine. So that's how I see goals and retains merging and how you can fit them with each other is in that way.
Ashley Brown 6:16
So that's four goals. Now habits, because habits and routines are not the same thing. Habits are you unconsciously do your habits, like habits you don't have to think about, it's like brushing your teeth, you don't think about it really like once you pick up the toothbrush, you're not like oh, now I got to put toothpaste like you put the toothpaste, you start brushing your teeth, it's a wrap, right? You're done in a hot minute. So that's more like unconscious thinking. Routines are not unconscious thinking, you still have to think when you're doing your routines and moving around in your routines unless they become habitual. But it takes a lot of time for your routines like, especially if you have a good amount of steps in your routine, it takes a lot of time to get a routine to become a habit. So they're different. But how I feel like habits and routines kind of fit together is that habits can be a catalyst for routine. What I mean by this is, I have taught that it can be really easy if you're trying to adopt a new routine, to start that routine off with a habit like the first step being a habit that you already do.
Ashley Brown 7:27
For example, you have a habit of when you get out of bed in the morning, that is a habit you do, you don't have to think about it your butt got to get out of bed, you sit up here and step your feet out of that bed, and you and you go on and do whatever else you're doing. So if you want it to you could be like the first step of my routine, my morning routine is getting out of bed, that's a habit, then you can say after I get out of bed, I'm going to stretch, right. And so you can build a routine off of the habit. And the habit can be the catalyst for you starting that routine, because it'll just help your brain lock into it in an easier way. Right, it makes a transition a little bit easier. So that's how I think about habits and routines fitting together. And like I said, routines can become habitual, it just takes a lot of time, that's for any habit you're trying to form, it takes a lot of time to form an actual habit that you don't unconsciously think that you don't consciously think about.
Ashley Brown 8:26
Okay, so that's for habits. So that's for goals, habits, that's how routines kind of fit into that. Now I want to share something else with you. Routines are also a vehicle for both reaching your goals and forming habits, right? Like I want for you to really understand that routines are the vehicle for which you reach your goals and form habits. It can be, right. So like I was telling you before, if you have a goal you want to accomplish, you can create a routine that is going to help you accomplish that goal. It's the same with a habit, if you want to form a habit, you can create a routine that helps you get to the point of you're consistently doing that routine, and that will form a habit for you. So that's what I think is so beautiful and powerful about routines are they really help you to accomplish the things that you need to accomplish in your life and that you want to accomplish.
Ashley Brown 9:22
So if you are looking at your goals right now, for 2022 or any goal you have, and you are thinking about what how am I going to accomplish this goal. One way is to create a routine that is going to support you in accomplishing that goal. That's how bomb routines are. They are amazing. And the other beautiful thing about routines is that they help you reach your goals and form habits in a way that doesn't put a lot of pressure or strain on your mental health. That's what I love so much about routines is they really help you with keeping your mental health grounded. With your mental health being at a place where you feel secure in how you're thinking, when you feel secure in what you know about what's in your head, because we know everything starts in our heads, everything starts in our minds. And so that leads to to feeling certain ways to even sometimes behaving in ways that might not be as conducive or positive for your life.
Ashley Brown 10:25
So, if you are, if you are trying to reach a goal, or you are trying to form habits, the best way is through a routine because a routine is not going to put a lot of strain on your mental health is an easier way because it's a pre plan. Routines are only a plan to get from point A to point B. So if you are already being proactive, and you're already preparing yourself, for the routine that you are going to do that is already in your mind, you have already mapped out the steps. That's ease on your mind, right, your mind isn't having to think so hard. So I think it's just a beautiful thing for you to think about is routines can really help you in meeting your goals. And that's what I do a lot. Even in routine and things as I think about, oh, I have the things I need to do these goals I want to accomplish is there any routine that I can build that will help me accomplish this goal, like when I wrote the book, the routine but the handbook. I knew that I needed to write this book, I need to get words on type words on this computer and get a book together.
Ashley Brown 11:32
And so what helped me with that is I actually created a book writing routine that I had, where I would sit down, have me a cup of coffee, or some tea or some type of drink. And I would write for two hour blocks. And I would do that at least four to five times a week. But it was my routine that I was in. And I specifically built that routine because my goal was to write this book in three months. So that's how I just wanted to share with you that's an example of how you can really build a routine to support you in whatever goal you have. So that's that's how I think about incorporating goals and habits into routine. So I hope that that was helpful. As you begin to set goals in form habits in this new year, think about how routines can help you with this, really think about it, ponder on it.
Ashley Brown 12:22
And if you do create a routine that's going to support you in any goal that you have, or in forming a habit, I would love to hear about it, you can definitely shoot me on Instagram at routine and things. Tag me let me know. And I'm definitely rooting for you. But I hope that this was really helpful. So be sure to go ahead and pre order The Routine Building Handbook now. It releases on January 25. But your support would mean so much this book is amazing is really going to help you in building routines for your life that are realistic, that are really here to meet you where you are and is a step by step guide. I mean this will last you your entire life you can pass it down to your children, you can even buy them their own their own copy like it's it's that great of a book that you're going to want to have as you move forward in life. And so you can purchase that by clicking the link in the show notes or going to routineandthings.com/book. But yeah, that's there for you.
Ashley Brown 13:24
Thank you for joining me for this episode. And I hope that whatever goals you have that they come about with ease, right, they come about with ease with joy with positivity and love, and that any aspiration you have any goal, any habit that you're trying to form that it will come to fruition this year. I really really hope that for you. Okay, well untill next time continue to enjoy wherever you are, whatever you're doing, stay happy girl, and I'll talk to you next week.
Ashley Brown 13:56 [Outro]
Thanks for listening. If you enjoy 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 routine and things calm. Here's to staying happy
Its the New Year which usually means you are thinking about the big goals you want to accomplish, the new habits you want to form, and the mini routines you want to make stick this year. But how do they all work together? In this episode of the routine and things podcast, you'll learn how goals and habits fit into routines, and how routines can be the driving force behind the things you want to accomplish most this year, this is going to be a good one. So tune in to learn how to incorporate your goals and habits into routines.
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 realized 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 in patiences, the impact routines had on my life was incredible. And I learned so much along the way.
Ashley Brown 1:43
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 your 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, improves 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 pre order the book, which comes with some amazing bonuses for a limited time to preorder the Routine Building Handbook, you get to routine and things.com forward slash book or click the link in the show notes.
Ashley Brown 2:46
Hey, hey, welcome back for another episode of the Routine and Things podcast. Happy New Year. Oh, man, oh, man I'm super excited about this year. Can you tell is 2022 and it just feels so so good to my soul. I'm really praying that this year is amazing for all of us and that it is filled with light and love and ease. Ease, ease. Honestly, I feel like that's my word for this year is ease. Because I really want this year to feel not easy, but that it flows with ease. So I'm super excited. Thank you for listening today. So today we're gonna be talking about how to incorporate goals and habits into routines. I was asked to talk about this. This was a question that I received on our end of your questionnaire from one of our community members, which I absolutely loved this question. And so that's why we're talking about this today. And I think it's the perfect time, right? Because it is the new year is like fresh, we are all making goals. We are all thinking about maybe some habits that we can start to form. And of course, I know you're thinking about some routines that you can get up and going this year.
Ashley Brown 4:14
And so this is a time for a lot of aspirations, a lot of dreaming, a lot of setting goals. And that's for myself as well, of course, like I'm a huge goal girl. So I'm talking about that I'm thinking about that. I had been planning out a lot of things for my life, my personal life. If you listen to the episode last week, then you'll know some of the things that I'm really thinking about doing in my personal life this year, but also things for the business right Routine and Things. I want it to grow. I want it to blossom and so I have a lot of great goals that I want to meet, meet and make happen this year. So super excited about the year. So excited for you as well. And so we're going to be talking about basically how this works. How do you incorporate goals and habits into routines? Now when I think about this, I'm going to share with you how my brain works when I think about how you can incorporate goals and habits into routines, right routines are just a set of steps that you do to reach a certain outcome, right to make something happen.
Ashley Brown 5:17
So as I think about it that way, I think about it like this. So when it comes to goals, I see routines as helping you to reach your goals, okay, because when you set a goal, what you can do is build a routine that helps you accomplish that goal. Right. So if you have the goal, which a lot of people have this goal of exercising more in the new year, and like I want to exercise more, I want to exercise exercise, right move your body, then you can create a routine that actually helps you accomplish the goal of exercising more of moving your body, right a set of steps that's going to help you move your body. Or you can build a routine where you have exercise a part of that routine, for example, maybe having a morning routine, where exercise is a part of that routine. Moving your body is a part of that routine. So that's how I see goals and retains merging and how you can fit them with each other is in that way.
Ashley Brown 6:16
So that's four goals. Now habits, because habits and routines are not the same thing. Habits are you unconsciously do your habits, like habits you don't have to think about, it's like brushing your teeth, you don't think about it really like once you pick up the toothbrush, you're not like oh, now I got to put toothpaste like you put the toothpaste, you start brushing your teeth, it's a wrap, right? You're done in a hot minute. So that's more like unconscious thinking. Routines are not unconscious thinking, you still have to think when you're doing your routines and moving around in your routines unless they become habitual. But it takes a lot of time for your routines like, especially if you have a good amount of steps in your routine, it takes a lot of time to get a routine to become a habit. So they're different. But how I feel like habits and routines kind of fit together is that habits can be a catalyst for routine. What I mean by this is, I have taught that it can be really easy if you're trying to adopt a new routine, to start that routine off with a habit like the first step being a habit that you already do.
Ashley Brown 7:27
For example, you have a habit of when you get out of bed in the morning, that is a habit you do, you don't have to think about it your butt got to get out of bed, you sit up here and step your feet out of that bed, and you and you go on and do whatever else you're doing. So if you want it to you could be like the first step of my routine, my morning routine is getting out of bed, that's a habit, then you can say after I get out of bed, I'm going to stretch, right. And so you can build a routine off of the habit. And the habit can be the catalyst for you starting that routine, because it'll just help your brain lock into it in an easier way. Right, it makes a transition a little bit easier. So that's how I think about habits and routines fitting together. And like I said, routines can become habitual, it just takes a lot of time, that's for any habit you're trying to form, it takes a lot of time to form an actual habit that you don't unconsciously think that you don't consciously think about.
Ashley Brown 8:26
Okay, so that's for habits. So that's for goals, habits, that's how routines kind of fit into that. Now I want to share something else with you. Routines are also a vehicle for both reaching your goals and forming habits, right? Like I want for you to really understand that routines are the vehicle for which you reach your goals and form habits. It can be, right. So like I was telling you before, if you have a goal you want to accomplish, you can create a routine that is going to help you accomplish that goal. It's the same with a habit, if you want to form a habit, you can create a routine that helps you get to the point of you're consistently doing that routine, and that will form a habit for you. So that's what I think is so beautiful and powerful about routines are they really help you to accomplish the things that you need to accomplish in your life and that you want to accomplish.
Ashley Brown 9:22
So if you are looking at your goals right now, for 2022 or any goal you have, and you are thinking about what how am I going to accomplish this goal. One way is to create a routine that is going to support you in accomplishing that goal. That's how bomb routines are. They are amazing. And the other beautiful thing about routines is that they help you reach your goals and form habits in a way that doesn't put a lot of pressure or strain on your mental health. That's what I love so much about routines is they really help you with keeping your mental health grounded. With your mental health being at a place where you feel secure in how you're thinking, when you feel secure in what you know about what's in your head, because we know everything starts in our heads, everything starts in our minds. And so that leads to to feeling certain ways to even sometimes behaving in ways that might not be as conducive or positive for your life.
Ashley Brown 10:25
So, if you are, if you are trying to reach a goal, or you are trying to form habits, the best way is through a routine because a routine is not going to put a lot of strain on your mental health is an easier way because it's a pre plan. Routines are only a plan to get from point A to point B. So if you are already being proactive, and you're already preparing yourself, for the routine that you are going to do that is already in your mind, you have already mapped out the steps. That's ease on your mind, right, your mind isn't having to think so hard. So I think it's just a beautiful thing for you to think about is routines can really help you in meeting your goals. And that's what I do a lot. Even in routine and things as I think about, oh, I have the things I need to do these goals I want to accomplish is there any routine that I can build that will help me accomplish this goal, like when I wrote the book, the routine but the handbook. I knew that I needed to write this book, I need to get words on type words on this computer and get a book together.
Ashley Brown 11:32
And so what helped me with that is I actually created a book writing routine that I had, where I would sit down, have me a cup of coffee, or some tea or some type of drink. And I would write for two hour blocks. And I would do that at least four to five times a week. But it was my routine that I was in. And I specifically built that routine because my goal was to write this book in three months. So that's how I just wanted to share with you that's an example of how you can really build a routine to support you in whatever goal you have. So that's that's how I think about incorporating goals and habits into routine. So I hope that that was helpful. As you begin to set goals in form habits in this new year, think about how routines can help you with this, really think about it, ponder on it.
Ashley Brown 12:22
And if you do create a routine that's going to support you in any goal that you have, or in forming a habit, I would love to hear about it, you can definitely shoot me on Instagram at routine and things. Tag me let me know. And I'm definitely rooting for you. But I hope that this was really helpful. So be sure to go ahead and pre order The Routine Building Handbook now. It releases on January 25. But your support would mean so much this book is amazing is really going to help you in building routines for your life that are realistic, that are really here to meet you where you are and is a step by step guide. I mean this will last you your entire life you can pass it down to your children, you can even buy them their own their own copy like it's it's that great of a book that you're going to want to have as you move forward in life. And so you can purchase that by clicking the link in the show notes or going to routineandthings.com/book. But yeah, that's there for you.
Ashley Brown 13:24
Thank you for joining me for this episode. And I hope that whatever goals you have that they come about with ease, right, they come about with ease with joy with positivity and love, and that any aspiration you have any goal, any habit that you're trying to form that it will come to fruition this year. I really really hope that for you. Okay, well untill next time continue to enjoy wherever you are, whatever you're doing, stay happy girl, and I'll talk to you next week.
Ashley Brown 13:56 [Outro]
Thanks for listening. If you enjoy 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 routine and things calm. Here's to staying happy