Supercharge Your Routine With These 5 Easy Changes

Having a good routine is essential to your productivity. The most accomplished among us have good routines they stick to relentlessly, rain or shine.

That’s not the only thing they do, though. They also research the best ways to change or improve their routine so they’re better able to reach their goals.

After several years of reading productivity books and fine-tuning my routine, these are the 5 changes that have made the most difference.

#1: Cut down on (and then eliminate) social media

Social media is now well-known for the host of psychological harms it causes, from heightening depression to encouraging consumerism to reinforcing political polarization. And when you quit social media, you reclaim both your free time and your sanity. Those are both great reasons to use social media less.

When I quit social media, my life transformed pretty dramatically.

• I went from reading one book a year to reading 75+ books each year
• The amount of money I spent on clothes and consumer purchases per year annually by thousands
• My friendships became much deeper and more satisfying
• My romantic life became much less stressful
• My dreams of becoming a professional writer started to become reality

All of this was possible because I wasn’t screwing around on social media anymore. I wasn’t worrying about what anyone else thought or what they were doing. I wasn’t looking at advertisement after advertisement for things I didn’t need. I was finally free to focus on me.

If I could recommend one change to your daily routine, it would be to cut down on your social media use (or quit entirely, if you can).

#2: Meditate for a few minutes every morning

It’s easy to overlook if you’re not paying attention, but most people start most days off on the wrong foot.

Maybe they wake up already stressed. They get right out of bed and start doing task after task as they occur. By the time noon has rolled around, it already feels like they’ve been working all day.

More commonly, they wake up too slow. They don’t want to get out of their warm covers. They especially don’t want to work. If they could lay around in bed for six hours (or better yet, six days), they would be thrilled.

The ideal way to start your day is with a calm but ready attitude. Bringing either sleepiness or stress to the start of your day can determine how the whole day goes.

Meditation, even for just a few minutes, ensures you start the day with a calm and ready attitude.

As they say, meditation centers you. Meditating for just a few minutes can settle stressed nerves, help your sleepy body wake up, and prepare you for the day.

For me personally, morning meditation anchors me. It helps me process whatever stress I wake up with. It also gives me an opportunity to observe the tone of my thoughts for the day and adjust accordingly.

If you frequently wake up and don’t feel ready for the day, morning meditation is a great addition to your routine.

#3: Eat yogurt every day

Your stomach and your intestinal tract has millions of bacteria growing in it at any given time. Depending on what kind of bacteria are growing there, your body will feel good or bad.

If good bacteria are growing, you feel good. You feel energetic, creative, and intelligent.

If bad bacteria are growing, you don’t. You feel lethargic, possibly sleepy. You feel gassy and have to use the bathroom frequently. Your stomach feels upset after eating.

Yogurt is amazing. It promotes the growth of good bacteria and enables the death of bad bacteria. Just one container of yogurt a day can keep your gut microbiome in good order.

For me, a yogurt specially formulated for probiotic activity at morning and at night makes me feel much better.

If your body doesn’t feel good these days and you want something small to help your body feel better, try eating probiotic yogurt in the morning and evening.

#4: Give up caffeine

Most Americans are dependent on caffeine. A cup of coffee wakes them up for work or re-energizes them halfway through the day.

Not me, though. I’m caffeine-intolerant.

A single small cup of half-strength coffee can make my heart rate spike so high so fast it would scare a cardiologist. As a result, I’ve never had caffeine — and that enables me to see caffeine culture clearly.

And what I’ve seen is, you guys drink way too much caffeine.

Most Americans complain about not getting enough sleep or not being able to sleep well. But most Americans drink a lot of caffeine, and caffeine interferes with your ability to sleep (which means you only need more caffeine later!)

Most Americans complain about needing caffeine during the midday slump, which only happens because of inadequate sleep, which is a result of caffeine consumption.

Most Americans complain about how much they spend on Starbucks or energy drinks. They only drink these drinks because they want the caffeine!

I’ve never had caffeine, so I don’t need it. I wake up every morning at 6 AM with all the energy I need, and I go to bed at 10 PM ready for sleep.

If you want to make a positive change in your life, quit caffeine. You won’t regret it.

#5: Adopt a minimalist attitude

The more clothes and hygiene products you own, the more time you have to spend rifling through them in the morning looking for what you want.

Generally speaking, as you own more stuff, you have to spend more time looking through your stuff. As you own more stuff, you have to clean more stuff. Sort more stuff. Pay for more stuff. Take care of more stuff. Deal with more stuff.

All of that takes time and energy.

If you want a change to your routine that will give you more time and energy, get rid of some of that stuff.

Getting rid of my stuff made my life a lot better. Fewer clothes meant I was able to do laundry more frequently and put all my clothes away properly. Properly cleaned laundry made getting ready in the morning much more quick and enjoyable. Fewer hygiene products meant showering and getting ready took less time too.

And through the rest of the day, fewer possessions means an easier day. My apartment gets dirty far less often. There is more room for me to live my life. I don’t have to spend much time cleaning for my apartment to look very clean.

If you want to make one change to your routine, I recommend dealing with less stuff.

Will starting this morning routine transform you into a million-dollar money machine? Probably not. But they are definitely a good start.

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