Routines – Freeing or Forbidding

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Routine Equals Freedom

You have to be impressed with the stacking routine in the video above. Having gone through rigorous music training as a kid, and being a private music teacher for the past 37 years, I can truly appreciate the amount of practice that goes into mastering a routine to this level.

For people like myself, routines are freeing. Knowing what you want to do (or in many cases, what you HAVE to do) and coming up with a plan of execution is really 90% of the battle for getting things accomplished. The other 10% rests squarely on the Nike philosophy: “Just Do It”.

My piano students are all too familiar with the well-worn phrase, “You gotta do your REPS.” Even the word ‘routine’ implies that you’ve done it before. Everyone knows that the more you do something, the better you get at it. The better you get, the more you like it. The more you like it, the more you do it. The more you do it…

And so it goes. That’s how the novice gets good; the good gets better; and eventually, the better have a chance to become the best in their field.

Read Wayne Gretzsky’s biography and see how many slap shots he took after school every day as a kid.

Read Michael Jordan’s biography and see how many jump shots and lay-ups he took every day after school.

Read about J.K. Rowling or any other famous author and see how many pages they had to write before a single book got accepted and published.

Anybody who ever became anything did so because they had a routine which they adhered to unswervingly. And who will argue with the level of freedom they all attained as a result of their rigorous routines?

When Routines Are Forbidding

“Repetition is the mother of skill.”

Try Googling that famous quote and see what you come up with. Teachers, coaches, counselors, motivation gurus… they all preach the same thing. If you want to get good – or at least better – at something, you simply have to increase the number of times you do it. You have to put in your time; pay your dues; no pain, no gain.

OK, you get the point, right?

However, for most people, routines are torture beyond toleration.

“It’s so BORING!”, they cry.

How many times do you think Wayne Gretzsky imagined himself shooting the winning goal in game seven of the Stanley Cup finals when he was a kid practicing for hours behind the garage?

How many times do you think Michael Jordan imagined himself beating the buzzer with the game winning point for the NBA Championship with each practice shot he took?

How many times do you think J.K. Rowling and other author/creators imagine the amount of pleasure they will bring to their audiences?

What does this have to do with the endless household routines such as laundry, dishes, cooking, and driving the kids all over town?

EVERYTHING!

The difference between a boring routine – one that is so forbidding that it really is torture beyond toleration – and a routine that is liberating is frankly the way we see it.

The best people in their chosen fields credit routine for most of their glory while less successful and mediocre people tend to see routine as gory. It’s that one missing letter “L”, which could stand for ‘Labor of LOVE’, that makes all the difference.

Routines Cause Rigidity

I have to agree with this one to some extent. I become extremely uncomfortable if my meticulously planned out routine is upset by even the slightest variation. Being a creature of habit, my body goes into panic mode when I’m asked to juggle just one more ball.

Routine people often become grumpy and impatient; intolerant and inflexible. We are like fish out of water, literally unable to breath or cope in an unfamiliar environment.

That’s why you’ll find routine people typically arriving extra early for appointments and schedules, because we need a safety cushion of time ‘just in case’ something happens and we have to jump tracks.

Routines – To Do or Not To Do

Let’s face it, there are some things in life that just have to be done, whether we like it or not. Inevitably, somebody has to do it.

That ‘somebody’ doesn’t always have to be you. The three things that time and project management systems teach us is to

Do it
Delegate it
Dump it

Like all successful people, find something to love about the routines you take on. For example, I pride myself on the amount of work I’m able to accomplish. I thrive on Maggie’s praise as I organize and maintain the household schedules, keeping everybody on time.

If the job is important, but you absolutely loathe doing it yourself, find someone to whom you can delegate the task. Suggest a routine to get them started, but be willing to back off and allow them the freedom to get the job done their way. Remember to lavish them with praise so they will want to continue making their new routine a ‘Labor of Love’.

Finally, if the task is actually not a priority and/or you cannot find another person to take on the work, feel free to dump it.

The Final Word on Routines

“Do what you love and the freedom will follow” is probably great paraphrase to sum up the power of routines. A routine done as drudgery is purely a waste of time. You won’t do a good job today. Eventually you’ll quit anyway.

Like Wayne, Michael, J.K. and all the other successful people: