I think it’s safe to say we all have routines in our lives… dance routines, beauty routines, morning routines, workout routines. It’s completely normal. Some people also have weekly routines where they do the same thing every week on the same day. I like to attribute these routines to highly organized people, but I could be wrong.

Some of us then have other routines. Routines for how we do everything from what order we open tabs on our internet browsers to order in which daily tasks need to be performed. And when you add in a short attention span, you then repeat the order of tasks over and over again throughout the day, completing a step for each task each time. And that’s when the routines actually start messing with your productivity rather than enhancing it.

But I’ve yet to figure out a different way of doing things that works for my brain. And I’ve tried all kinds of different techniques, I always come back to the same routine. As long as I can keep everything at baseline, I can maintain a state of productivity. Unfortunately, as soon as I fall behind on something though, I end up continuously behind until I have an extra day off.

Some days I don’t think my routines are healthy or normal. But they’re such an ingrained part of me now, I wouldn’t know what to do without them.