Quotes About Routine

By doing a little bit each day you can get a lot accomplished

One of my most helpful Secrets of Adulthood is "What I do every day matters more than what I do once in a while.

For most people, whenever possible, important habits should be scheduled for the morning. Mornings tend to unfold in a predictable way, and as the day goes on, more complications arise—

I agree with writer Gertrude Stein: "Anything one does every day is important and imposing." I love repetition. Doing the same thing over and over makes me feel grounded in my life and makes my actions feel more meaningful.

Habits are the invisible architecture of daily life.

Secret of Adulthood: Keeping up is easier than catching up.

I've noticed that some people are serial goal setters, rather than habit formers.

Gertrude Stein remarked, "Anything one does every day is important and imposing and anywhere one lives is interesting and beautiful.

Our habits are our destiny.

A small daily task, if it be really daily, will beat the labours of a spasmodic Hercules."—Anthony Trollope

And there's one reason, in particular, that habits help to preserve our self-control. In ordinary terms, a "habit" is generally defined as a behavior that's recurrent, is cued by a specific context, often happens without much awareness or conscious intent, and is acquired through frequent repetition.

Research suggests that people feel more in control and less anxious when engaged in habit behavior.

Habits speed time, because when every day is the same, experience shortens and blurs; by contrast, time slows down when habits are interrupted, when the brain must process new information.

the Strategy of Pairing, I couple two activities, one that I need or want to do, and one that I don't particularly want to do, to get myself to accomplish them both. It's not a reward, it's not a treat, it's just a pairing.

As novelist Anthony Trollope observed, "A small daily task, if it be really daily, will beat the labours of a spasmodic Hercules.

There is no more miserable human being than one in whom nothing is habitual but indecision, and for whom the lighting of every cigar, the drinking of every cup, the time of rising and going to bed every day, and the beginning of every bit of work, are subjects of express volitional deliberation. Full half the time of such a man goes to the deciding, or regretting, of matters which ought to be so ingrained in him as practically not to exist for his consciousness at all.

So where should we start? It's helpful to begin with habits that most directly strengthen self-control; these habits serve as the Foundation for forming other good habits.

Habit is a good servant but a bad master.

A "routine" is a string of habits, and a "ritual" is a habit charged with transcendent meaning.

Jamie has a transition habit when he comes home from work. He gives everyone a hello kiss, then disappears for twenty minutes or so. He changes out of his suit, sends one last round of emails, glances at a magazine, and then he's ready to join the family.

Scheduling makes us far more likely to convert an activity into a habit (well, except for Rebels), so for that reason, I schedule even some slightly ridiculous habits, such as "Kiss Jamie every morning and every night." Habits grow strongest and fastest when they're repeated

Consistency, repetition, no decision—this was the way to develop the ease of a true habit.

A regular work schedule can help procrastinators because progress and engagement relieve their anxiety.

In other words, habits eliminate the need for self-control.