"I feel like I'm in a rut."

"Every day it's the same routine."

"It's the same thing every day: Get up, go to work, come home, eat dinner, go to sleep."

Complaining about routines is as common as complaining about bad weather. When people think of routines, they think about monotonous, boring, and uninspired behaviors. Personally, I think that routines have an unnecessarily bad reputation.

It is because of routines that I get to enjoy (and have) my free time. I speed through the mundane because I have set routines in place. I don't waste time doing things I don't want to do. I find the most efficient way to handle the things that must be done, and focus my energy on the things that I truly enjoy.

I have routines in place for all of the household chores, handling repetitive tasks at work, errands, and communications. If it's a task I don't like to do, I probably have a routine to handle it. Here are a few examples:

Laundry routine

• Monday: Launder dirty clothing
• Tuesday: None
• Wednesday: Launder bedding
• Thursday: Launder towels
• Friday: Launder dirty clothing
• Saturday: None
• Sunday: Launder delicates/hand wash items

Laundry is put into the machine at 8:30 a.m., moved to dryer at 10:00 a.m., and folded during lunch break.

End of work day routine

At 6:15 p.m.:

• Review daily to-do list and move any unfinished items to tomorrow's list
• Put away all office supplies, file papers, and clear desk
• Push Do Not Disturb button on office phone
• Swap external backup hard drive with new hard drive
• Return any kitchen items to kitchen
• Power things off and call it a day

What routines do you have in place? What aspects of your life could be made into a routine to help give you more free time to enjoy?