Episode 56 | Is Your Routine Helping You or Holding You Back?

Welcome to the Better Workday Podcast. I'm your host, Niamh Moynihan, and today I want to talk about routines at work.

Hello, hello, and welcome back to the Better Workday Podcast. How are you doing? So I took a bit of a podcation. If you are a regular listener, you might notice that I haven't been around for the last week or two. And that's because I just needed a break. The podcast has been going for over a year now, and I wanted to take a step back and take a look at how things were going, get myself re-energized, come up with a few new ideas, and I'm back more excited than ever.

And while it was great to have a break, what was funny was I really missed the whole process of recording, editing, uploading all the bits and pieces to do with the podcast. And it made me realize that I'd really made this part of my routine. And it got me thinking then is routine good, bad or a of both when it comes to our working day. So today I want to talk about that. Some cases where I see routines being very helpful in the work day.

but also a few things I've seen recently that makes me wonder, are we getting too rigid in some areas of our lives? So let's get into it. I'm going to start with some of the cases where routines are really good at work. The first is your breaks. I think if you're going to have any routine in your workday, it has to be around your breaks. And what I mean by that is 95, 96 percent of the time, I want you to take your main break of the day at the same time.

every day, regardless of where you're working. And the best way for you to be able to do this is to schedule it as a repeating event in your calendar. Now, this is so obvious, but yet most people I meet don't do this. They skip the step of scheduling in this meeting with themselves, this lunch break. And then what happens is other stuff goes in and so lunches at a different time every day. Sometimes it doesn't happen at all. Sometimes it's really short.

And what that's going to do is really put your breaks at the bottom of your list. Now, if you've been listening to me for a while, you know that breaks are absolutely crucial for having a better work day. Without them, you're not going to have to focus. You're going to be less creative. You're not going to be able to make the best decisions and you're going to leave the day exhausted, having no energy or interest left for everything else that's happening outside of work. So breaks are a must have. But yet we don't put them into the calendar.

Now, when I ask people why they don't schedule their break, they just say that they like to work flexibly, they like to have freedom in their day. And then before they know it, the day is gone. But what if I asked you to take that flexibility out and put in more routine? So, for example, years ago, I worked in retail, I worked in retail all through secondary school and through college. And in those jobs, I had to clock in and clock out of work. And I had to take breaks opposite somebody else so that there was always cover.

And in those jobs, we all had a break time and you know we all took a break and we all took the full break. There's no one clocking back in early from their lunch break because you're not going to get paid. OK, so in those kind of roles, well definitely when I was working in them, I always took my break and then I moved into a desk based role and I got this freedom, freedom to schedule my day as I liked or so I thought. And the first thing to go was the breaks.

Because sometimes when there is not a limited time frame for us to take the break, we feel like we have all the time in the world. And what happens then? Well, it doesn't happen. So I definitely think that bringing a little bit more of routine and structure around breaks and starting and times is really, really important in your workday. Now, the other area where I like a bit of routine is my uniform. So again,

Over the years, I have spent ridiculous amount of time, unnecessary time worrying about what to wear, what to wear to the office, what to wear when I'm working from home on camera, what to wear at events, all of the things. And so over the last while, I'd say maybe a year, I started to bring back in a uniform. Again, remembering those days when I used to work in places where I had to wear one and the freedom of not having to worry about such decisions.

I mean, I think I've said it in a few episodes past that we are dealing with so much information these days and there are so many decisions we have to make already. I'm all about reducing that. And so you'll notice that on the podcast, if you're watching on YouTube, I tend to wear the same things all the time. If you've seen me deliver workshops, you'll see me wear similar things all the time. We're even down to my shoes. OK. And what that does is it just frees up the mental load because you know you're going to wear one of three things and that's done.

And the third thing that I love when it comes to routine is my non-negotiable. So I have one thing that I will do every day of the week. So Monday, it's one task. Tuesday, it's a different task. Wednesday, it's a different task and so on. And what it means is that I know that every Monday I'm focusing on a certain thing, every Tuesday I'm focusing on something else. And it allows me to, again, have to make less decisions about the day. So in all these cases, I think that routine structure is great.

But on the other hand, I put out a new blog recently on hybrid working 2025. And the reason I did it is because a lot of us have been hybrid working for a while, but that doesn't mean we're working well. As humans, we are really good at just accepting things that are slightly uncomfortable, a little bit less than optimal. And we're like, we'll get on with it. But I feel it's always good to stop and think, is this really working well for me?

And one of the things I've noticed, especially when I'm talking to teams who are hybrid, is that we seem to have put work into two different boxes. So this is the work I do on my home days and this is the work I do in the office days. And that sounds great. And it sounds like you're getting really organized. And in theory, I think it works really well. But what if something changes? Like, so what if for some reason you can't get into the office for a whole week? Are you going to be able to do the stuff that you've put in the in the office box from home?

Or what if for some reason you have to go into the office more often for a period of time? Are you going to be able to do your home stuff in the office? And I worry that sometimes we over structure our week and kind of push these, I don't know, boundaries around our work. And then if there's any change at all, we're out of sorts, we're stressed, we don't know how we're going to handle it. Now, if this is resonating with you, one thing I'd like you to do is to mix it up.

in the week ahead. Okay, so something you normally do from home, I want you to wait for an in-office day and vice versa because you can do it, of course you can do it. You're very capable of doing your work from anywhere and I think it's good for us to remember that often so that if things change that are outside of our control we still can feel in control of our work and of our day. And the other thing I mentioned in that blog was changing your environment.

So again, you know, there might be a chair with like a dodgy wheel that you've been putting up with or maybe, you know, you've needed a footstool for a while, but you haven't got around to it every couple of months. I think it's good just to check those things. But also, again, if you're watching on YouTube, you might have noticed I change my room around a lot. So if you know me, you know, I change my whole house around a lot. Actually, I'm one those people that's always moving furniture.

But from a work perspective, again, I feel this shifts my routine. It changes my energy. It gives me a new perspective. And especially if I'm feeling like I want to, you know, make a run of things or I want to to really focus on a new project, I like to change up my direction and to kind of see things in a new way. So again, if you feel like creativity has been stalling or you're in a bit of a rush and do something like changing up the place that you work and if you're working from home.

You'd be amazed at the difference it makes.

so really what I'd like you to think about after this episode is where are routines supporting your work day and where are they maybe holding you back or restricting you? OK, so Always think, are these routines setting me up for success during the day? Are they supporting me? Are they reducing decision fatigue? they making the day flow more easily? Are they supporting my energy levels? All of those are good routines.

And on the other hand, I want you to think are there any areas that are too structured, too rigid?

that if you had to be flexible, you'd almost break. And if that's the case, again, I want you to test that out now. I want you to flex a little bit, change things up to remind yourself that, course, you can adapt. Of course, you can change things up when needed. So I would love to hear from you if you decide to implement a routine, i.e. schedule your recurring meeting for your lunch or some other routine. Or on the other hand, if you decide to shape things up a bit, love to hear that from you as well.

As always, can find my contact details in the description along with the full show notes. And if you found this episode helpful, please share it with a friend or colleague who you think would benefit. OK, that's it from me. Until next time, stay well and have a better work day.