Transcription
This year is going to be the year where you lock in and transform your life. I know that you are so over your procrastination; you're tired of your own, and you are ready to get organized and get your life together. Building a routine that works helps you build structure, confidence, and trust in yourself. It helps you balance everything in your life; this way, you can finally do all of the things that you want to do.
When I finally figured out how to build a proper routine, my entire life transformed. All of my goals and dreams started manifesting. I am going to give you some major tips that helped me take my life from a 180—to being a disorganized mess, my life was all over the place—to somebody who's now running multiple creative projects, having time to work out, having time to see my friends, and also having time to network.
And I want to preface this video by saying that I am not telling you that you need to be perfect, you need to be healthy all the time, your routine needs to be on 10 all of the time. If anything, that is extremely unhealthy. I hate pushing hyper-productivity; I think that it is so toxic. This video is literally just going to teach you how to really crack down on those goals that you said you're going to do in the new year. I am going to help you cultivate a well-thought-out plan on how to actually have that good, healthy work and life balance together. We're going to make a schedule and a plan that's specifically tailored to you, so this routine works for your personality and your actual habits. Because bottom line, you're just more likely to stick to a routine that's tailored towards you, not something that's just general for everyone.
Hello, my name is Rea. I create glow-up content, advice content, and also vlogs. If you guys love this video, please remember to give it a thumbs up, so I know that you love it and I can create more of it. And if you like this video, I also have a full playlist on more advice. So if you are about that self-help development life like I am, you need to watch that playlist.
You need to understand your current habits, because if you do not understand your current habits, you won't know what's working and what's not working and what you need to change before you transform your life. This is key; this is just fundamental. If you don't do it, you're just going to flop. Think about it this way: if you're building a house, why would you just not check the foundation? You want to make sure the foundation is sturdy and right, and then you want to go ahead and build your house on top of that.
So this exercise I'm about to give you, I did a year ago, and I just found that it really transformed my life. It put into perspective how much time I was wasting, which I had no idea. Most people think they're too busy to make time for things or do things; I have too much on my plate; I'm just doing things all the time. But truly, they are not doing things all the time; they're just getting lost on their phones, or they're getting lost on their Netflix shows. They are truly not keeping track of how much leisure time that they're using.
We are going to use an example, so we are going to use Jane. So she is a college student, and she also works full-time. So Jane is always saying that, "Oh girl, I'm too busy to go work out; I'm too busy to have hobbies; I'm not meeting new friends because I'm not going to networking events; it takes too much time to get ready; it takes too much time to drive there; I'm not doing it, girl." So we told Jane, "You need to actually look at your routine because you probably have more time than you realize." So Jane is like, "Okay, fine. What is the exercise?"
So the exercise is to basically wake up every single day and log your entire day for 3 days straight. So she started logging her entire day from when she woke up, from how long it took her to get out of her bed, how long she was scrolling on her phone in bed before she got up and brushed her teeth and did her skincare, how long it took her to cook because she was also watching a TV show, and she would stop cooking and watch the show. She started tracking every single thing about her day, and Jane started finding a pattern, and she saw that she scrolled three to four hours every single day on social media. When she found this out, she started making some changes. She said, "Look, I'm going, going to put a timer limit on my social media because this is not okay; it's distracting me; I'm not learning anything." She put a two-hour timer on the weekends for her social media, and she replaced scrolling with reading books, picking up a new hobby. She started painting; she started making time once a month to go networking; she joined Meetup, and she started meeting new people through networking events, volunteer groups. She found that she has a deep passion for volunteering for the Youth. Because she would wake up at 7 a.m., and she would spend time scrolling on social media for one hour before she got up, so she decided to go to bed earlier and wake up earlier. She woke up 30 minutes earlier for the entire week, so that extra 30 minutes in the morning could squeeze in some time doing some meditation, doing some reading, or even journaling.
By making these small adjustments, by just assessing what her day-to-day life was like, just for three days, made her happier, made her healthier, made her more intentional with what she was even watching on social media. So you and I both need to hop on the Jane train for the next three days. I want you to log every single thing you do for the entire day. You need to be very honest with yourself, because if you're not being honest with how much you're spending time doing other things that aren't really that important, you're not going to really build a good routine. You need to log every single time you're looking at your phone; you need to log how long it takes for you to decide what to eat that day; every little thing. So this is not about having the perfect day; this is actually just about having the most realistic day possible. So you can use your notebook to do this, or you can use your phone app; it works either way. I personally would just use my phone app, to just because it's super handy, and I can just hurry up and type down what is going on throughout my day. Remember to be super detailed; do not skip the small things. And after major activities, you want to start logging how that made you feel: if it made you feel energized, drained, or neutral. Let's say you spent two hours just scrolling, looking at random videos on Instagram; how did that make you feel? Do you feel better, or do you feel like you just wasted your time? Do you feel more drained and negative? How long did it take you to do your workout session? Did it make you feel lighter, happier, healthier, or was your workout session just really stressful, and you wish you did it earlier in the day?
At the end of the day, you want to look at your log, and you want to see if you can find any patterns. Are there hours of the day where you are most productive? Are there hours of the day where you are feeling sleepier, less energized? What do you typically feel after similar activities? I know for myself, I work best in the morning. So when I was logging my days, I found that I just got more done in the mornings; I had more on my plate; I felt more energized. But if I ever tried to do anything like answer work emails or work out during the evenings, I would just feel more drained and lazier. I also found that I use my phone the most during midday. A year ago, I felt like I had no time to work out; I just had way too much on my plate. How can I work out if I'm hanging out with my friends, if I'm picking up my hobbies again, if I have to eat three times a day? And I started tracking my days and looking at my schedules, and I was like, "Wait, if I'm spending two hours on the phone scrolling, I can spend one hour working out. This makes no sense."
Awareness is truly the first step towards transformation. If you're constantly saying, "I don't have time for this; I don't have time for that," track your days and see, because I guarantee you, you have some time somewhere. Time is what we want most, but what we use worst. Not all hours of the day are created equal, and not all environments and spaces make us feel useful or productive. One of the biggest mistakes that people make is working in an environment that is not good for them and trying to be productive in an environment that is just not suited for them. For example, some people can work on their couch just fine; they feel comfortable working on their couch. I cannot; I have to work at my dining table. Sometimes I even feel better working in my bed, even though I like to keep my work outside of my bedroom; it does feel a lot better for me doing minimal work emails in my bed. Figure out a part in your home that makes you feel most productive and the best. Some people have to entirely leave their homes and go to a cafe. Try mixing it up in your routine. If you typically work on your couch, try working at your dining table. If you typically work in your home, try working at a cafe; see if you feel more productive.
I want you to map out what your non-negotiables are for the day, and I mean absolutely non-negotiables: like there is no way you cannot not do these things. So that's like picking up your kids, dropping your kids off; this is going to your college classes. What are your daily habits that you absolutely cannot skip, no matter what? This actually forms the foundation of your routine, even on your hardest or busiest days; you still have to get your non-negotiables done. Having to take courses for your certificates, having to go in the office for work—these are your non-negotiables; you have to do it, no matter what. After this, you want to create a list of your goal non-negotiables. So your daily non-negotiables are things that just happen that you have to do, and your goal non-negotiables are things that you created for the year, so your yearly goals or even your life goals that you want to start working towards and adding to your daily routine.
So after you have assessed your life, you finally realize what things are working and what things aren't working; you are starting to see what your non-negotiables are and what you need to do every day. And when you look at the schedule and you realize you have one or two hours of time that instead of scrolling, you could do something else, you can incorporate these goal non-negotiables. So let's say you want to learn a new language this year; you want to learn Russian. So figure out, "Oh, instead of scrolling on my phone for two hours, I can just do my Russian lessons for one hour." Doing this will help you marry both what you have to do and what you want to do throughout the week. I, I want you to use Google Calendar to log in those non-negotiables and just see what other free space that you have.
One of the reasons why people fail at their goals, never achieve them, and always cut things off is because they overload their schedules with too many demanding tasks. Trying to do too many high-effort tasks in one day is the reason why people get burnt out. If you are able to split up your high-effort tasks throughout the week instead of just one day, which is like a Monday for most people, you will not burn out as quickly. So, so what I want you to do today in your notepad or your phone right now while you're watching is to create two separate lists. I want you to create a list of low-effort tasks and high-effort tasks. You can do mid-effort tasks, but I would just say for this to simplify it, just do low and high. High-effort tasks take a lot of focus. Think about it this way: a low-effort task is something you can do while watching Netflix; a high-effort task you cannot; it takes a lot of focus, creativity, brainstorming, problem-solving. While low-effort tasks, you can watch Netflix; you could do it on autopilot; you can do it while you're on the phone with your friends. By categorizing these different tasks, you're able to clearly see what is high and low effort for you, so you can tailor it towards your specific schedule. I would say try to not put more than three high-effort tasks in your everyday routine. I personally just put only two high-effort tasks every day, just because that's the way that I work best.
An additional way to figure out whether something is high effort and low effort is to log how you feel after these tasks. Do you feel drained? Do you feel tired after, or do you feel more energized, like you're ready to move on to the next thing? If you feel tired or drained, it's probably a really high-effort task, and if you feel ready to move on to the next thing because you're glad the other thing is over and it was really easy to get rid of, that's a low-effort task. Productivity is not about doing more and more and more; it's about doing things at the right time, because that is the only true way that you can stay consistent. By balancing your high and your low-effort tasks, you will be able to accomplish so much more. I work well in the mornings; when do you work well? Do you work well in the mornings? Are you more of a productive person in the evenings? You need to start tracking these patterns, and you have to start paying attention to these patterns, so you are merging your to-do list with your body clock. You need to figure out what your natural rhythm is, so you can work with it instead of working against it.
So for an entire week, I want you to try your routines in different spaces; see what works for you throughout the week and what you prefer. After tracking your body clock and and figuring out when your energy is high and when it's low, you want to put your most important tasks to your peak hours. So if you are most productive in the mornings, you want to do your most important tasks in the morning; do more high-effort tasks in the mornings, like brainstorming, coming up with ideas. And during those times where you have lower energy, do things that you can just basically do on autopilot. Since I'm somebody who does not work well in the evenings, I do things like responding to emails; I do a little bit of editing during the evenings, just something where I don't have to use so much brainpower. I used to try to force myself to do more work in the evenings because I wanted to be well-rounded throughout my entire day, and I was like, "Hey, I want to be productive from the morning to nighttime," so I tried to do some actual workouts in the evening; I just could not; I couldn't even get through the workout; I couldn't do my entire workout because I just felt so drained and so sleepy. But that is a prime example of me not paying attention and listening to my body clock. When I started moving my workout routines to the morning right after I wake up, my productivity just increased so much; I got way more done faster.
Now this is where all of the planning comes together. Building a routine is one thing, but actually executing is what separates you from people who are lazy and doing nothing. After you have done all of the steps that I told you, now it is time to build your schedule and your routine. I want you to share down below in the comments the things that you want to incorporate in your routine and some of the things that you want to actually take away and replace with something better. So to manifest your dream routine in your life, I want you to open your iPhone app or your notebook, and I want you to write down your ideal day, and I want you to get so freaking specific, just how we got specific with what you do every single day. You need to get specific with how your everyday looks. Write down what you do in the mornings. For me, in the mornings, I made an intentional effort to not check my phone as soon as I wake up. As soon as I wake up, I do some light stretching, and I do a 10-minute meditation, and I go in the bathroom; I brush my teeth; I do my skincare, and then I check my phone. Doing this just made me feel so much healthier and happier, and I started combining certain things like talking on the phone with my girlfriends while I'm doing laundry, while I'm cooking. So instead of just working throughout the day, I'm also talking to the people that I love. So I want you to write down your ideal day in specific detail; I want you to make it as realistic as possible, but also write down some of those goals you have for the new year and for your life and make really small tasks that just add up to your big results.
So now that you have written down your daily routine, we need to talk about what your weekly routine is going to look like, because your day is not going to look the same every day. My Mondays do not look like my Fridays; I have two different routines. So your weekly routine is going to help to balance those long-term goals. So instead of you learning Russian every single day of the week, you are learning it only on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. Instead of working out every day of the week, you work out only on the weekdays. Building this roadmap really helps to avoid that last-minute stress and scrambling. Every Sunday for 30 minutes, I get my planner, and I start writing down how my entire week will go. I write down the most important things of my week every single Sunday; events that I have for the week; meetings I have for the week. It helps me because I build my schedule around that.
Automate what you can and batch what you can. So this is a major game changer for girls who feel like they don't have a lot of time. I went through the same thing, and when I started automating things, it changed my life. Time is the most valuable resource, and the key to using this valuable resource in a proper way is to reduce the mental load of repetitive tasks. There are things that you can automate, and there are things that you can batch. Automation is about putting certain tasks on autopilot, so this could mean scheduling your bill payments; this can also mean setting up recurring grocery deliveries, or it can mean creating reminders for regular activities. Now batching involves grouping similar activities together. The first thing you want to do is look at the repetitive activities in your life, like meal prepping, cleaning, or answering emails. For that cannot be automated, batch them. For things that have to be batched, dedicate one hour of your day to do similar tasks. So instead of responding to your emails throughout the day, respond to all of them within one hour. One of the things that I do that has changed my life is I batch record for my social medias. Instead of just recording every single day, putting on my makeup every day, getting dressed every day, it's actually just two or three days during the week where I just record a lot, and sometimes I don't even record for that week because I did a huge batch recording the week before, so I can take the next week off.
Breaks are so important. As somebody who loves relaxing and doing nothing, you have to take breaks. I recommend doing 15- to 20-minute breaks; I think that's so great for your brain to cool down and to relax. Not all breaks are created equal, though. Sometimes you can think that you're taking a 15-minute break on social media, and you're actually scrolling for an hour; it can actually leave you feeling drained or distracted. Instead, I think that if you do prefer scrolling on social media or watching Netflix, put a timer on your phone for it during the week, but try to use breaks that actually energize you: so taking walks, stretching, or even meditating. So after an hour or an hour and a half of doing work, make time for a 15- to 20-minute break. This way, you can recharge and refocus and actually do your work even better. You are not a workhorse, okay? You are not meant to be productive all the time. This will keep you consistent because you know that you are not working nonstop, that you are actually putting in time for yourself.
Now let's talk about this big obstacle of burnout, because I have been through burnout a few times, and it is the most horrible thing ever, because it is so hard to get back on your feet after your burnout. It is so tempting to feel so pumped for the New Year and be like, "I'm going to have all this on my schedule; I'm going to have a productive day from morning to night," but that is just so bad for your mental health, which is why sometimes I really resent those videos where girls are talking about waking up at 4:00 a.m. to start their day. I just feel like that is ridiculous for most people. I think that everyone deserves their rest; you should not be stressing out about how to be the most productive human being. Your mental health and your energy is the most important thing ever; stress literally ages and kills you. So you want to tame your stress as much as possible. So let's start by reflecting on your current life. How do you feel right now watching this video? Do you feel burned out? Do you feel like there's just so much on your plate and you cannot handle and you need to make some adjustments to your routine? Do you have those days that you just feel so unproductive, like you don't want to do anything at all; you just sit in bed all day, and you just find that, "Wow, I truly did not do anything because I just felt so drained"? That definitely means that you are burned out, and it is time to examine your schedule and start tweaking your routine. Look at your schedule and ask yourself, "What am I realistically able to handle?" I want you to look back at those high and low energy lists that I told you to write out; is there a way that you can split that up, and instead of doing four high-energy tasks, you're just doing one a day?
Being successful in a healthy way takes balance. On one hand, you want to be productive; you have a lot that you want to get done; you have a lot that you want to manifest. But on the other hand, you also want to prioritize rest, and you want to prioritize having fun and doing things that don't add up to a goal. You want to take care of yourself; you always want to put yourself first; you don't want to stress yourself out; you want to treat yourself like the best person in your life, as if you are a little baby; you need to take care of yourself. But at the same time, you need to realize that becoming this successful person that you are going to become takes a lot of sacrifice. I had to sacrifice so much in my life to get some of the biggest things I've gotten in my life. I had to sacrifice so much to get my rental property, to move to a new state that I never lived in, to get my college degree. I had to sacrifice so much in my life to get to where I am, and I am so grateful for it. But one of the things I do regret sometimes is, "Hey, I should have taken care of myself more; I was so hyper-fixated on this one thing that I just neglected another side of me." When you use the routine that I gave you, you will start to finally balance fun and activity and hobbies when actually getting things done, because you don't have to choose. One of the things that women just need to remember is you are not a constant project; there is not something you always have to work on; sometimes just being yourself is enough; sometimes just loving the skin that you're in, being grateful for where you are, just loving your friends, having fun. One of the things I regret when I was in my hyper-productivity era was just not having fun.
And not taking advantage of, especially my early 20s, of just going out, partying more, not just being locked up in the house, not talking to people for days, it is so important to do things that don't add up to a goal as well. Go to a painting class. Go to museums more, especially if you get your museums free. Start learning a new instrument that makes you happy, that you've always wanted to learn. Take those salsa classes. Do something that doesn't make you any money at all.
A lot of people are just so brainwashed into thinking, if it doesn't make me money, it's not worth it, but that is not true. If anything, I have more fun doing things that don't make me any money. Progress is not linear. There are some days where you are not going to have perfect days. I have a lot of days that are not perfect, but with my routine of balancing everything, I feel that long-term my goals make sense, and I always achieve them because I have penciled in the most important things and I get it done. But I also make sure I get done my hobbies, my fun, seeing my friends. This routine will most definitely give you that well-balanced life.
If you enjoyed this video, please give me a thumbs up. I have an entire playlist on more advice. I love you guys so much. If you're in your early 20s, you need to make sure you watch my latest video on how to not regret or ruin your 20s. I love you guys so much. Thank you for watching, and I'll see you in my next one. Bye