How to Create a Personal Development Routine That Fits Into Your Busy Lifestyle
A good personal development routine can change your life – and it will! 😉
Get over your excuses of not having enough time to improve yourself. The truth is that it doesn’t have to take thousands of hours – it can be done even in 10 minutes a day! Let me show you how…
Are you ready to create a personal development routine that can help you level up even if you have an extremely busy lifestyle? Then, let’s get started!
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Choose a goal
Before you start creating your personal development routine, you need to get clear on the goal you want to reach.
What is it that you want? What do you hope to get from your new routine?
Have a clear outcome in mind. Ask for what you want, and you’ll be more likely to have it.
Maybe you need a new personal development routine because your days aren’t as productive as they used to be. So, your goal is to become the most productive ever!
Maybe you’ve fallen off track with your sleeping schedule, and want to return to being an early riser rather than a night owl.
Or maybe, you want to bring more mindfulness into your day but don’t know how to do that, so you think a new personal development routine will help.
Identify the desired outcome you’d like to have and start taking small steps in the right direction.
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Define your priorities
The quality of your life is a sum of many aspects: your relationships, health, career, hobbies and passions, and anything else that matters in your life.
After choosing the one big goal you’d like to reach (e.g., waking up early), you need to define your other priorities.
The goal you’re chasing is one, but there are other areas of your life to consider.
I would recommend not choosing more than 3 priorities at a time. Of course, we all go through phases in our lives where something matters more than something else. Our priorities are allowed to change – as we change and evolve, they change as well.
Take some time to reflect on this stage of your life and ask yourself: “What are my priorities, now?”.
Maybe you’re in a phase where you’d like to grind and work hard on your side hustle to enjoy some peace and calm later on after you get the results you’re aiming at.
Or maybe you’ve noticed that you’re going down a spiral of negative thoughts too often, and want to work on developing a more positive mindset.
Maybe you’ve been too hard on yourself lately, and need to invest your time into being more self-compassionate and self-loving.
Only you can know what you need the most, now, in your life.
Use habit-stacking
To ensure you stick to your personal development routine, you can use one of the most famous hacks ideated by James Clear, in his book Atomic Habits.
We’re talking about habit-stacking, which is the process of pairing a new habit with an older one, to make it easier for you to stick to your healthy habits in the long run.
For example, if you want to pick up the habit of meditating daily, you could decide to meditate for 10 minutes a day right after drinking your morning coffee.
If you want to start journaling, you could choose to do it at night, as the last thing you do right before falling asleep, after reading some pages of your favorite book.
Or, if you want to drink more water, you could decide to drink a full glass of water at a set time every hour, right after doing 1 hour of hyper-focused work.
You can use your current habits to help you create the ideal personal development routine you’d like to implement.
Positive habits can help you build more positive habits. Get momentum by layering your habits in a way that makes it so easy to stick to them.
Aim at small progress
One of my favorite mantras is: “Small progress is better than none”.
It helps me get rid of my perfectionist tendency and accept that it is better to start doing the work rather than waiting for the perfect moment to come.
Because, do you want to know the truth? The perfect moment doesn’t exist!
There’s no better moment than this, right now, to start making progress toward your dreams and goals.
So, you said you were going to write 1.000 words per day but today have only 10 minutes and can only write 500 words? No panic – you’ve still committed to your promise!
Can’t go on a one-hour walk but can take a quick stroll around your neighborhood? Well, it’s better than no movement at all!
Did you wake up late, this morning, and can’t follow all the steps of your productive morning routine? It’s still fine – just pick the one habit that makes you feel the best and do it!
Don’t find excuses for not doing what you’re supposed to do.
There’s no worse excuse than saying you don’t have the time to do something. Why? Cause if you really care about something, you’d do anything in your power to make time for it!
Do what you can – it is and will always be better than doing nothing at all.
Reward yourself
Finally, if you want to stick to your new personal development routine in the long run, you must make it enjoyable.
As you try to become your best self, don’t forget to cherish who you are now.
There will always be some things you’d like to improve about yourself or your life, but that doesn’t mean you can’t take the time to celebrate your progress along the way.
For example, if you’re not able to meditate for 10 minutes yet, but can now commit to at least 5 minutes of daily meditation – be proud of yourself!
Did you manage to write 7.000 words this week? That’s amazing – go treat yourself!
Or, if you’re now waking up 30 minutes earlier than you used to, celebrate how far you’ve come by getting a great coffee from your favorite coffee shop!
Find something pleasant that can give you a shot of instant gratification. Feel proud of yourself for the positive change you’ve built in your life.
Acknowledge that it’s not easy to change habits, life, or behavior – so, if you did or are in the process of doing it, let me tell you: you’re doing amazing!
It’s time to treat yourself because…you deserve it! 😉
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Conclusion
That’s all for me today!
You have the power to create an effortless personal development routine you can stick to even during your busiest times. To do that, you only need to:
- Choose a specific goal
- Identify your top priorities
- Use the power of habit-stacking
- Make small, daily progress
- Reward yourself
Q: “What’s your ideal personal development routine?” – Let me know in a comment! 🙂
Until next time,
