Clearly a week is not enough to draw conclusions, but I think that I already learned something from my "One year project".
I set up a goal and a series of activities I want to carry on to move towards my target. I decided that as a start, it would be ok to do at least three things per day related to the activities and therefore the goal.
If I look back to my past week, almost everything I did was related to the project, whether it was quality time with my daughter, or reading about my goal itself.
But I think I am missing something.
Every morning I wake up thinking about what I should do to make my day effective and full of valuable things. This is certainly a good step but I think it should be much more easier. What I am missing is routines.
I read a lot about habits and routines and I am now convinced that I like to have a life not completely driven by habits, a life where I can choose what to do each day, but, establishing some routines is really important especially if you want to have more time to decide war to do.
In my opinion routines are important because:
1) They free up thinking capacity
It's trivial, but sometimes we don't think enough about that: routines allow you to know in advance what to do without thinking about that.
So once you have established a morning routine that helps you start the day in a positive way, you don't have to think about it everyday.
Routines are a method and we often underestimate how much effort and time it takes to organize every day of our life if we don't have well established routines to help us.
2) They help you being more productive
Of course, once you have your set of routines well established in your life, your day become more productive.
And when I say established, I mean that they have become a habit, they are something you do automatically, without too much effort.
It's quite easy to understand that when you know very well what to do and you do it with an automatic trigger, then it's easier to fight distractions. If you have the habit to run every morning, it's much probable that the weather, or a friend's call won't distract you as they may do if you have to decide every day whether you may go running or not.
3) They establish a positive rhythm in your life.
Routines help you establish a positive rhythm in your life.
Take the smallest example of making your bed in the morning. It is something that also in the military life is considered as a first accomplishment in the day that will motivate you and help you reaching other goals.