#including but not limited to writing or work or chores ugh

[vanmarkus]

WIP Wednesday 💌

I've been slowly inching my way through this one the last couple of weeks, but on the bright side I feel like we're nearly there (except for the fact that it is looking to round out somewhere around 10k instead of the initially estimated 4k but what's new, really). anyway, here, have this tiny snippet for today.✨

“Tommy, wait.” Buck blurted out in a sudden panic, prompting Tommy to stop in his tracks and turn back from the doorway.

“Yeah?”

“I—” The words were hanging off of the very tip of his tongue, sticking to the roof of his mouth as he swallowed and tried to push them past his teeth, but the seconds were ticking by and he just stood there with his mouth agape, no sounds coming out, until: “Call me. W-when you get there, just- just call me.”

For a moment, there was a flicker of surprise flashing across Tommy’s face, before his features melted into a gentle smile.

“Of course. I’ll call you every day, alright?”

“Uh, y-yeah, alright.” Buck fisted the metal in his hand a little harder, trying to ground himself as he watched Tommy wrap his own hand around the doorknob, ready to leave.

“Goodnight, Evan.” His voice was soft like a caress against Buck’s skin and Buck had to close his eyes for a moment as it washed over him — by the time he opened them again, Tommy was gone.

“Night.” He breathed into the large, empty space of his apartment.

✨I have been tagged by and am tagging the wonderful @sunshinediaz @spagheddiediaz @jeeyuns @exhuastedpigeon @bidisasterevankinard

@diazsdimples @honestlydarkprincess @watchyourbuck @actualalligator @bucksbignaturals

@loveyouanyway @glorious-spoon mwuahhh 💛

[wisenedup]

Why I’ve been so quiet so long(the gist of it is ‘intense family drama and really shitty health’, it’s very long sorry)

As y’all should know by now I have just like, an entire laundry list of mental health issues; I’m autistic(itself not a problem), have BPD, a severe anxiety disorder, depression, ADHD, and maybe C-PTSD it’s hard to say with everything else. Pretty much everything I have comes with the fun symptom of executive dysfunction, which basically makes it difficult to start and complete tasks- such as reading, writing, eating, cleaning, self care, etc. Basically it makes being alive difficult.      Late 2016- long story short my mom moved out of the country and I had to find my own place and moved in with my boyfriend of at the time 5 years(now 7). He and I had been talking about moving in together for like 2 years before that, he was well informed of my MI stuff(including how hard/impossible it is for me to do dishes and things that involve leaving the house like garbage and laundry) and was very supportive; we agreed that he would be responsible for the dishes and whatnot.      Fast forward about a year and a half, the house got so dirty we had 3 back-to-back gnat infestations, a pile of pizza boxes up to my waste, and maggots and mold in the dishes in the sink because Nathan hadn’t washed them in so long. At one point management of the apartment complex was notified and just *gestures* it never got that bad but it kept cycling back to ‘pretty bad’ because Nathan’s run so hard at work that he just will not do anything around the house and I ask him to do stuff and he complains and takes like 4-7+ days until he does it- I had to throw out my favorite pot because it got entirely coated in mold, we had over 6 garbage bags in the spare room at one point because he wasn’t taking them out, etc.      Cut to about 2 months ago, we hadn’t been shopping in literally a month. We were out of food and I hadn’t eaten anything except a lil candy and like, 1 serving of McDonalds in like 2 weeks. My mental illnesses got about as bad as they ever have been and I napped for 2+ hours every day because I was so tired and miserable- I made a plan and the main reason I didn’t go through with it was because I couldn’t get the items I needed thanks to not being able to order stuff online or get to a store IRL.        Blah blah blah other stuff blah blah, about 3 weeks ago Nathan’s like ‘I’m gonna go visit Bear(his friend who he talks to for 2+ hours every day) for a month starting April’ which like, great. Shit already barely gets done while you’re here, you’re gonna take a month off of your like $10.00 an hour job while I can’t work(I’m on SSI) to fuck off and have fun with your friend and leave me, a person with a severe anxiety disorder and no ability to leave the house, alone.      A couple days after that I hear from my mom that she’s gonna be moving back to the states very soon, getting home before Nathan leaves for Florida actually. She’s gonna be in Ohio to visit me and auntie and pick up her car. Because we have a spare room and I don’t do well living on my own(I start to get anxiety attacks after about 3 days and they escalate to panic attacks after about a week), I was like ‘why don’t you stay with me while you’re here’.       Blah blah blah, a little more drama(her ex-husband’s an asshole and was being a pain about giving her car back, she doesn’t wanna be here while he’s here, he’s threatening to call the police on her, etc etc) and lots of shifting plans(Nathan figuring out when he’s gonna go and come back, mom figuring out when she’s gonna get to the states, come here, go home, etc), we’re currently on “Nathan’s leaving on the 18th of April and coming back the 22nd of May” and “Mom’s coming the 21st of April and leaving probably before Nathan gets back”.      My mental health always gets worse around my birthday(which was the 12th) and it was even worse with the entire thing with Nathan, him hardly helping out around the house, etc etc.      I ended up doing most of the cleaning and he finally helped and he hasn’t been as much of a pain about it- but he’s also been working under the excitement of ‘I’m gonna be gone for 5 weeks’ soon and he always punches up the helpfulness around birthdays and anniversaries. He’s had like 6 days off in the past 2 weeks and while yes he finally has helped out a lot with stuff that needs done(I’ve had dirty clothes in the hamper for over 8 months, the fridge and counters are finally free of dirty dishes), there’s still more to do and he’s spent most of his free time on the computer, playing PS4, talking to Bear, and complaining about how much he has to get done before he leaves.       On top of that, all this time(starting before our month-long absence of groceries and my literal starvation) I’ve been complaining to mom about how he doesn’t help out like he said he would and how he complains so much when I ask for help, how he won’t come serve himself when I make dinner, etc etc. I told her how we hadn’t been shopping in a month and I was literally starving and desperately suicidal for like 2 weeks and along with the topic of her moving back to the states she was like ‘well why don’t you move in with me’.      After about a month of thinking, cleaning, mulling, talking with a bunch of my friends with it... It’s not good for me to stay here. I realize and completely understand that his job is hella stressful, but it’s not the most stressful job anyone has ever had. The other manager screws him over and he gets stuck with shitty shifts, but he has 3 days off every week and accepted responsibilities around the house. I definitely believe part of his problem is that he never fucking eats; the difference in mood and energy I had after going from ‘barely/not eating at all’ to ‘eating not necessarily well but at least once daily’ is astounding and it’s just insanely frustrating living with someone who doesn’t do the things they said they would do, complains when I ask for help, and lets the house get so bad we get maggots, fruit flies, and mold. Our respective mental health stuff plays VERY poorly off of each other and when the house gets bad(aka all the time), my mental health nose dives. Never mind how rarely we go shopping, translating to how rarely we have food, made even rarer because the dishes are so often dirty and the counters are so often covered, making it impossible to cook.      My mom on the other hand, even when she was working like 60-65 hours a week 6 days a week(compared to his ~40 over 4 days), while less stressful than his(she owned a vape shop in a small town), still got chores done every week, helped me do them, helped me cook when I couldn’t, and went grocery shopping EVERY WEEK.        After a lot of deliberation- I don’t want to screw him over by not being around to clean any more and once my SSI isn’t helping pay rent and bills any more he’ll be left with about $190 a month after rent and bills for food or anything**- my friends have helped me realize that me leaving isn’t throwing him under the bus-- he’s already done that. Me leaving is me pulling myself out from under the bus. So. That’s been rough. I’m gonna talk to mom about it while she’s visiting but at this point it mostly comes down to whether or not I can bring my cat, since I refuse to leave her here or rehome her. **Also he’s made a few comments about ‘I know I complain about my job being shitty but who else an afford to take 5 weeks off with no pay!!’ and I’m like... NOT FUCKING US. You’re a shift supervisor at a KFC, dude. I’m on SSI.      We have so much extra money because we never go grocery shopping(that right there would take care of over $400 a month), we don’t have a car, we don’t have any insurance, we never go anywhere(shopping or otherwise. cabs in town are $6 one way and Nathan likes to tip a dollar or two, so that’s at least almost $30 a month we aren’t spending), we never clean so we aren’t spending money on laundry or cleaners(the use of the laundry machines alone would be $10-$20+ every month that we aren’t spending), so like. There’s over $450 we just aren’t spending every month because we DON’T DO THE THINGS WE DO. And he always harps on about how ‘wow we’re responsible adults!’ RESPONSIBLE ADULTS EAT, CLEAN, AND WASH THEIR CLOTHES, NATHAN. Responsible adults don’t blow over $1,500 on a 5 week vacation with no pay when they make $10 an hour. Just. Ugh      Things have been pretty alright the last few days because it’s my birthday and nathan is always way more helpful around my birthday so we’ve ogtten most of the cleaning and stuff done and I was feeling bad about thinking about leaving but just like, dude. Shit is so bad and he’s acting like it’s not. This is even longer than I was afraid it was gonna be :/ Thanks if you read it all and just. Ugh. Yeah. Finally got most of the house cleaned up and my birthday’s behind me and my mood’s improving some, so I’m gonna be trying to get active on here. Nathan’ll be gone for 5 weeks soon so I won’t have the stress of having him around for a while and I’ll be able to cook for myself without fear so that should help... but also I get so anxious alone in a house. Probably will be limited activity while mom is around too because we’ll be hanging out and we’re gonna go out to eat at a bunch of places and to at least the Aquarium. Nathan’s gonna blow insane month we don’t have on visiting his friend? I’m gonna blow money on mom and me. I have over $1,000 in cash because, again, we never fucking shop, and I won’t be able to spend any of it until at least after the 21st and I’ll get another $750 on the first, so I’ll be set for a while, but I’m gonna try to save a good portion for if shit works out and I end up moing back in with mom.

[arplis]

Arplis - News: We all know that children function better when their lives are centered around routines, but did you know that the same goes for adults?  A daily routine literally determines what we can do and how productive we are each day

There are no limits to the benefits of a daily routine. I learned very early on, as a new mom, the importance of having a daily homemaking routine.  For me, I couldn’t function well in chaos.  The messier things got, the less I would get done.  Can you relate? When I decided to take a good look at why I wasn’t getting anything done, even though I was exhausted every day, I found that I had very “loose” routines…and that was stretching it.  Laundry baskets were overflowing, there always seemed to be dishes in the sink, bills got paid by the skin of my teeth and we were living in, what the FlyLady calls, CHAOS…Can’t Have Anyone Over Syndrome. UGH!!! When I realized that I didn’t have a purposeful plan each day, I had that “aha” moment! I needed some sort of balance.  I can’t stand it when I don’t accomplish anything.  It leaves me feeling some what down and disheartened.  That’s what living in CHAOS does for you. Since I was a full time homemaker (a SAHM), I knew there were at least four areas in my life that I knew having a daily and weekly routine were a must.  Those areas were personal finance, housekeeping, meal planning and my kids.  I knew that if I could get a handle on these four things, everything else would naturally fall into place.  And guess what!?  I was right!  Homemaking tasks are simple, but they won’t ever get done without a plan. Benefits Of A Daily Routine There are so many benefits to a good daily routine and without one, so many things suffer.  We all need a good daily routine for our own mental and physical well being as well as the well being of our families. If you look at the lives of some of the most successful people in the world, the common denominator that enables them to be successful is routine.   I’m going to try to break it down and show you what the benefits of a daily routine are and how you can implement some or all of these suggestions to improve your day to day life and well being for you and your family.  Why?  Because a daily routine is important for everyone, whether you work inside or outside of the home, are a full time homemaker, are retired or are male or female.  They are important for our over all well-being and here’s why. Creates Structure When you have some kind of structure to your day, that automatically put’s you in control of it.  YOU get to choose how your day goes.  There’s no “winging” it.  The structure gives you direction and organization in your life.  You already know what you need to do and you just do it.  Once your finished with one task, you move on to the next.  Once structure is established, these tasks become habits.  It takes the guess work out of what needs to be done each day. Saves Time and Eliminates Procrastination When certain tasks and activities become routine, it reduces the chance that we will put off doing them.  In other words, procrastinating.  When a habit forms, it almost becomes automatic to do it. For example, most of us brush our teeth and shower every day.  We don’t think about having to do it, because it has become a habit.  We might not do it at the same time every day (even though we probably should), but we do it. Laundry Laundry is an area where procrastinating can have huge, unwanted consequences.  If you don’t have an established routine for household chores, it can only be a short matter of time, before they can snowball out of control.  The laundry monster can grow from one little pile to a huge mountain in a matter of a day or two.  Then the task becomes so overwhelming that you don’t know where to start.  A routine of doing at least one load of laundry a day, from start to finish, will hold the laundry monster at bay. I developed a daily and weekly cleaning schedule years ago and I still stick to it.  I found that if I had a simple checklist of things to do everyday, the job of cleaning my house wouldn’t be so daunting. Do The Dishes! Another example I can give you about saving time, in this regard, is how cleaning your kitchen up every night saves time. I know that you may be tired and tempted to stack the dishes in the sink when dinner is over and leave them until the next day.  I’ve been there.  But what usually happens when you start the day with a dirty kitchen is that something will come up that you have to tend to and so the dishes remain.  Next thing you know, it’s 4:00 and time to start dinner.  But, guess what?  Last night’s dishes are still sitting there, all crusty and gross.  Now, you have to chisel the food off, empty the dishwasher and reload it (or hand wash), before you can even get to starting tonight’s supper.  You now have double the work ahead of you.  Wouldn’t it have been simpler to just have loaded them last night?  This would have saved you time and frustration. We know that procrastination is a waste of time and energy.  Having a routine is one way to get around it, because it frees up time that would otherwise be spent on planning, decision-making and preparation. Our routine has predetermined our schedule, which in turn, allows us to use our time more efficiently. Saves Money When we follow a routine with our finances, it can save us a ton of money.  For example, we do a budget every month, religiously.  Without one, our finances would be a mess and we would probably be broke.   Every aspect of our lives flows through our budget, from where we live, to what we drive, what we eat, how we pay our bills, where we go on vacation, etc.  If you don’t establish some sort of routine for your finances, your life may be in shambles, as well.  We all need a routine, a time each week or month to make sure our bills get paid.  Late fees can really add up and cost you if you don’t have a plan for when you do your budget and pay your bills. Another area that routines can save money is in meal planning.  Finding time to map out your weekly meals and grocery shop is an important habit to get into, otherwise it cost you in unexpected trips through the fast food line or trips to the grocery store. Builds Momentum and Self Confidence Navy Seal Admiral William H. McCraven said this to the graduating class of the University of Texas, a few years back, about making your bed: “If you make your bed every morning, you will have accomplished the first task of the day. It will give you a small sense of pride, and it will encourage you to do another task, and another, and another. And by the end of the day that one task completed will have turned into many tasks completed.” “Making your bed will also reinforce the fact that the little things in life matter. If you can’t do the little things right, you’ll never be able to do the big things right. And if by chance you have a miserable day, you will come home to a bed that is made — that you made. And a made bed gives you encouragement that tomorrow will be better.” When we have a routine and stick with it, it gives us a tremendous sense of self satisfaction.  That in turn fuels the desire to keep going and try to accomplish even more.  When we have a sense of accomplishment, it naturally builds our self confidence. I’ve made it a practice to start every day with a “to-do” list.  You may think this is silly, but I write down every thing I want or need to do each day.  I even include the most mundane task, such as “clean out the refrigerator or wipe out the microwave”.  Even though it’s a mundane chore, when I do it, I get a satisfaction from crossing it off the list.  Then, at the end of the day, when I have mostly everything crossed off, I can see what I’ve actually accomplished. Helps Achieve Goals Achieving our goals rarely happens overnight. The way to accomplish your goals is by doing the same things over and over again. An athlete gets good at his sport because he practices daily.  Remember the old saying, “practice makes perfect”?  Well, I don’t know about perfection, but it will certainly make you better the more you do something. My home is clean and organized and it generally stays this way.  I have a good system down that I have been working for years.  It has gotten much easier for me to keep it this way because I have a good routine in place.  Developing and sticking with a routine that is congruent with your goals is one of the surest ways to ensure success. Improves Self Discipline Deciding that you need a routine is the easy part.  Actually doing it and sticking with it is the hard part.  This is where self discipline comes in.  According to a 2013 study by Wilhelm Hoffman, people with high self control are happier than those without.  The study discovered this is true because the self disciplined subjects were more capable of dealing with goal conflicts.   Self discipline is a learned behavior.  It requires practice and repetition in your day to day life. We all know, as parents, how important routines are to children.  Why is this? Children develop self-discipline when a pattern is repeated consistently, each day.  When they have structure and routine, they learn there is a wakeup time, a nap time, dinner time, bedtime, homework time, etc.  Children will learn self discipline and that is what is going to set them up for success, later in life and will allow them to make smart decisions when Mom and Dad aren’t around. Lowers Stress and Anxiety There will always be things in our lives that are beyond our control, and we need to accept that. However, there is so much that we can control, especially if we follow a routine. Structure and routine reduce stress because it allows our mind and body to go into automatic pilot.  For example, think about how stressed you would become if you got ready to go somewhere and you couldn’t  find your car keys. If you’re already running late, this could cause your stress levels to go through the roof!  The way to alleviate or prevent this from happening is to have a place, ie. a bowl or hook near the door to put your keys.  Get into the habit of putting them in the same place as soon as you walk in the door.  Voila!!  Stress alleviated! Another way to lower stress is to prepare as much as you can the night before.  This simple act of preparation can make a huge difference of how your whole day will go. Daily routines take the guess work out of what needs to be done, thereby eliminating stress, because we don’t have to think or worry about what we need to get done.  It puts us in control of our lives instead of circumstances controlling us. More Time To Relax Following a good, healthy, efficient routine of our day-to-day tasks and chores provides us with more free time to do as we please.  There is a time and place for leisure and relaxation and adhering to a routine frees up the time for it. There are so many benefits of a daily routine and they are a great way to keep yourself on task.  The longer you stay with it, the more each task will become a habit.  Decide what you want to achieve in your life and center your routine(s) around those goals.  You can definitely create harmony and stability within your home and family.  Give yourself time to get adjusted to your routine and see how it can change every aspect of your life. Do you have routines in your home?  I’d love to hear what they are! Be sure to subscribe to Love To Frugal so you never miss a post! The post The Benefits Of A Daily Routine and Why They’re Important appeared first on Love To Frugal. #Routines #OrganizingTips #ForTheHome #HealthyLiving #DailyRoutine

Arplis - News source https://arplis.com/blogs/news/we-all-know-that-children-function-better-when-their-lives-are-centered-around-routines-but-did-you-know-that-the-same-goes-for-adults-a-daily-routine-literally-determines-what-we-can-do-and-how-productive-we-are-each-day

[arplis]

Arplis - News: We all know that children function better when their lives are centered around routines, but did you know that the same goes for adults?  A daily routine literally determines what we can do and how productive we are each day

There are no limits to the benefits of a daily routine. I learned very early on, as a new mom, the importance of having a daily homemaking routine.  For me, I couldn’t function well in chaos.  The messier things got, the less I would get done.  Can you relate? When I decided to take a good look at why I wasn’t getting anything done, even though I was exhausted every day, I found that I had very “loose” routines…and that was stretching it.  Laundry baskets were overflowing, there always seemed to be dishes in the sink, bills got paid by the skin of my teeth and we were living in, what the FlyLady calls, CHAOS…Can’t Have Anyone Over Syndrome. UGH!!! When I realized that I didn’t have a purposeful plan each day, I had that “aha” moment! I needed some sort of balance.  I can’t stand it when I don’t accomplish anything.  It leaves me feeling some what down and disheartened.  That’s what living in CHAOS does for you. Since I was a full time homemaker (a SAHM), I knew there were at least four areas in my life that I knew having a daily and weekly routine were a must.  Those areas were personal finance, housekeeping, meal planning and my kids.  I knew that if I could get a handle on these four things, everything else would naturally fall into place.  And guess what!?  I was right!  Homemaking tasks are simple, but they won’t ever get done without a plan. Benefits Of A Daily Routine There are so many benefits to a good daily routine and without one, so many things suffer.  We all need a good daily routine for our own mental and physical well being as well as the well being of our families. If you look at the lives of some of the most successful people in the world, the common denominator that enables them to be successful is routine.   I’m going to try to break it down and show you what the benefits of a daily routine are and how you can implement some or all of these suggestions to improve your day to day life and well being for you and your family.  Why?  Because a daily routine is important for everyone, whether you work inside or outside of the home, are a full time homemaker, are retired or are male or female.  They are important for our over all well-being and here’s why. Creates Structure When you have some kind of structure to your day, that automatically put’s you in control of it.  YOU get to choose how your day goes.  There’s no “winging” it.  The structure gives you direction and organization in your life.  You already know what you need to do and you just do it.  Once your finished with one task, you move on to the next.  Once structure is established, these tasks become habits.  It takes the guess work out of what needs to be done each day. Saves Time and Eliminates Procrastination When certain tasks and activities become routine, it reduces the chance that we will put off doing them.  In other words, procrastinating.  When a habit forms, it almost becomes automatic to do it. For example, most of us brush our teeth and shower every day.  We don’t think about having to do it, because it has become a habit.  We might not do it at the same time every day (even though we probably should), but we do it. Laundry Laundry is an area where procrastinating can have huge, unwanted consequences.  If you don’t have an established routine for household chores, it can only be a short matter of time, before they can snowball out of control.  The laundry monster can grow from one little pile to a huge mountain in a matter of a day or two.  Then the task becomes so overwhelming that you don’t know where to start.  A routine of doing at least one load of laundry a day, from start to finish, will hold the laundry monster at bay. I developed a daily and weekly cleaning schedule years ago and I still stick to it.  I found that if I had a simple checklist of things to do everyday, the job of cleaning my house wouldn’t be so daunting. Do The Dishes! Another example I can give you about saving time, in this regard, is how cleaning your kitchen up every night saves time. I know that you may be tired and tempted to stack the dishes in the sink when dinner is over and leave them until the next day.  I’ve been there.  But what usually happens when you start the day with a dirty kitchen is that something will come up that you have to tend to and so the dishes remain.  Next thing you know, it’s 4:00 and time to start dinner.  But, guess what?  Last night’s dishes are still sitting there, all crusty and gross.  Now, you have to chisel the food off, empty the dishwasher and reload it (or hand wash), before you can even get to starting tonight’s supper.  You now have double the work ahead of you.  Wouldn’t it have been simpler to just have loaded them last night?  This would have saved you time and frustration. We know that procrastination is a waste of time and energy.  Having a routine is one way to get around it, because it frees up time that would otherwise be spent on planning, decision-making and preparation. Our routine has predetermined our schedule, which in turn, allows us to use our time more efficiently. Saves Money When we follow a routine with our finances, it can save us a ton of money.  For example, we do a budget every month, religiously.  Without one, our finances would be a mess and we would probably be broke.   Every aspect of our lives flows through our budget, from where we live, to what we drive, what we eat, how we pay our bills, where we go on vacation, etc.  If you don’t establish some sort of routine for your finances, your life may be in shambles, as well.  We all need a routine, a time each week or month to make sure our bills get paid.  Late fees can really add up and cost you if you don’t have a plan for when you do your budget and pay your bills. Another area that routines can save money is in meal planning.  Finding time to map out your weekly meals and grocery shop is an important habit to get into, otherwise it cost you in unexpected trips through the fast food line or trips to the grocery store. Builds Momentum and Self Confidence Navy Seal Admiral William H. McCraven said this to the graduating class of the University of Texas, a few years back, about making your bed: “If you make your bed every morning, you will have accomplished the first task of the day. It will give you a small sense of pride, and it will encourage you to do another task, and another, and another. And by the end of the day that one task completed will have turned into many tasks completed.” “Making your bed will also reinforce the fact that the little things in life matter. If you can’t do the little things right, you’ll never be able to do the big things right. And if by chance you have a miserable day, you will come home to a bed that is made — that you made. And a made bed gives you encouragement that tomorrow will be better.” When we have a routine and stick with it, it gives us a tremendous sense of self satisfaction.  That in turn fuels the desire to keep going and try to accomplish even more.  When we have a sense of accomplishment, it naturally builds our self confidence. I’ve made it a practice to start every day with a “to-do” list.  You may think this is silly, but I write down every thing I want or need to do each day.  I even include the most mundane task, such as “clean out the refrigerator or wipe out the microwave”.  Even though it’s a mundane chore, when I do it, I get a satisfaction from crossing it off the list.  Then, at the end of the day, when I have mostly everything crossed off, I can see what I’ve actually accomplished. Helps Achieve Goals Achieving our goals rarely happens overnight. The way to accomplish your goals is by doing the same things over and over again. An athlete gets good at his sport because he practices daily.  Remember the old saying, “practice makes perfect”?  Well, I don’t know about perfection, but it will certainly make you better the more you do something. My home is clean and organized and it generally stays this way.  I have a good system down that I have been working for years.  It has gotten much easier for me to keep it this way because I have a good routine in place.  Developing and sticking with a routine that is congruent with your goals is one of the surest ways to ensure success. Improves Self Discipline Deciding that you need a routine is the easy part.  Actually doing it and sticking with it is the hard part.  This is where self discipline comes in.  According to a 2013 study by Wilhelm Hoffman, people with high self control are happier than those without.  The study discovered this is true because the self disciplined subjects were more capable of dealing with goal conflicts.   Self discipline is a learned behavior.  It requires practice and repetition in your day to day life. We all know, as parents, how important routines are to children.  Why is this? Children develop self-discipline when a pattern is repeated consistently, each day.  When they have structure and routine, they learn there is a wakeup time, a nap time, dinner time, bedtime, homework time, etc.  Children will learn self discipline and that is what is going to set them up for success, later in life and will allow them to make smart decisions when Mom and Dad aren’t around. Lowers Stress and Anxiety There will always be things in our lives that are beyond our control, and we need to accept that. However, there is so much that we can control, especially if we follow a routine. Structure and routine reduce stress because it allows our mind and body to go into automatic pilot.  For example, think about how stressed you would become if you got ready to go somewhere and you couldn’t  find your car keys. If you’re already running late, this could cause your stress levels to go through the roof!  The way to alleviate or prevent this from happening is to have a place, ie. a bowl or hook near the door to put your keys.  Get into the habit of putting them in the same place as soon as you walk in the door.  Voila!!  Stress alleviated! Another way to lower stress is to prepare as much as you can the night before.  This simple act of preparation can make a huge difference of how your whole day will go. Daily routines take the guess work out of what needs to be done, thereby eliminating stress, because we don’t have to think or worry about what we need to get done.  It puts us in control of our lives instead of circumstances controlling us. More Time To Relax Following a good, healthy, efficient routine of our day-to-day tasks and chores provides us with more free time to do as we please.  There is a time and place for leisure and relaxation and adhering to a routine frees up the time for it. There are so many benefits of a daily routine and they are a great way to keep yourself on task.  The longer you stay with it, the more each task will become a habit.  Decide what you want to achieve in your life and center your routine(s) around those goals.  You can definitely create harmony and stability within your home and family.  Give yourself time to get adjusted to your routine and see how it can change every aspect of your life. Do you have routines in your home?  I’d love to hear what they are! Be sure to subscribe to Love To Frugal so you never miss a post! The post The Benefits Of A Daily Routine and Why They’re Important appeared first on Love To Frugal. #Routines #OrganizingTips #ForTheHome #HealthyLiving #DailyRoutine

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