How to Keep Habits Fresh Without Losing Consistency
How busy people keep tight schedules feeling fresh.
Jodi has three kids under five and a demanding job. She keeps everything on track by being regimented in her routines.
It works. She gets enough sleep, eats fairly well, and stays fit. Her days are rinse-repeat.
Most of the time, she doesn't mind this. She can see how consistency helps her accomplish what's most important. She knows there will be other seasons in her life when she has time for hobbies or adventures. But sometimes her routines start to feel stale and monotonous.
Most of us will have seasons like Jodi's, when we're managing ourselves well but doing that through tightly orchestrated routines, with little wiggle room for deviations.
These seasons might happen when you're training for a demanding career, balancing several jobs, caring for a new baby, or involved in a time-consuming extracurricular, like triathlon training or a community orchestra.
Alternatively, you might not be pressed for time. You just know consistency is working well for you. You don't want to mess with routines that click for you by breaking your patterns, but you're also starting to get bored or feel constricted by certain routines.
Refresh the Variables, Keep the System
People who stick with their habits know how to keep things feeling fresh without disrupting their routines.
Small variations within your routine (not changing the routine itself) can refresh you more than you'd expect. Very subtle changes can be oddly rejuvenating, like driving a different route to work, even if it's a street parallel to the one you usually take. The points below are simple ways to experiment with freshening up your daily habits.
1. Switch Out a Product You Use Every Day
For example, if you've got a computer with two big monitors, but you always work on your laptop, switch it up.
2. Change the Order of Your Routine
Even when you merely reverse a route you take daily, everything looks slightly different. That applies whether it's a physical route, like a walk around the block, or the order you do things in.
- Exercise at night if you always do it in the morning, or vice versa.
- A real example: Sometimes I refresh my writing routine by switching up whether I work long-to-short (writing articles then extracting ideas for social content) or short-to-long (using social posts as building blocks for articles). Same habit, different flow.
3. Use a Resource in Your Home You Pass by But Ignore
- Try the adult version of toy rotation by cycling your kitchen appliances or gadgets. Use an appliance you never use, like your toaster oven, instant pot, or the massage gun that's been left in a drawer for the last two years.
- Take a bath rather than a shower if you never use your bath.
4. Use a Resource Outside Your Home That You Pass by But Ignore
What do you drive past on your way home? Drop into that plant nursery just to walk around. Use a nice patch of grass to take your shoes off.
5. Do Something You'd Usually Do Alone With Someone Else, or Vice Versa
- Make dinner with an older child.
- Take a bath with a younger child.
- Listen to a podcast with your partner rather than separately.
- Call a friend for a chat on the phone while you're folding the laundry.
6. Change Your Recovery Routine
Try different recovery tools, such as a heated rice sock (used safely), the legs-up-the-wall yoga pose, or compression socks. Physical recovery usually helps mental recovery and vice versa, so you don't need a strict distinction.
7. Change Your Visual Space
Rotate the art, photos, or notes near your workspace. Or move your furniture around. Rearrange your workspace slightly.
8. Buy (or Create) a Variety Pack
Get a variety pack of coffees, oatmeal flavors, or hot sauces. Or create your own variety pack with jars of different oatmeal toppings or a selection of jams.
9. Make Something Ordinary a Bit More Special
- Bring a blanket to the sofa instead of just collapsing on it.
- Hang some string lights and sit outside.
- Put on a cleanup song for motivation and energy (like daycares do) instead of asking your children to tidy up after dinner the same way you always do.
- Bring a bubble wand when you bathe your kids.
Subtle Skills Matter for Habit Consistency
These points might not seem deeply psychological, but they're deceptively important for habit consistency. Eventually, we get bored with our good habits, and if we're not skilled at freshening up the habit or routine, we risk abandoning it.
You shouldn't change your habits willy-nilly. Sameness is what makes routines effective. When adding a bit of variety helps you stay consistent, that's a good reason to try it. When your routines start to feel monotonous but you want to keep their basic structure, there are ways to freshen them up.
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