Although you may not have thought of the steps in your day as a process in your everyday life, getting ready for the day, going to work, coming home, exercising, and making dinner is a process/part of processes. Some small processes in everyday life include having a time limit and order for getting ready in the morning:
- Time limit: allowing yourself an hour to get ready before leaving to work;
- Order: eat breakfast first, brush teeth second, etc.
Some larger processes in everyday life could include exercising each day after work:
- Exercising for thirty minutes each day: fifteen minutes on the treadmill and fifteen minutes doing weights.
Maintaining processes in everyday life are critical because they create structure, consistency, and discipline, which are required to have a productive and successful day.
Having processes in my everyday life has been essential, especially when working from home. I am able to have a productive and successful day because processes allow me to stay organized and disciplined. The days when I oversleep or have to do an extra step in my getting-ready-for-the-day process always throw me off. I’ll find myself trying to complete my process as fast as possible to make up for the fact that I was underprepared.
And on the days when my getting-ready-for-the-day process is perfectly timed, I am more productive because I did not start the day off in a panic. Maintaining my processes in everyday life while working from home has been especially critical because it creates structure, consistency, and discipline—which allows me to be even more productive during the workday.
Additionally, having processes in my everyday work life is also beneficial. By having a process to my workday, I stay organized, just like in my daily life. Setting aside time each day to check through all of my emails, completing assigned action items, etc., has helped me get through smaller items that would have otherwise piled up and become a larger and more daunting task. Therefore, I rely on processes in my everyday life and work life to ensure I have a productive and successful day.