Letter #4: Routines for Creatives

Goa, 29 April 2022

Dear friend,

How do you feel about the word ‘routine’?

Throughout most of my life, I resisted the idea of developing routines because… it just sounded boring. “Who wants to do the same thing everyday?” younger-me asked. The phrase “settling into a routine” would sound like a compromise that we make at some point in our lives. And younger-me craved newness and unpredictability. All. the. time.

But then came 2020, and brought with it the first lockdown. Inside the confines of my room, time was just a blur. A week felt like 3 months and simultaneously, a month felt like 1 day. I started moving my focus inward, onto my small day-to-day activities & keeping daily habit-journals to regain the locus of control for my life.

At a time when everything felt out of control, these pages helped me maintain a sense of order and agency.

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Gratitude journaling, habit tracking, study-checklists, exercise-doodle-trackers… I did it all! And they helped me make sense of my days in new ways.

As I visualized my days through its patterns & repetitions, the idea of a routine no longer felt like a compromise. It became a source of comfort.

Over time, the routines kept evolving along with my inner & outer world. I saw every new routine as an experiment - to understand what my days, my weeks, my life could possibly look like.

“What would happen if I started writing at this time everyday?”

“Would I feel any better about myself if I exercised?”

“Do I even need to meditate every afternoon or only on the days I feel scattered?”

I did quite a few 30-day challenges along the way, and learnt how much I love focusing my energy on a routine for 30 days (and 30 days only). These month-long challenges let me dip my toes into a new way of life, without committing to it.

I only completed one of these 5 challenges. (And I guess I’m the only one judging myself for it.) “The one” that I completed set the foundation for Vaccines for Fear & Brain Food as we know them today. (So - yay!) And all the other challenges gave me a window of time to explore some interests, which I might have otherwise avoided because of mindblocks. You see… I would often stress about the quality of work before I’d created it. The fears of judgement & failure would always be at play. “Will I be good at it? Will my creative work even be interesting? What if I find out that I’m really bad at something I thought I’m keen to do?” Have you ever thought like this too? It’s actually the most normal thing for us to do. Humans are goal-oriented species and for creatives, the goal often seems to be a high quality of work. But this goal is a very subjective one and can sometimes become such a burden on our creative selves.

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Through a 30-day challenge, the focus shifts away from “doing my best” to “showing up”.

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And that doesn’t mean that we’re dismissing quality as unimportant. Opinions may be divided but I’m definitely of the belief that “quantity breeds quality”. We all have to start at level 0 and work our way up. While we can sit gathering the best of theoretical knowledge and tools, and wait for the right time to strike, it’s only by doing that we get better. That’s not news to either one of us, I’m sure. But it’s a reminder we both need from time to time.

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Artwork by Sarah Arnold-Hall @saraharnoldhall

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So, dear friend, if you’re curious about trying a new routine in life, you might want to consider a 30-day challenge.

If and when you do, I would be your first cheerleader!

But… How do we motivate ourselves to SHOW UP for the routine, without worrying about the quality or the critics or the algorithms? Given my varying degrees of success in different 30-day challenges, I’ve thought a lot about this question.

I read the book Atomic Habits earlier this year, and now I’m in the middle of an online course on Motivation Psychology. There’s really a LOT to be unpacked in the world of behavioural science. Scientists share new studies. Habit coaches have guidance for us all. There are multiple books & podcasts which can help us comfortably drown in this topic. But all of that can get overwhelming too fast. So at the moment, there are only three concepts that I’ve decided to choose as my own ‘Reminders for the Routine’. I hope that you find these interesting too:

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Reminder 1: Keep the story close to heart.

There’s usually a story behind “why” we want to pick up a new routine. Maybe it's for our wellbeing, or for developing our skills, or insert-your-very-own-unique-reason. This story is our motivation as we start. But our mind can only hold onto it for so long and as the days go by, it can start fading out of memory as well. This happens to me all too often, and I guess that’s why this Reminder is number one on my list.

By actually writing down our Day 0 motivation, we can regularly remind ourselves of the amazing story and meaning behind our routine. Put up a note on your mirror, let a reminder buzz on your phone in the morning, make a laptop wallpaper, do what works best for you. What matters is that the message is visible to us. I like to think of it as a lighthouse which can keep infusing a regular dose of light & energy to our efforts.

Reminder 2: Create *really* clear intentions to implement.

I use this amazing app called Atom to help me meditate in the middle of the day. I remember the day I signed up, they’d asked me to make 3 small decisions.

I will meditate after __________, in __________, around __________.

This is what the 2 setup screens looked like:

For the first 4-5 weeks, I received reminder-notifications to follow their guided meditation at the time & place which my past-self had already picked for me. The new routine of meditation also got ‘stacked’ with an existing routine of lunch, which increased the likelihood of it getting done in the flow of things. This works without apps too, the way it has for my journaling routine. I keep my notebook in the same place, with a pen already inside it. (You won’t believe the number of times I’ve not written because I couldn’t find a pen!) This way, I wake up -> brush my teeth -> get a bottle of water -> sit down to write on the same desk every time. Having this implementation-intention doesn’t mean I’ll write a certain way or I’ll feel more focused during meditation. It doesn’t have anything to do with “quality” at all. The benefit is that it helps me show up, which is the thing I’m focused on for building a routine. The quality will follow through repetition.

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Reminder 3: Visualise the progress Remember all the habit trackers in the beginning of this letter? At a very instinctive level, they work for me because it's so damn satisfying to cross and tick things off. One of the important learnings from behavioural science is that “What is immediately rewarded is repeated.” The desire for instant gratification is a real human thing, and it makes sense to work with it, instead of working against it. In the case of 30-day creative projects, there’s a complete visual or written piece by the end of the day which motivates us. Sometimes, we might post the work online and get acknowledged by a few ‘likes’ right away! But for routines like exercise & meditation, the feedback is quite delayed and that’s where tracking helps. The habit tracker becomes the immediate signal to tell us that we’re on the right path and every day’s progress becomes the next day’s motivation. Tracking our routines also keeps us honest. Depending on our personality, we might either underestimate or overestimate how much we’ve actually done. Measurement offers one way to overcome that tendency and notice what’s really going on each day. With evidence right in front of us, we’re less likely to mislead ourselves. After these three, comes the most important Reminder for Routines:

Be kind to yourself.

The award for the Most Demovating Motivational Quote goes to this one: “Everyone has the same 24 hours.” It could not be further from the truth, and that’s why trying to follow the routines of popular personalities who “made it”, or anyone else for that matter, can land us in a rut.

Even at an individual level, life can look very different one week as compared to the other. We might have different interests that we want to explore, and responsibilities that we need to fulfil. It’s natural to “wobble” in the routine that we’ve set for ourselves, especially if it’s a challenging one. The reality is that routines are ever-evolving and it’s not a compulsion to achieve the perfect balance between all spheres of life.

Artwork by Liz Fosslien @lizandmollie

I started this month with an exercise challenge for myself: 30 Days x 20 minutes of exercise a day. It went pretty well for the first half of the month. And then I started wobbling. For the last 4-5 days, workouts have been on complete pause. I needed more time to write this letter, and India’s ongoing heat wave, coupled with Goa’s constant humidity left me completely drained.

The reasons for stopping sound understandable in hindsight. But it still took a lot of effort to silence the shaming voice of my inner critic. I wish you strength to do the same for yourself. 🌸

To read beyond this letter…

I stumbled upon Ness Labs as part of my reading. I loved this short piece on the difference between habits, routines and rituals. Through their short writings, they are trying to answer the question: “How can we make the most of our lives without sacrificing our mental health?” Such a lovely way to articulate their “why”. :)

Before I sign off…

I LOVE receiving your replies. My inbox is always open to your thoughts – about this letter, about my creative project, about YOUR creative project and all things creative.

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Take care of yourself :)

Love, Nishita