Is Your Routine Actually Keeping You Stuck in a Rut?

What's the difference between having some structure in your life and feeling like you're on repeat? It has a lot to do with perspective.

- Madeleine Dore

In our culture that places productivity on a pedestal, an optimized routine has been sold as the salve for all kinds of dilemmas. Lose your job? Create a new routine for yourself. Experiencing anxiety, depression, or grief? Find a routine. Living through a pandemic? Follow a routine to get through it.

Sometimes we need the support of a schedule. Routines are beneficial-they promise order, they seem reliable, and they can be comforting. A routine can provide a sense of certainty in a world that feels uncertain or out of our control. When there's structure to our day, we often feel more at ease, less overwhelmed by so many inconsequential decisions: when to wake up, what to eat for breakfast, which brand of toothpaste to buy.

Science has long suggested the psychological and physical benefits of having routines, whether a consistent sleep schedule, regular exercise such as a yoga practice, or daily meditation. Routines have even been known to help people recover from depression, anxiety, trauma, and addiction.

What we may not realize about routines is they can also set us up for failure. A routine that becomes too rigid can cause agitation or anxiety. A routine that requires constant vigilance and is impossible to keep up can cause a spiral into guilt and shame. A routine that optimizes each minute of the day can diminish our ability to be open to how the present moment unfolds. While a routine is a sequence of actions regularly followed, so is a rut. The difference is a rut is a pattern of behavior that has become dull and unproductive, like being trapped in a Groundhog Day scenario. Ironically, what we perceive as the ideal routine can be the very thing that lands us in a rut.

How to Discern Between a Routine and a Rut