Monday Mindset
The necessity of structure
Happy Monday, friends.
On this frigid (at least for where I am in the Midwest!) morning, I am sending you all sorts of warmth. I hope you have hot drinks, warm clothes, and safety wherever this finds you.
There is a lot going on in the world, and it can feel like a luxury to tune it out and tune in to yourself for a few moments. I encourage you to not neglect yourself. Fill your cup—you deserve a soft landing place. Perhaps place a hand over your heart as you take a deep breath and let everything you can’t control out on a big sigh.
Slow down and allow yourself the gift of this time. As always, I encourage you to meet yourself as you are with compassion and curiosity.
Quick links for this month’s posts:
Now that you’ve identified what is important for you to focus on in this season of life, it’s time to create systems of Structure.
"Focus on making choices to lead your life that aligns with your core values in the most purposeful way possible.”
— Roy T. Bennett
Knowing our values and priorities helps us recognize where to focus our attention. As we bring structure to those things, we can funnel that intention into action. This helps us to align our inner world with our lived experience.
Structure can look like creating habits or routines around one or two of our main priorities. The key to being successful is by not overdoing it. We don’t have to change everything in our lives at once—in fact, it’s best if we break it down and limit ourselves. Contrary to what some of us might think, humans are not actually good at multitasking.
Most things change over time. We are no different. It’s consistent steps that bring us the greatest breakthrough.
It can also be helpful to assign a limited time to our focus so that we can pivot at the end, if needed. If we tell ourselves we’re going to spend an hour in meditation or prayer every day (with no end date in mind), it can feel overwhelming. But five minutes a day for the next month? That is much more doable.
Whatever your priorities, it’s important to be as practical and intentional as possible.
Timeboxing might work well at the start. This simply means that you schedule it in each week. If you want to spend more quality time with your family, maybe you make sure to do dinner with your family each night. This could look like scheduling an hour each evening for family dinner. Treat it like an appointment you wouldn’t easily miss.
Some of the benefits of building structure, as referenced by The Wellbeing Thesis:
A regular routine can help you maintain your circadian rhythm, which is good for your physical wellbeing and particularly your sleep. Getting up, eating and taking breaks at similar times each day, can also provide you with a psychological sense of progress through the day and give your activities shape and structure. This can also reduce the sense you can sometimes get of being ‘lost’ with what you are doing.
Having a daily structure also helps you to embed helpful habits into your day. If your days are generally structure-less it is much easier to forget to eat, take breaks or miss important regular tasks.
A regular structure also creates a sense of familiarity and control that can reduce your stress levels and help you feel more in control of your time and life generally. Routine can also move you past procrastination, without you having to really push yourself through.
There is a lot in life we cannot control, but that doesn’t mean we are completely helpless. In order to build stronger self-connection, we must not neglect ourselves. What’s important to us matters, and making sure we attend to those priorities through creating structure around them guarantees a stronger sense of self-trust.
A little bit of action can go a long way. A micro-habit could bring grounding and give you energy for the other areas of your life. Don’t dismiss the little things!
Creating structure in your life sets you up for success. Whatever you want to do more of, you’ll have to be intentional about it. Scheduling in those things means that you are bringing action to your intention. It is where the alignment happens!
Is there an area of your life where you have resisted building structure?
Has it helped or harmed your progress?
Go through your calendar for the next month and schedule in your priorities. This could include personal goals, connection, time alone, rest, friend dates, creative time, etc.
Don’t just put them on your calendar—include a time block so that you keep it. Maybe attach an alarm if you’re doing this digitally. The point is to make these a part of your structured schedule.
What is one thing you are scheduling? I’d love to hear! Share in the comments, or respond to this email.