Daily Routines
The building blocks of our lives are the routines that we follow daily. When you take a moment to step back and evaluate those routines for opportunities to improve, even in small ways, you can start a ripple effect of positive change throughout your personal and professional lives. In my new book, Kaizen Mastery, I share how to harness the power of incremental improvements to your daily routines and habits to help create the life you want. If the philosophy of kaizen is new to you, that’s okay; it’s a simple concept to grasp.
The Kaizen Approach to Routines
Kaizen is the art of minor, continuous, incremental improvements of any process, including our daily routines. It is vitally important that you first gain clarity about where you are before trying to make any improvements. Without first setting your baseline and standard, you will never know if anything you do is improving things. It is also critical that you break your process down into smaller parts to make improvements rather than making massive changes to the whole process at once. If you approach improvement this way, you will have a much easier time making the mental shifts required to match the desired process improvements.
Steps to Kaizen Your Daily Routines:
Would you agree that having more time in your day to do the things you want to do would be desirable? Me too. So, I have taken the opportunity to give you a few suggestions on how to do just that. The best part? It won’t take a lot of energy or time on your part to implement these suggestions. You might be surprised by how much you gain by taking a few moments each day to reflect and review.
- Identify Opportunities for Improvement:
- Reflect on your current routines. Where do you feel stressed, unproductive, or stuck?
- Tip: Start with a tiny area, like your morning or evening routine.
- Start Small:
- Replace “all-or-nothing” thinking with small, manageable changes.
- Example: If you want to wake up earlier, set your alarm 5 minutes earlier each day.
- Measure Progress:
- Track your changes to stay motivated and identify what works.
- Tip: Use a habit tracker, journal, or checklist to monitor your daily wins.
- Adjust and Refine:
- Kaizen isn’t about perfection—it’s about learning and evolving.
- Example: If a new habit isn’t working, tweak it to fit your life better.
- Sustain and Build:
- Once a slight improvement becomes second nature, build on it.
- Example: After mastering a 10-minute daily walk, extend it to 15 or 20 minutes.
How ‘Kaizen Mastery’ Can Help You
In the book, I share a few stories about how kaizen has helped some people I have worked with. Here is one of those examples, the story of a struggling warranty group at King County Metro I worked with comes to mind. They were on the brink of collapse when Kevon, a new leader, took over. Instead of taking drastic steps or making sweeping changes, this leader focused on small, incremental improvements and empowered the team to suggest changes. Within a year, the group saw a significant turnaround, proving the transformative power of Kaizen-led leadership.
Additionally, I cover a few tools in the book that can help you adopt a kaizen mindset. One such tool is to set periodic milestones and celebrate your achievements. These milestones are checkpoints that allow you to measure your progress and stay motivated. Celebrating your successes, no matter how small, reinforces positive behavior and boosts your confidence.
So here is my challenge: Pick one small daily habit you’d like to improve and take the first step this week. Use the tips and strategies above to help you on your journey.
- Here is a journal prompt you can write down and keep in front of you for the week: “What’s one part of your routine you’d like to improve? Start small—choose a change that takes less than 5 minutes and commit to it for the next 7 days.”
BTW: If you’d like to grab a copy of Kaizen Mastery, you can find it on Amazon by following this link: https://amzn.to/3CXChge
Looking Forward
Next time we will talk about Resistance to Change—Insights from ‘The War Within Us.’ So stay tuned for that in the next week or so.
I will leave you with a quote that I hope will stick with you this week…
“Success is the sum of small efforts, repeated day in and day out.” — Robert Collier
Onward
Steve
Steve Beauchamp 