The Power of Daily Rituals

November 22, 2024
|
Aaron Hayslip

To quote James Clear in Atomic Habits, “Success is the product of daily habits—not once-in-a-lifetime transformations.”

Every great thing you’ll ever achieve will be thanks to a series of small decisions that you made over the course of many months and years.

  • Eat right and exercise for 6 months - see your abs.
  • Wrote on LinkedIn every day for 2 years - get 50,000 followers.
  • Spend 2 hours on sales each day for a year - build a $1M company.
  • Practice gratitude for 10 minutes each day for 90 days - improve your mental health.

Consistency is POWERFUL, but because it’s not as glamorous as a big new idea, we often lack motivation for our daily habits.

But as they say, the days are long but the years are short. So we must find a way to be consistent before the years pass us by.

How?

We make our daily habits easy through daily rituals and workflows. Here’s how...

Step 1: Identify Your Daily Non-Negotiables

First, think through the things you need to do every single day to move closer to your goals. Here's my personal list of items I need to do each day, Monday through Friday:

  • Wake up early
  • Read the bible and journal
  • Work out
  • Write and post on LinkedIn
  • Engage in sales activities
  • Review and update tasks, emails, and messages to my team
  • Plan for the next day
  • Go to bed on time

Your list will be different, based on your own goals.

Step 2: Make Time for Your Habits - Schedule Your Ideal Week

Once you've identified your daily non-negotiables, it's time to build them into your schedule.

I like to build out an “ideal week” schedule using this Google Sheet template (I make a new one each quarter) and then I block my schedule on my Google Calendar:

Here’s how my list translates to the calendar:

  • Wake up early: Each day starts at 5:30
  • Read the bible and journal: I block of 5:30 to 6:30 each day for this
  • Workout: This is the first thing I do each morning - my office has a killer gym.
  • Write and post on LinkedIn: I spend my 1st work hour on this.
  • Engage in sales activities: I spend my 2nd work hour on this.
  • Review and update tasks, emails, and messages to my team: This is part of my “Workday Shutdown” process.
  • Plan for the next day: This is part of my “Workday Shutdown” process.
  • Go to bed on time: This ensures I get up early. My wife and I have a routine and stick to it M-F.

Now that we have time for our habits, let’s make them easy by giving ourselves directions for them.

Step 3: Create Daily Workflows (SOPs for Yourself)

For each of my daily “non-negotiables,” I have a written step-by-step guide I follow to ensure consistency.

It’s like having directions for my life. I don’t have to use a bunch of brain energy to figure out the “how”, I just follow the directions. Here is my list of “Daily Workflow” (rituals). These are literal step-by-step notes I have in Notion that I read each time I do them:

Before Bed Routine
To do the morning well, I need to set things up. So I prepare coffee, set out my bible and journal, set out my clothes, pack my lunch, and put my phone on the charge in the kitchen (I use an actual alarm so my phone stays out of my room).

Morning Routine
I wake up, pee, brush my teeth, pour my coffee, and read until 6:30. Then I get dressed and drive to work or make the kids breakfast, depending on which day it is.

Workout
I don’t have an SOP for this, but I have a workout plan. I just pull it up and do it.

LinkedIn Workflow
I have a step-by-step process for how I write LinkedIn posts. I always write them the day before so I can schedule them to go out early and just in case I miss a day for whatever reason.

Sales Workflow
I have a step-by-step guide for reviewing our pipeline in Attio (our sales CRM) and following up with anyone I need to follow up with or reach out to anyone on my “prospect” list.

Email Workflow
I try to process email just once a day, mid-day. This allows me to focus in the morning without my agenda being thrown off by a surprising email.

End of Day Workflow
This is probably the most important workflow I have. It allows me to close out my work day, plan for tomorrow, and not think about work when I go home. Here’s a link to my template.

The Power of Consistency

Remember, the goal isn't perfection. It's about showing up consistently, even when you don't feel like it. Over time, these small actions compound, leading to significant results in your personal life and business.

What's Next?

Want to deep dive on this? We’re building an entire FREE course called, “Building Your Personal Operating System” complete with Notion templates for all of this. It’s coming out in December (I moved the date back from this month). If you want access, request it here.

In the meantime, I'd love to hear from you. What are your non-negotiable daily rituals? How do you maintain consistency? Reply to this email and let me know!

Here's to small actions and big results,

Aaron

P.S. If you found this newsletter valuable, please consider sharing it with a fellow founder who might benefit from building stronger daily rituals.

‍

← View all posts