Sticking to a habit makes me depressed. Why?

If sticking to a routine makes you feel depressed, you’re not alone. Everyday habits boost your productivity but they can make your life feel monotonous. Do you feel bored when you stick to a habit?

Many people have this problem. But that doesn’t mean they’re lazy.

In my Why sticking to a routine gives you anxiety article, I explained that some people have troubles keeping a routine for a surprising reason. Check it out because it might be something you never thought about before.

In this article, I’m gonna give you the golden formula how to keep moving forward towards your goals without letting anxiety kill your productivity.

The secret is – to integrate both worlds of chaos and order.

There is a right way introducing habits and there is a wrong way

Say you woke up one day and told yourself:

“I want to boost my productivity! Where do I start?”

So you did some googling and you decided to create a daily routine. Now it’s time to implement some daily habits. But after analysing the situation, you realised you have so many bad habits already, that your perfect habit to-do list looks like this:

• Make your bed
• Drink 2l of water
• Floss your teeth
• Meditate
• Wake up early
• Sleep for 8 hours
• Eat 3 healthy meals per day
• Limit screen time
• Work out
• Think about your goals and dreams
• Practice yoga
• Read a 100 pages
• Try something new
• Spend quality time with family

A bit overwhelming, isn’t it?

Try doing this instead:

# 1 Set no more than 5 productivity habits per day and track them

to avoid feeling overwhelmed. You have to pick only the most important actions that are heading you in the right direction. Here is another habit list:

1. Make your bed
2. Drink 2l water
3. Groom yourself early in the morning
4. Do a 30 minute workout
5. Work on a secret project

Notice anything about this list? It’s super simple. Half of the tasks take no more than 5 minutes to mark as done. Yet if you do them every day, your life would change like magic.

Pick a habit tracker application to make sure you track them every day.

Productive or Habit now have relatively simple design and the nice thing is, you can commit to a habit only during specific days of the week or month (e.g. “Do deep cleaning every first weekend of the month”).

You can always be more productive if you have the time and you’re in the mood. But for now, stick to the essentials if you want to be able to stick to a routine.

#2 If possible do most things during the first half of the day

If you do most of the things early in the day, you won’t have to obsess over them and feel pressured.

In the habit list I gave you, you can do your daily workout early in the morning or at lunch break. All the other things are easy.

And if you focused on your secret project early in the morning and did your workout at lunch, by the time you’re home after work, the only thing left is to chill on the sofa watching Netflix. You had a perfectly productive day!

Without even thinking about it!

#3 Have something you really enjoy to expect for the day

Apart from your small routine, do with your free time whatever it is that you want without remorse. Don’t let friends, partners and parents judge your hobbies as stupid, weird, immature etc.

• if you love laying on the couch indulge in it
• if you love playing video games do it shamelessly
• if you love watching mindless series – you get the idea

The only thing I don’t advice you is browsing the internet in your free time. See this article how screen time ruins your life and makes it dull and boring.

For people who get anxious from sticking to a routine, having the mental freedom to do anything they want apart from the routine, is the only way to keep up with schedule and not going back to unproductive, disorganised way of living.

#4 Commit to sticking to most of your habits only during workdays

If you don’t have days off, when you don’t think of words like “habits”, “chores” and “productivity”, you are going to get sick of doing the right thing.

Have the weekends off. Make your weekends as least stressful as possible. Your weekends are the time to recharge and relax.

The list above could easily look like this during the weekend:

1. Make your bed
2. Drink 2l water
3. Groom yourself

Easy isn’t it?

It’s the same thing as being on a diet – imagine you are on a strict regime where you count every calorie and only eat protein and veggies.

But you see other people enjoying home made pancakes with maple syrup and crispy bacon on the side. How long would you be able to keep up with the diet if you’re frustrated?

It’s important to succeed in life but it’s also important to ENJOY life.

So don’t forget you have to make life worth living and don’t feel guilty about being unproductive in the weekends.

If you stick to these simple 4 steps, you will be able to keep up with a healthy routine while also enjoying life.

Want to feel more motivated?

Check How to stay motivated

How to never give up when you struggle

Why you shouldn’t reveal your plans

TheThinkAbout is a website based on psychology in practice and experience. Like the articles? Subscribe to never miss anything. If you want to support this website, you can do it here.