6 ways to get your life back on track. How to stick to a routine, maintain healthy habits and get back on track. Plus, a free daily planner.
Happy April, everyone! The first quarter of the year is over so it’s time to look back and reflect on our yearly goals, intentions, and habits. If you are anything like me, you’re super motivated at the beginning of the year, and as the months go on you kind of fall off track. That’s why it’s important to take some time each month to make sure you’re on the right track to reaching your goals and sticking to your intentions. This is how to stick to a routine, maintain healthy habits and get your life back on track.
I recently shared on Instagram that I’m trying to get back into fitness, eating healthier, and focusing on my mental health. If you want to follow along on my health journey, I will be posting grocery hauls, workouts I try, healthy recipes and snacks, and more on my Instagram here.
How to Get Your Life Back On Track
1. Regroup and Reflect
Before we talk about how to get back on track, you should think about why you fell off track. Every once in a while we all get off track, off routine, or a little lost, but that’s okay. Life isn’t always consistent or goes according to the plan we made in our heads. Take some time to regroup and reflect.
Why did you get off track?
What were you doing that wasn’t working?
How can you change your routine to stay on track?
What were you doing that you enjoyed and didn’t enjoy?
It’s important that we understand ourselves and our actions so they won’t repeatedly happen in the future. Take your time with these answers and be as honest with yourself as possible.
2. Make A Master To-Do List
Next, write down a to-do list. I call mine my brain dump. When we fall off track in life, we often fall behind on our routines and to-do lists. So making a master to-do list where you can physically see everything you need to do will help relieve a lot of stress.
On a piece of paper or your notes app, write down everything that needs to get within the next month. I like to separate my list into categories, like things to buy, things to do around the house and things for the blog. Note: Having a notepad where you can physically check things off is very satisfying.
3. Schedule It On Your Calendar
Then, schedule those tasks onto your schedule for the week. This will make you feel accomplished, productive and set you up to get back on track. If scheduling your month feels like a lot, then schedule your day.
I recently opened up about my struggle with migraines and how it’s my biggest setback from consistently working out. Instead of planning out my month or week, I plan my day. It’s so much easier to look at a scheduled day and get things done than it is to look at a week and feel stressed or worried.
Take it day by day, baby steps are better than none at all. It’s only April, so it’s not too late to get a planner or dry-erase monthly calendar! Also, you can print my free daily planner here.
4. Change The Narrative
If you’re struggling to get back on track and are waiting for motivation or self-discipline to kick in, then you’re going to be waiting for a long time. Once I changed my narrative on tasks that I want to get done, it changed the whole game for me.
Instead of, “I need to work out so I can have a toned summer body”, try, “I want to work out because it makes me feel, look good and I have fun doing it.”
The narrative we give our tasks is so important because if you really wanted abs, you would have them by now. It’s much easier to do something in life when we enjoy it and actually want to do it.
5. Switch Things Up
A lot of times when we fall off the wagon, it’s because we’re bored or didn’t like something enough. Next time try something different and when you hate that thing too try something different again. It’s okay to try new things when something else isn’t working. I constantly do this with my workouts. I’ll absolutely love yoga one week and then the next love walking on the treadmill. Find habits, healthy recipes, workouts, and hobbies that work for you and only you.
6. Schedule. Do. Repeat.
Once you feel like you’re in the groove, you’re feeling yourself gain some momentum, don’t stop. Keep your schedule, keep doing your routines, and repeat them every day. You have the power to change your life right now. Start small, go for a 15-minute walk, then the next a 30 minute one, and then the next a pilates workout. You create habits by being consistent and just because yesterday wasn’t the greatest doesn’t mean today can’t be.
On my busy and productive days, I love to plan out the day. I focus on my top 3 priorities, my intention for the day, and make sure I’m checking off everything on my to-do list. To finally check off something that only took 10 minutes to do but waited a month to do is so satisfying.
To help you get back on track, I created a daily planner so you can schedule your day! Click the button below to download and start getting back on track today.
Until next time,
FTC: This post contains affiliate links, which means I may receive a small commission for purchases made through my links at no extra cost to you. Thank you for the support and as always all opinions are my own.
Thanks for this post Erika, very inspiring!
How many tasks do you recommend as a maximum number? I tend to overschedule and then feel bad I didn’t get it all done. I’m thinking if I restrict the number of tasks, I’ll complete more days
I recommend the Ivy Lee Method! “Do not write down more than six tasks. Prioritize those six items in order of their true importance. When you arrive tomorrow, concentrate only on the first task. Work until the first task is finished before moving on to the second task. Approach the rest of your list in the same fashion. At the end of the day, move any unfinished items to a new list of six tasks for the following day. Repeat this process every working day.”
Thanks for sharing some useful tips. Changing the narrative is a game changer. Also small consistent steps is what works for me.
Planning and scheduling are indeed crucial for success. Sometimes it gets so overwhelming by all the small things we need to do every day. But breaking it down into small steps makes everything so much better. Thank you for this great article 🙂
Thank you for reading!
I loved it…downloaded it! Thanks!
This litereally just reminded me that I need to print out a calander template for my blog to make life easier! Thank you! LOL