Some of the world’s most successful thinkers, builders, and doers have attributed their excellence to a well-structured and consistent routine.

For instance, Twitter and Square co-founder Jack Dorsey once put in daily 8-hour shifts in full-time roles at both companies to ensure their business success. That’s right: Jack spent 16 hours a day working two entire shifts from Monday to Friday – with nary a day off. Talk about consistency!

How did Jack do it?

By setting a “theme” for each day of the week, Jack stayed on course, focused on the tasks related to the day’s theme, and delivered the business consistency that both Twitter and Square needed at the most critical time. For instance, Monday’s theme would be management, Tuesdays for product development, Wednesdays for marketing, Thursdays for partnerships, and Fridays for recruitment.

We’re not saying you should spend two-thirds of your waking hours feverishly working to build your business’ success. Ultimately, routines help keep us organized to focus on our priorities, limit our procrastination, and prevent us from being overwhelmed with the small stuff throughout the day. It also enables you to become a healthier, happier, and more balanced person by lessening your reliance on sheer motivation and willpower.

You can be one step closer to making your daily routine more efficient by removing the guesswork and decision-making out the most routinary tasks and adopting some practices accordingly.

Let’s look at the five critical elements of a successful daily routine that can help you be more productive and efficient and set your course toward business success.

1. Commitment

Commitment to a mission and vision ensures that you have your eyes on the prize and work towards a long-term goal.

Developing the perseverance and grit required to stick to a daily business routine and achieve the milestones we set for ourselves is of paramount importance.

Remember the cliché: “Rome wasn’t built in a day.” You can’t just turn on a commitment like a faucet, but you can spur others to be committed and inspire them.

Commitment helps us become better leaders by setting forth a good example for employees to follow. When your employees see you working hard and getting in the trenches with them, they’ll be just as motivated to put in the same amount of effort and help you hit your goals.

2. Structure/organization

Plotting your day out to determine which tasks to do can be a lifesaver.

Multitasking is overrated, and having a bunch of open tabs, windows, and applications on your computer’s real estate is a surefire way to develop stress and anxiety.

Rather than staying on top of every single notification on every application and doing multiple tasks simultaneously, try segmenting your day and focusing on achieving one particular mission at a time.

You’ll feel a greater sense of control over your day because you already know what your day will look like and how and at what time you are going to handle them – and only when you’re good and ready. As a business professional, nothing’s worse than feeling like you’re losing control – and therefore productivity and efficiency – out of your day.

Work with schedules and to-do lists to separate the low-hanging fruit from the business-critical tasks to prioritize your time effectively and focus on the essential functions.

Oh, and don’t forget the importance of scheduling time to rest and recover from your business’ daily routine. Don’t forget to include breaks in between physical and virtual meetings.

Structure and organization ultimately reduce interruption.

3. Consistency 

Consistency is integral to routine, and procrastination breaks it, developing bad mental habits and feeling like you’re losing control.

It’s easier to break routines and fall into bad habits when you’re out of that healthy mindset. Doing something consistently makes it easier to remember to perform such tasks and form healthy habits. Breaking already-established patterns make it harder to get back on the wagon.

The habits we develop are the ones that become part of our routine. Routine makes it second nature for us to perform tasks that will help us achieve our goals and equip us with the habits needed as far as how to be successful in business.

On the other hand, consistency helps deliver better results and benchmark success. You will have already determined a level of performance, pace, and quality that you’ll want to attain every time (if not outperform). Moreover, if your arrangements are flagging, you’ll be able to spot them and correct them based on your previous achievements.

4. Discipline

Discipline helps you remain accountable for achieving the action items you’ve set forth daily.

Don’t give yourself an excuse to renege on your commitments. You’ll never regret going the extra mile and holding yourself accountable for your promises.

Discipline provides you with a code of conduct to guide self-improvement and a call to action, rather than endlessly doodling on ideas that will never take off.

You can have all the motivation and inspiration to be a successful business owner, but your dreams, plans, and goals will always be stuck in the ideation stage without the requisite dedication and hard work.

The best athletes are the ones that stay committed to perfecting their trade and their craft, despite the hardships and setbacks they might face – imagine how Michael Jordan would have turned out if he didn’t put in the extra time to constantly hone his game and adapt it to the evolving game.

5. Positive mental attitude

You attract what you think. Therefore, even your mindset is part of your routine. 

Keeping a negative mindset towards life, business, and work breeds resentment and discontent. 

How can you possibly commit to a routine, much less create one, while lacking the enthusiasm and passion by bringing a cynical and jaded mindset to the table?

Your inner game is crucial: without the right mental attitude, you may be busy to be active, with all your efforts ending up aimless and lacking purpose.

A positive mental attitude inspires us towards success. Being optimistic about your endeavors helps you drill down on your goals, dreams, and aspirations and take concrete steps to achieve them, no matter the result.

Conclusion

Developing, implementing, and sticking to a daily routine helps you take control of your day and, therefore, your success in whatever endeavor you choose. 

Committing to a daily routine ultimately leads to confidence, organization, and productivity. Demonstrating such values to your employees will inspire them to attain the business success you crave.