Routines have become a central part of my life.

I love them and I design them.

I review my routines on a regular basis. I love pointing out the inefficiencies, trying new things, and writing insights about them.’

As the saying goes; we are the sum of our habits.

So, it’s incredibly bizarre to me when I encountered this question.

Why would you skip a step on your carefully designed routine?

You made plans, dictated steps, but you’re going to skip them? I don’t get it!

It’s crazy!

Or is it?

I paused and wonder what the real intention behind the question was.

I failed to realize that some parts in our crafted routines needs to be skipped.

What I mean by this is that no routine is ever perfect.

We all have our moments where we’re distracted and forget about our routines because of things within our control.

We could’ve put our phone away in the morning so we wouldn’t use our phone without intention as the day start.

We could’ve slept better last night, so we could do our routines properly and effectively.

It’s in this moment, I realized that a routine is not just about adding next steps to a better life, but reducing steps and eliminating variables to create a simpler and concise process.

It’s in this way we could be more effective. Skipping is a way.