005 The Power of Small Systems

Consistency and discipline are essential for success in creative endeavors, and building reliable morning and evening routines provides the structure needed for sustainable progress.

• How I build my morning routines to fill in the creative well and prepare me for the day.
• How I end my day to wrap things up and prepare me for the next day
• Facing setbacks and being flexible
• Small, consistent systems are more effective than relying on motivation or feelings

Chapters

• 0:00 Introduction to Pockets Podcast
• 0:17 The Struggle with Consistency
• 1:15 Morning Routine Framework
• 4:41 Evening Routine Structure
• 7:10 Adapting When Systems Fail

Transcript

Richmond: 0:05

Hi, you're listening to Pockets, a podcast about finding joy, meaning and purpose in life's simplest moments. I'm Richmond Camero. Let's dive into today's journey. If there's one thing that I find hard to do, it is consistency. I like to start a lot of things, but I always have a hard time finishing them. In terms of writing and doing art, I used to work on them based on my feelings and motivations, but I am perfectly aware that consistency and discipline are needed for me to succeed. And for me to succeed in big things, I know I need to succeed in small things. That's why I built my morning and evening routines as pocket of of space that I can rely on.

Richmond: 0:59

James Clear said in his book Atomic Habits you do not rise to the level of your goals, you fall to the level of your systems. I'm a fan of this book and a fan of this principle, but I haven't really executed that in all parts of my life. I asked myself, though what's the smallest thing that I could change to have a system that I could rely on. My answer is to tweak my morning and evening routines.

Richmond: 1:32

I'm working full-time in the software industry and, at the same time, I want to flourish in my creative endeavors writing this podcast and creating art. This is my motivation in wanting to have a system and tweaking my routines. My strategy is to focus on small progress and consistency and, on a semi-regular basis, I wanted to follow through on my system.

Richmond: 1:59

I'll start by sharing how I keep track of this. I'm using Notion as my main planner. The most relevant page for this topic is my "my Day page. It's a small page that contains my daily tasks across different areas, books that I plan to read that month and a checklist for my morning and evening routines. This page is heavily integrated in my system, as you'll find out later

Richmond: 2:25

.. 30 . . to fill

Richmond: 2:28

Now for my morning routine. I usually come in at work at 10 am in the morning, so I have a page in Notion do what I want and need to do. To allow me to focus on things that matter, I also set up a blocker for social media apps in the morning. I can only access them by 9.30. When I'm transitioning to work, the first in the list is to read for at least 10 minutes. When I wake up, I want to have some time for quiet before I go through the day, as I've told you in the previous episode of this podcast, reading is an important part of my life. It's my way to feel the well and it's one way to get influences on the stories I want to create or how I write. So I also have to make time for it, and mornings are a good way to do that, when the world is still quiet.

Richmond: 3:23

The next thing in my morning routine is to check my tasks for the day. As I mentioned earlier, I have a patient notion that tracks this. Checking this in the morning prepares me mentally for what comes ahead. It allows me to check which ones would need more effort and which ones I need to prioritize. At this point, what matters for me on the list are the creative tasks that I need to do, because the last item in my morning routine is to spend 15 minutes doing something creative.

Richmond: 3:56

I am not the type who wakes up really early, but I recognize mornings are the best time for me to do something creative. Given my day job, the rest of the day might be unpredictable and I would mostly feel tired in the evenings. So in the morning I make sure to spend"my a few minutes doing art. My creative focus varies. At most times I would write some paragraphs in my current draft or outlining. Sometimes I would journal, or I would write some paragraphs in my current draft or outlining. Sometimes I would journal or I would draw. What matters is that I do something so I know that I'm a small step closer towards my creative goals. After that, I consider my minimum morning routine done. When I'm able to do these things, I would feel creatively fulfilled.

Richmond: 4:47

After my morning routine, I transition to my day job by looking into my daily tasks. Then, after I'm done for the day maybe an hour to an hour and a half before I go to sleep I start my evening routine. It starts with planning the next day. I look into the my Day page in my Notion workspace and check if there are remaining tasks I wasn't able to do that day. If there are remaining tasks, those will be included in the next day. I write down one to three things that I need to do for work, school and my creative endeavors. This part of my evening routine helps me anticipate my tasks for the next day. Next is my creative reflection in my crafted-to-day journal. As I mentioned in my previous episode about journaling, I maintain a daily journal for my creative work. This contains my reflection on the things I created that day and it makes me mindful on how I spend my time.

Richmond: 5:50

The next step is mise en place. This is a culinary term that means putting in place or making sure that ingredients are prepared and organized before cooking. In the context of my evening routine, it's a reset of my digital and physical workspace. I make sure that my table is clear. I put my pens, papers and notebooks back in their cases and shelves. If there's anything that I would need for the next morning, I make sure that they are visible on my desk. It's an important step to prepare my future self and it lessens the resistance for the things that I have to do for the next day. Finally, the last piece of my evening routine is to read for 10 minutes. y

Richmond: 6:34

Reading in the evening helps me shift to rest mode and it gives me extra time to explore worlds that I want to be into or learn stuff that I want. In most days I would be able to do these things, but there would be days that I would miss a step. Sometimes I would have to shift some of the things that I need to do from the morning in the evening and sometimes I wouldn't just have the time for some of the steps. When this happens, I try my best to remind myself that I can try again tomorrow and to trust in my system. It will write to miss a day or two. I would just need to pick it up again and follow the system, and that's how I built my small system. I hope you're able to learn a few notes on how to build one, and I'm looking forward to seeing you experiment in creating a system that fits your life. You've been with Pockets. Thank you so much for sharing this space with me. Now go embrace the moments, build your pockets of meaning and keep curiosity a sure guide.