If your goal is to have your days productive and accomplish at least most of your daily goals, it’s important to set and follow a routine.

Successful people in the world are mostly known to keep a daily routine they follow. They discover and groom their own habits and set strategies to help them achieve their goals in life.

Marc Murenzi has been working as the manager of an incubation company for a couple of years now. 

He says for the years he has spent working, this has been the most productive of all. He attributes this to a change in the way he leads his life; which ranges from his personal life, relationships and work itself.

What changed according to him, is that he stopped living randomly and started planning his days ahead.

"Before, I used to live depending on how the day was. Basically, days dictated my life. However, when I decided to be intentional in how lived, it all changed. Planning my days has not only helped me become productive, it has changed my entire life too.”

Exercise is one of the habits to incorporate in a daily routine. 

In being intentional, he decided he wanted to live healthier. So he started exercising and eating healthy. In regards to work, he decided to have a daily routine of what needs to be done and when it should be done. 

"I wouldn’t say I follow this 100% but it helps me to stay on course and keeps me accountable.”

Murenzi notes that setting daily habits is helpful especially because they help you prioritise what’s important, for they encourage you to make choices and focus on what matters for a particular moment.

A daily routine is simply a customary or regular course of procedure, ordinary tasks, chores, or duties that are done regularly or at specified intervals.

Author Jory MacKay notes that if you pick the right small behaviour and sequence it right, then you won’t have to motivate yourself to have it grow. It will just happen naturally, like a good seed planted in a good spot.

He highlights that habits free up energy for more important tasks. The reason 40% of our actions are driven by habit is that our minds love to conserve energy. The more you can automate the things you do each day, the more mental space and energy you have to commit to more important tasks.

"Daily routines and habits boost creativity. As we wrote in our Guide to Being More Creative, there’s no such thing as a creative muse. Instead, the most creative ideas come from working consistently and putting in the time.”

Habits and routines drive you forward. More than anything, your habits and routines are what help you see progress and motivate you to do more, the author adds.

Brigitte Ineza, a fashion designer believes the secret to success lies in creating daily routines. This is because it makes one more efficient especially that with a set routine, it’s not necessary to plan every day, she says. 

"When you have a routine to follow daily, it reduces the need to make decisions each day. This is helpful in knowing what tasks to be done do daily without having to contemplate or think too much,” she says.

Some of the habits she recommends are; exercising daily, scheduling tasks for the day and then set time to accomplish them, and having a regular bedtime, journaling among others. 

Having such a routine creates structure, Ineza adds. "A daily routine enables one to be organised and consistent with what they do in life. It also provides the context within which to live other than leading an ‘unplanned’ life.”