Day 4: How to Tell Which Routines Are Working and Which Are Running on Inertia

A routine that is working does something. A routine running on inertia occupies time without producing what it was originally designed to produce.

List the three habits that structure your day. For each one, ask: what is this actually doing? Not what it is supposed to do — what it is currently producing.

The answer is usually available in the evidence. A morning routine that is working tends to produce a specific quality of functioning in the hours after it. One running on inertia tends to produce a mild sense of having done something without a corresponding change in output.

Do not change anything today. The task is only to distinguish between the two categories. Changing a routine before you understand what it is currently doing often just replaces one ineffective pattern with another.

Observation first. Adjustment, if needed, later.