How to Create a Minimal Daily Routine: 2-step Process to Meaningful Life

8 min read

“The ability to simplify means to eliminate the unnecessary so that the necessary may speak.” - Hans Hofmann

In this step-by-step walkthrough, together we will reflect on the most important values in our lives. Then, we will create a meaningful daily routine that aligns with our highest purposes, your ultimate daily ritual, using a simple 2-step process: Find your values, find your activities.

Table of Contents

• Step 1: Find your values
  • Distill the essence
  • Knowing the ‘why?’
• Step 2: Find your activities
  • Do less, get more
  • Fewer but deeper
  • Simple schedule
  • Start with sleep
  • Consistency is key
  • Routine creates freedom

Step 1: Find your values

The necessary first step is to return to the fundamental drive of our lives, the values. What do we truly value? Not what we think we should value. Not what other people tell us we should value. But, what actually resonates with us at the depth of our beings.

Task: take some time and list out your 10 top most important values. Don’t rush through this step. These values are the foundation that reflects what you really want in your life. So, take all the time you need.

Need some ideas? Here is an example list of values.

Distill the essence

Now that you’ve deliberately selected the values for your top 10 list, we’re going to do what a minimalist loves to do: get rid of stuff!

Task: pick out only 3 values from your top 10 list. Getting tougher, isn’t it? However, this is necessary to get to the essence of your life. You can even go less than 3. But, I find 2-4 work best for the practicality of creating a daily routine.

Optional: if you want to delve deeper and make it easier to assess their importance and priority, you can assign a percentage (amounting to 100%) to each value.

Here’s my example list:

• Peace (50%)
• Health (25%)
• Knowledge (25%)

Knowing the ‘why?’

Understanding the reasons behind choosing these values brings clarity to your thoughts and helps you see what truly matters.

By reflecting on the core values that you’ve picked out, you’ll notice that this list is useful not only for crafting a routine but also as a compass that guides you in every other area of your life.

Task: write briefly about each value you’ve chosen.

Here’s my take:

For peace, I most value having a peaceful and harmonious life. Since my ultimate wish is to have a peaceful death, how can I depart from this world peacefully if I live a chaotic life, right?

For health, as the saying goes, “You cannot enjoy wealth if you’re not in good health.” I want my body and mind to perform at their best navigating and connecting with the world around me. So, taking good care of my health is essential to my well-being.

For knowledge, the process of learning new things brings me great satisfaction and joy. If you’re someone who immediately googles stuff at the first glimpse of curiosity, or have a hundred enrolled courses on at least 3 MOOCs, plus a few hundred more books on your waiting list, knowing deep down you might not be able to finish half of them in this lifetime, you understand what I’m saying.

Step 2: Find your activities

The logic is very simple. We now know what we value, and we want to create more of those values in our lives, not now and then, but consistently every single day.

Task: list all the activities you’ve been doing and the ones you think will contribute more and put them under each value. It may be helpful to think of the activities in terms of ‘input’ activities, which are for yourself, and ‘output’ activities, which are for others.

So, what activities can I do to contribute more to these values?

Do less, get more

Task: you know the drill, don’t you? Pick only 1-2 activities for each value.

For peace, I choose meditation. I journal sometimes but I don’t need to do it every day. I’m already volunteering for mental health as part of my job. So, the best way I can create more peace is to meditate.

For health, the 3 pillars of good health are sleep, diet, and exercise. Since sleeping and eating are vital we must do them every day anyway—so exercise it is. But, I also emphasize practicing good sleep hygiene and eating healthy.

For knowledge, this is a hard one to choose for me. Since I’m writing this right now… maybe I could cross that out. So, read then.

Finally, the essential activities that contribute to my life values are:

• Meditate
• Exercise
• Read

You may think, “That’s it? Just 3 activities? Isn’t that nothing?” But, please read further carefully.

Fewer but deeper

Considering that most people have full-time jobs, that’s 8 hours of necessity, sleeping for 8 hours, including commute time, breaks, socializing, and various tasks, all of which could easily add up to ~20 hours.

If I had meditated for 2 hours (peace 50%), exercised for 1 hour (health 25%), and read for 1 hour (knowledge 25%), it would total to 4 hours already. There’s no need to add more activities to this routine.

We must be realistic. Otherwise, we’ll end up overwhelmed by the idealism of becoming a superhuman by doing tons of activities just to burn out and fall into a rut after a few weeks, or even days.

We do fewer activities, but we do them more deeply. We are fully present with each activity and yield much more value from the time we spend.

It’s better to do 3 things deeply, rather than doing 10 things shallowly. Being focused and deep in the flow of the activity brings great satisfaction and rewarding experiences.

Simple schedule

Make it simple. You don’t have to do something at a certain time just because some internet experts or influencers told you so. Simply find what works best with your current lifestyle. If you’re uncertain, experiment.

For the majority of people who work 9-5, creating a morning routine before work and an evening routine after work is ideal.

For those with more flexibility, you can use time-blocking and swap the activities around depending on what’s on your plate that day.

Start with sleep

At the very least, please keep your sleep schedule consistent every day. And put it on the schedule first before anything else.

If you haven’t already, make a commitment to go to bed and wake up at the same time every day for at least 2 weeks and see what happens. But if your life doesn’t allow it, just try your best to keep the regularity.

“How many hours should I sleep?” As much as you need. If you don’t fall asleep during the day or rely on stimulants to keep you going, you’ve probably got enough sleep. It could be anywhere between 6-10 hours. And if you don’t feel sleepy at the scheduled bedtime, do some relaxing or boring activities until you feel sleepy.

Stick to the same amount of sleep your body needs, unless your lifestyle has changed so much that you need less or more sleep. For example, people who undergo a period of intense physical training may need 1-2 hours more sleep than their usual.

Consistency is key

Now that you have put everything in place, all that is left is execution. Use any system or method that helps you to be consistent. I like using a simple to-do app, like Reminders.

I divide my daily routine into morning and evening routines. I meditate and exercise first thing in the morning. Then, I do my work, projects, and general tasks. Lastly, I finish my day by reading and meditating before bed.

Here’s what it looks like on the app:

That’s it. That’s my typical day. I simply check each item after completion. Frankly, I can’t fully explain the feeling I’ve completed everything on the list at the end of the day—It feels really good.

Also, the beauty of this method is the flexibility. When unexpected things come up to break my schedule, which is very common, I can move things around and still have a sense of what I have to do that day.

Routine creates freedom

It may seem paradoxical, but having a daily routine is liberating, especially one that resonates with your core values.

It can free you from anxiety, decision fatigue, unhealthy impulses, and the unnecessary.

Again, your days don’t have to be the same every day (I rest on Sundays). You can also consider this from a weekly or monthly perspective and design your routine accordingly. Just remember what is essential and aligns with your values. This will bring stability to your life and serve as a guide when you feel lost.

May this daily ritual of yours guide you to the meaningful life you aim for.

Be kind, be happy.