cap your days

This essay is an excerpt from my book, The Way of The Karma Yogi .

Let’s face it, days are unpredictable. We don’t have control over the course of events that will take place during the day. Our work schedule may change, some priorities may surface. We don’t know what challenge or surprise may show up during the day. But we do have control over how our day starts and how it ends. It’s important and wise to have routines for both mornings and evenings. They keep us organized and sane. Darren Hardy in his book The Compound Effect refers to building these routines as ‘bookending our days.’

Think of a day as a string of beads, where the beads represent the hours that we spend on work priorities, hobbies, relationships and other daily activities. If we tip the string in one way or the other, the beads easily slide off and fall on the ground. It leads to chaos and loss of order and priorities. But what if we tie a solid knot on each end of the string. The beads remain intact and in the order we put them in. Our sleep schedule, our health and well-being, our productivity and performance at work, and our relationships are not compromised. Sure, we may come across situations and circumstances where our balance is put to test, but we’ll be able to offset it easily. It’s crucial to have dedicated morning and evening routines to keep us inspired and on track.