The Easiest Way to Reinvigorate Your Routine

If you’re feeling in a rut with your morning routine or with any mundane task, there’s a simple way to spark new life without making a major change or abandoning the things you know you need to do.

Many of the tasks we need to do daily don’t change.

For people with ADHD or other forms of neurodivergence, this can be a challenge.

We depend on the dopamine hit that comes from variety. When tasks get routine and boring, we can lose interest.

So, how can you bring new life to daily rituals and tasks when they start to feel too routine?

Rely on the oldest trick in the book:

Change the soundtrack.

Let’s explore how music can help us get things done with greater ease and in flow.

The Role of Music: An Influence on Our Emotions

Picture a scene from a horror movie. You know it’s just a movie, yet you are absorbed in the scene, on edge as you wait for the innocent victim to be attacked from behind.

What triggers your fear, even though you know it’s a movie?

The soundtrack.

Take any horror movie scene and change the music, it won’t trigger the same fear.

Music cues emotion. According to research, listening to — or playing — music increases blood flow to the brain regions that generate and control emotions. The limbic system, which is involved in processing emotions and controlling memory, “lights up” when our ears perceive music.

Of course, you don’t need research to know this.

A song can bring us back in time, sparking happy memories of joy or profound grief. A song can make you angry or help you find inner peace.

The feeling you have when you listen to a particularly moving piece of music are the result of dopamine, a neurotransmitter that triggers sensations of pleasure and well-being. Dopamine is also crucial to motivation, task initiation, and focus.

Many people with ADHD are often low in this chemical.

Tip: Create Soundtracks For Your Tasks

I have playlists I use at the start of my day and while driving to the gym.

I have several different playlists for workouts, depending on the intensity and style of the workout.

I have many different playlists for writing, depending on the type of writing I’m doing.

Sometimes I will play one song on repeat while writing a piece of working on a certain project. When I return to the project after an interruption, playing that song can help me pick up where I left off and get me right back in the groove.

For those of us with ADHD, creating soundtracks for different tasks is a helpful strategy to get things done.

Here are 3 ways music helps us get things done:

(1) Boosts focus. Background music helps us focus. The science behind this is the principle of stochastic resonance.

(2) Triggers emotion. The right song can trigger the emotion we need to imitate a task.

(3) Cues Action. When you have a song or playlist that you associate with a specific task or project, playing that music serves as a cue that triggers your brain to recognize it’s time to start that task.

The Problem: When Routine Becomes Routine

Even with music, sometimes we just lack the drive to start doing the task.

Or, sometimes the music loses its power.

The playlist that was so effective yesterday might feel irritating today.

This is part of the challenge of neurodivergence: the strategies that work so well one day can become ineffective overnight.

When the rhythm of your playlist is no longer getting you in flow, the solution is simple:

Change the soundtrack.

The Solution: Change Your Soundtrack to Reinvigorate Your Rhythm

On the most simple level, changing the music introduces novelty, which gives us a hit of the dopamine that we may be lacking.

More fundamentally, when you change the music, you change your emotion.

And when you change your emotion, you change your relationship to the task.

Sometimes it’s enough just to change which song starts the playlist, or to add a few new songs to a playlist to freshen it up.

Further Reading: 3 Proven Strategies to Start a Task When You’re Stalling

The TL;DR

There’s a saying that environment is more powerful than willpower. The setting in which you do your work contributes more than you realize.

You can’t necessarily change the tasks you do each day, but you can change the environment in which you do them.

Changing your soundtrack is one of the easiest ways to change your environment.

If you’re feeling bored in a routine or stuck in a rut, change your soundtrack.

New music will give you a new rhythm to reinvigorate the same old routine.

Do you score your tasks to soundtracks or playlists? Have you found this to be a helpful strategy to get things done?

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I am a holistic productivity coach who specializes in strategies to help neurodivergent women leaders find more ease and flow in life. If you struggle with low motivation, procrastination, inconsistency, or overwhelm, I can help you. Get in touch to learn more.