We all have routines: thinking routines, fitness routines, social routines, eating routines, etc. Routines are important because they reduce our daily energy spend. But these automatic, sometimes subconscious actions, don't always serve us. We must be aware of our routines before we can change them. For example, notice the cognitive routine of how you work with your slipbox -- is it serving your goals or do you need to make changes to your process? Or your eating routines -- are you eating dessert every night at dinner? If so, what need is driving this habit? When attempting to change our routines, the trick is not to try to break with old habits and also not to use willpower to force oneself to do something else, but to strategically build up new habits that have a chance to replace the old ones.[^1] Use the Tony Robbins strategy: link massive pain to the old belief and massive pleasure to the new belief. %% ##### Scraps Alt title: we must identify our routines before we can change them, awareness precedes habit change, Awareness of one's habits and the difficulty of changing them is the precursor to change, Habit change requires awareness and replacement %% [^1]: How to Take Smart Notes, Sönke Ahrens