Well, hello there! 🌞

I’ve been off work for 16 weeks and away from this newsletter for even longer. That all changes today—it is my first day back at work and my first newsletter again post-baby. I’m glad to be back to both.

Besides a few Instagram posts, I’ve been mostly away from posting on social media and from any work. So this is me slowly coming back online after a lovely break. I’ve decided to return to this newsletter first as I love this space, and I’m so grateful to those of you reading along.

For the past few months, I’ve been focused on adjusting to a new lifestyle and slowly getting into a rhythm with a new baby in the mix. This change has had me reflecting on the difference between routine and rhythm. I’m a huge fan of routines, and they have served me very well. But with a new baby, it’s hard to stick to strict routines or even do things at the same time of the day. Instead, there’s this concept of rhythms to the day; there are repeating patterns, but they don’t necessarily repeat at the same time. A common one for newborns is “sleep, eat, play.”

In this issue of the newsletter, I want to share a little bit more about how I see the difference between routines and rhythms and see if it sparks anything from you. I’d love for you to reply and let me know your thoughts!

Let’s get into it:

Routines

You likely know routines when you see them — routines are fixed patterns that tend to be more rigid and are often time-based. In work and life, routines are easily found. You might have a specific routine for how you start or end your work day, and it mostly always happens at similar times and in similar ways. For me, I have a pretty set evening routine, one part of that is writing about my day in a One Line a Day journal that I have. This is a routine because it always happens before bed, the time that I do my journaling doesn’t vary, I don’t do it in the morning, and it wouldn’t make sense to do that since I journal about how the day has gone.

If you can stick to a schedule or a time of day and there aren’t a ton of outside factors that influence it, then a routine is likely the right choice. Routines aren’t right if they’ll be interrupted a lot and need to change constantly. Iteration is one thing, but regular interruption will often leave routines feeling, well, not very routine. I used to get frustrated if I was trying to keep to a strict routine with something but then couldn’t stick to it. One solution is that instead of thinking of it as a routine, you can think of it as a rhythm.

Rhythms

Rhythms are patterns like routines, but where they differ is that rhythms are strong, regular, and repeated patterns that are a lot more flexible than a routine. Rhythms happen in a certain order, but they aren’t rigid. Time frames change, and sometimes, you need to restart a certain part of the rhythm to get back to it.

There is a well-known rhythm for babies called sleep, eat, play. Babies don’t yet nap at the same time every day, so they don’t have a set routine for their sleep schedule, but there can be rhythms for babies where there is a pattern that can be repeated. They can always eat after they sleep and then play before going back to sleep and restarting the pattern.

Similarly, at work, you might have a rhythm of deep work, break, meeting. This is especially helpful if you don’t have control over when the meetings are in your work day. You can have a certain rhythm to your day even if you can’t implement a set routine.

If you want to get something done but within a certain amount of time or with a specific deadline, and you’re okay with ambiguity and change, rhythms are right for the situation. However, a routine is a better fit if you need more structure and discipline.

This has been on my mind as I return to work and consider what routines I can implement and what needs to be more of a rhythm instead.

That’s all I have this time. Like I said, I’d absolutely love to hear what this sparks for you; please hit reply and let me know!

I hope you have a lovely week ahead.

See you again soon,

Hailley

• Before heading out on maternity leave, I did an interview with Mia Quagliarello for her newsletter, Mia’s Queue. I chat about productivity, Zettlekasten, and goal setting. I’d love if you gave it a read, and be sure to check out the rest of Mia’s issues as well.
• The Marketing team at Buffer is hiring a Senior Email Marketing Manager! Very eager to have a new teammate join us on the Marketing team so definitely apply if this is up your alley.
• ​I deleted all of my emails while I was away on maternity leave. Here’s more about why and how I’ve done that in the past.

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