Christina asked about our creative habits last week. I thought about the question a while before concluding that my productivity is based mostly on what I owe other people—deadlines and things of that sort. You might say that my creativity is often motivated by panic and the to-do list.

But that left me thinking about establishing habits that allow and encourage creativity. I go through periods of intense routine that are generally obliterated by one thing or another: a conference, a term paper, a vacation. Getting back on the wagon, so to speak, is bumpy at best and excruciating at worst.

Yet routines are helpful for making certain daily practices more automatic and, then, more satisfying—and over time, they can become life-giving, in both physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual ways.

So I add to Christina’s question: what orders your daily life, and how do you establish and maintain those routines?