Hawkins Stern is the economist you’ll have to thank for the rest of your kid’s childhood; he’s the reason why there’s candy at the check-out line in every store in America. Stern was the man who discovered ‘suggestion impulse buying’, which is when people see a product and visualize a need for it, not necessarily because they want the item, but because of how the item is presented to them. I’m not sure how or why candy and magazines got the coveted slots at the check-out counter, but candy producers found out that even though people would only go to the candy section seasonally (for Halloween or Valentines day), people did buy candy year round if it was more visible.

But why set candy out at the checkout line rather than at the store front, or next to food staples like bread? Candy is at the checkout line because of a second concept called decision fatigue. “The basic idea is that your willpower is like a muscle. Like any muscle, it gets fatigued with use. The more decisions you ask your brain to make, the more fatigued your willpower becomes.”

When you have children, there are a lot decisions you make every day. Using family routines and schedules are a powerful way to implement your values because you’ll be making commitments to things you care about rather than having to make the same decisions towards those values regularly. We all have things that we say are important to us, Pintrest boards full of recipes we plan to make and crafts we plan to do.

Instead of simply hoping that you’ll have the willpower and motivation to do better, discover how successful you can be by simply scheduling the things that are important to your family. Schedule healthier meals on certain nights. Schedule physical activities. Schedule family time. For example, my family goes swimming together every Tuesday night at the local YMCA. On any given week, I don’t have to hope that we’ll find the time to work on our swimming progress, and on Tuesday I don’t have to make a decision, or hope I have enough willpower to make it to the pool. It’s just where I go on Tuesdays at 7pm.

Needing to use willpower on an hourly basis is a sure way to fail at most of your goals. Instead of constantly having to make decisions and events happen, try scheduling them instead. Or, if you struggle with ‘scheduling’, try routines. “What’s the difference between a schedule and a routine? A schedule is generally a timed plan; routines are regular, habitual procedures.” A routine is an order of activities that doesn’t need to stick to the clock or calendar, but still provides a basic structure. In other words, a routine is less about having a set schedule that you follow based on what time it is and is more about having a flow of predictable events. Because it adds predictability, it lets you and your children know what’s coming next. So for example a bedtime routine could include several elements that your child becomes familiar with and goes along with because they know what’s coming next. Save yourself from decision fatigue. Schedule more things that you value. And at the very least, try to solidify more routines. You’ll be amazed at how much these two tools will shift your life towards the things you value with very little extra effort on your part.