IELTS Speaking Band 9 Sample Answers: Describe a time you changed your routine.

A routine I changed was the time of day when I did personal study outside work. I used to leave reading and online courses until late in the evening, but by then I was often tired and found excuses to postpone them. After several weeks of making very little progress, I realised the problem was not lack of interest but the fact that I was choosing my least energetic time of day.

I started getting up about forty-five minutes earlier three mornings a week and using that time for study before checking work messages. I prepared the book or lesson the night before, which meant I could begin almost immediately instead of wasting time deciding what to do. I also stopped expecting myself to study every day, because a smaller schedule that I actually followed was more useful than an ambitious one I kept missing.

The change made me much more consistent, and I noticed that I understood difficult material faster when my mind was fresh. It also removed the guilty feeling of carrying an unfinished task through the evening, so the effect was as much psychological as practical.