Are you feeling scattered or unfocused? Adding a ritual or two to your day may be just the ticket to snap out of it.

“Rituals are habits that are part of our day-to-day activities that lead to desired outcomes,” says Melissa Gratias, who has a PhD in industrial and organizational psychology and is the vice president at Sandler Training. Gratias says she’s seen the professionals with whom she works helped these specific habits help people in a variety of ways.

Workplace wellness and positive psychology expert Michelle McQuaid says that rituals “shape the way our brains are feeling, thinking and acting.” Rituals signal to us that it’s time for a specific mindset or activity. They act as triggers to more effortlessly get us ready for what we need to do. Creating a morning strengths-focused ritual has changed the way she works, she says. In doing so, she incorporates her strengths, such as curiosity and gratitude, into her day, which makes her feel more rewarded overall. That may be reading something new for 10 minutes every morning or creating gratitude lists and thanking people. The key to the ritual is that it is rewarding and enriching, she says.

“Rituals and the way they make us feel, actually set our brains up for the day about whether we’re going to be in this more expanded thinking space or much more narrow thinking space and the consequences that can have on our performance,” McQuaid says.

Rituals can also frame your day, Gratias says. When you have that first-thing ritual of sitting with your coffee, reading, or meditating for 10 minutes, it can help you feel grounded and ready to tackle what’s ahead. Similarly, a closing ritual, where you close out the work you’re doing for the day, review what’s coming up, and get yourself organized for the following day helps you sharpen your focus on those specific areas. It makes it easier for many people to let go of the workday instead of bringing it home with them, since you’re receiving a clear signal that you’re done.

Recognize the components and rework your ritual in a satisfying way that becomes an effortless habit over time.

“It’s like the industrial age where people had time clocks. They would walk to the door, pick up their time card, insert it into the clock and hear the very satisfying ‘ching’ that was an audible and visual cue that the workday was over,” she says.

But rituals can—and should—be incorporated into your workday to address specific needs, too, says McQuaid. You can intentionally use rituals to improve performance. When you think about combining them as combinations of small habits, you can suddenly find ways to integrate the things you want to incorporate into your day, she says.