Are organizational routines rather automatic and inertial or flexible and adaptive? The goal of this work is to build a psycho-cognitive perspective on habits and flexibility to show the missing link for solving the problem of the automaticity and flexibility of routines. The paper offers a version of the microfoundational approach which is projected as a more systematic research program. Its purpose is not only to draw attention to the role of psychological flexibility, which has been overlooked in routines research, but also to redirect the microfoundational approach to routines to issues explored in cognitive and social psychology. Psycho-cognitive microfoundations may help broaden our sight and unlock further theory development about routines.