My Daily Routine
I’ve talked about my routine before on Instagram, but I’ve recently made a few tweaks, and I thought I’d share it here. I feel like having a solid morning routine locked down is so important to set yourself up for success during the day. My husband recently changed jobs, and with that came a pretty dramatic shift in his morning schedule, and it took me months to realize that the reason I felt so scattered and off track was that my morning was all over the place!
I wake up around 7:30 and try to get out of bed around 8 - I need a lot of sleep, and I have a hard time going to bed any earlier than 11, so I’ve just embraced that I’m a sleep monster and I don’t need to get up any earlier than that! It takes me forever to wake up, so I’ll just roll with it. Sometimes I’ll read, and other times I’ll play on my phone, which I know isn’t what you’re supposed to do but whatever. The hard line I draw is looking at work stuff. No email or todos!
I don’t spend a lot of time in the morning getting ready, usually I just wear workout clothes. I try to go to yoga classes over lunch most days, so it makes that transition a little easier/faster.
I’ll chug a glass of water, and do a few quick chores around the house - making the bed, picking things up, setting out anything I’ll need that day… I work best in a clean environment, and for whatever reason, the morning is when I have the energy to do those mindless tasks, so I try to embrace it.
Then, David and I will take Caspian for a walk. This has been a real gamechanger for me - I used to walk him in the evenings and it would always be sooo hard to drag myself away from my work, and it felt like it cut into our evening time. This way, Caspian always gets a nice long walk, and David and I have a chance to get out into the sunshine, talk about our day ahead, and get moving a little before a long day of hunching over the computer. It’s super nice.
After our walk, I start working right away - usually, it’s around 9 at this point. I have been planning out my days in advance in Asana, so I just dive right into the biggest task that I have to complete, and go from there. I’ve stopped checking my emails in the mornings, which is super hard. I realized I was addicted to my email! It triggers the same response you get when you’re playing slots - usually, there’s nothing that exciting going on in there, but every once in a while you get a real good email - praise from a client, a new client signing on, pictures from a wedding… and that rush of positive emotion keeps you going back for me. However, I realized that I ultimately didn’t feel like I was in control of my day. I was rushing from one task to another, putting out other people’s fires, or just looking at emails and not doing anything about them, and letting them take up space in my brain. Instead, now I begin by checking tasks off my daily list, and I don’t check my email until I’ve completed those tasks. I also try to use the ‘only touch it once’ rule when it comes to my email. I read it and deal with whatever associated tasks it brings up, and then get it out of my inbox. It’s helped me spend significantly less time on email, and I think my response times are probably better as well.
I’ll work until lunchtime, and then it’s time to head to a yoga class. I try to go to yoga every day, mostly because I like my schedule to be predictable. It’s a good break during the day, and it’s nice to get away from my computer and have the structure of a scheduled event keeping me on track in the morning. After yoga, I’ll shower and actually get dressed, and then eat a quick lunch.
Usually, in the afternoons, I’ll head to a coffee shop. I love working from coffee shops - something about other people being able to look at my screen helps me stay a little more focused, and I like the energy of being around other people, and the privacy of none of those people wanting or needing to interrupt me.
I usually stop working around 6 or 7, depending on what my schedule is looking like that day. I am most productive in the late afternoons, and I’ve learned that it’s best just to ride that wave, instead of trying to fight it.
After I’m done for the day, my evenings are pretty all over the place. Sometimes I’ll cook dinner and we’ll enjoy a quiet night at home, other times I’ll be hot to do more work (I know, pretty exciting), and we like to try to see our friends or family a few nights a week as well.
I usually go to bed around 11 or 12, and I try to wind down by reading in bed before I go to sleep. Sometimes this does not work if I’m reading a particularly exciting book, other times it takes me like months to get through a boring book because it will put me right out.
And that’s my typical day! I’d love to hear about your routine in the comments if you made it this far. I think it’s so interesting to hear how other people manage their time and their tips and tricks for making it through the day. Hopefully, I’m not the only one!
