What’s your routine?

It’s seem like everyone wants to get up at 4/5 am and then do all the things. Which I can’t really blame them as I have tried this and failed miserably. However, I am pretty consistent at getting up at 6 am and going to be at around 11 pm.

I have, pretty much my adult life, been and early bird. I get up start my day and I rarely stay up past midnight. Well, unless there is some dancing involved. Over the years and certainly in the past few years since working from home I have found that I have a fairly consistent morning and evening routine in place.

Some of this might bore the tears out of you but some of it might interest you. So, what is my routine? Like all good routines it actually starts on the night before.

The night before

I have found that without a good evening routine you will always fail in your morning routines. A typical evening routine for me will go like this:

• 6 pm
  • Clear off some Trello task’s
  • Housework 30 mins of anything
• 7 pm
  • Blog or play Minecraft (Yes I am a child)
  • Either way it’s moving me into a low gear
• 8:30 pm
  • Review the day, check of today’s tasks
  • Set intentions for tomorrow
  • Also look at what is coming up in the next few days
  • Phone stays in the office
• 9:30 pm
  • Get tomorrows clothes out
  • Put in the bathroom
  • Hop in shower, wash face, brush teeth
  • Fill water bottle
• 10:30 pm
  • Get in bed
  • Read for half a hour
• 11 pm
  • Lights out.

Now or these times are not set in stone this is just a ball park time frame that I tend to adhere to. Also this is not in any great detail so there are certainly things that I am missing off here.

Also not all things on this list get done if I have low energy or if I am poorly or if I have been out with friends.

But I know that if I follow this general plan I will get up on time and not feel like crap in the morning. Well, while we are talking about mornings share we get into what I do when the alarm goes off?

Morning!

• 6 am
  • Alarm goes off
  • Drink some water
  • Out of bed into bathroom, hop in shower if I didn’t the night before.
• 6:45 am
  • Feed Patch – the shouting will be quite loud by now
  • Grab Shit journal and write for a little bit.
• 7:30 am
  • Time to get Jono up
  • Coffee and breakfast – watch the news
• 8:30 am
  • Wash dishes, load of laundry on
  • Check day plan
• 9 am – Work

My morning is fairly simple compared to those that have exercise in them or meditation or anything else we have been told that successful people do when they get up at 3 am.

The point of these routines is to help you and your natural rhythm of your body. I don’t get Jono up until 7:30 / 8 am because I know that he will have been reading a lot later into the night then me. Or maybe he has had a bit of code stuck in his head and he has stayed up to finish it. He is a night owl and I’m the early bird.

I have time on a morning to look after me and my mental health and set myself up for a good day rather then just waking up and then jumping in the deep end. I find that I have much better days and don’t feel rushed when I stick to my routines.

I know that if I forgot them and just do whatever I will have a bad day. These keep me on track and keep me sane!

Do you have a routine that you stick to? Or do you wing it each morning? Let me know in the comments below.