“Be the designer of your world, and not merely the consumer of it." - James Clear, "Atomic Habits"

Introduction:

I'll be the first person to admit that I love a morning where I get to sleep in! It's a great feeling to wake up fully rested, with nothing to rush directly into in order to keep up with the daily to-do list and all the things I need to take care of for my self, my home, my work, and my family.

Early mornings are definitely not my favorite, but I've found a way to make my time more productive and enjoyable, and that's a pretty big deal.

If you ever wish you didn't have to rush around as much in the morning, would like to be more organized and efficient, or just would like to optimize your routine so you can sleep in a little later, let's talk about how to build a routine customized to your needs!

What's Important to You?

Being a productive adult human person is a lot of work, and it can be very easy for us to become overwhelmed with the never-ending to-do lists and completely forget about taking time for ourselves. Even if your work is fulfilling your creative and social needs, it may not be satisfying everything your “higher self” needs. Your family is amazing, but that doesn't mean you don't also need time for yourself. When we build a morning routine, a lot of times we think only about all of the things we need to do, and we don't step back to look at the bigger picture.

What is important to you?

When we take into consideration the different aspects of our lives, and what we consider important, our goals can take on a new level of meaning. While we know everyone in the house needs to eat a healthy breakfast, we also might want to make self-care rituals like yoga and meditation a non-negotiable part of our days. We've got to get out the door (or to our desks in the home office) with all the essential gear for the day, and hopefully looking presentable, but we also might want to make sure to get some time to get a walk or a workout in so we feel good and have more energy for the day.

Add to that the craziness that is post-pandemic daily life. Feeling run-down, tired, and even burnt out is completely normal in our current society. Most of us are dealing, but barely.

But what if we can begin to play with these feelings, our daily to-dos, and our self-care aspirations by tapping into curiosity when it comes to our daily routines?

When I did this, it turned out to be a game changer. I realized that even though I constantly felt run-down, rushed, and time-crunched when I broke things down and looked at what I was doing, I was really just using my time in ways that didn't really serve me. By allowing space for my mind and body needs with self-care rituals, and creating routines for my non-negotiable responsibilities, I created more space in my life overall, and that’s space I've been able to use to begin working to enrich other other women's lives! These changes made a difference in my entire experience of life and all its parts—whether those parts were professional or personal!

With that said, here are 5 steps you can take to get curious about how you can change your own mornings for the better!

1. Take inventory of your morning (and evening) tasks

Write down everything you have to do each morning to get ready for the day, take care of all the needs of your body, your family, your house, and the general world you live in. I also recommend writing down the things like this that you do in the evenings. Sometimes moving activities from one to the other gives you a smoother experience in your daily routine.

2. Make a list of the things you'd LIKE to do each morning

Your next step is to take some time to write down things you'd like to do each morning that you currently aren't fitting into your schedule, or only get to do infrequently. This can include a breakfast that you aren't taking on the go, maybe starting a workout routine, or making time to do your hair and makeup with a little more intention. There is no wrong answer here! Take some time to dream!

3. Take a moment to map it out—what is realistic for you?

To make all of this work for you, we need to take the two lists you just created, and take some time to map out a plan. It helps to get creative here. Turn on some music and play with your strategy. You can group types of activities together, or just start by making a list for each day and randomly assigning activities to each day. Use the evening time as well.

A good strategy to employ comes from the book "Atomic Habits", and is called Habit Stacking. What do you already do each day that works? What goals are naturally partners with those existing habits? Make a plan to do them at the same time.

For example, if you already fix cook dinner most nights, you could move your lunch creation to the same time so that you don't have to do that in the morning. Get the lunchboxes ready during that existing meal prep time and put them in the refrigerator to grab and go on your way out the door in the morning.

Also take the time to remove things from your list that you don't actually need to do. If you spend a lot of time checking your email before you get out of bed in the morning, you could move that to your work-time routine, and replace it with a 20 minute workout. That will give you more energy all day long, help you to achieve your goals, and make your mornings more productive! It will also give you a better boundary line between work and life, and that's always a great thing!

4. Create a trial routine

Once you have your lists created, put them into action. Try out your morning (and evening) routine and play with it for a couple of weeks. No need to try to do it perfectly right away. New habits always take some adaptation to get used to and really become habit. Know that you can try it out, and it might not work perfectly right away, but you don't need to throw out the whole idea. Take notes. You need those for step 5!

5. Check back in and adjust

Once you've done your morning routine trial for a couple of weeks, go back to your original plan and evaluate how things have been going. Do your mornings feel easier? Are they more fulfilling or more aligned with your values and goals? Are there changes you could implement to make it better?

Make any changes you'd like, and try the routine again! After a few adjustment rounds, you'll have a great routine that supports your life goals, your health, and your daily responsibilities without feeling overwhelming and stressful!

If this sounds like a great idea to you, you can take it a bit further and join me for my free Design Your Mornings workshop!

This workshop will be tomorrow, March 19, 2024 at either Noon-1p.m. ET or 3:00-4:00p.m. ET, whichever works best for you! It comes with a workbook where we'll work through all of these steps and come up with our new morning routine plans together!

Here's a signup link: https://link.msgsndr.com/widget/form/wetUe2Ci18UMSjIX1TsI

Hope to see you there!