OVER THE LAST couple of years I’ve discovered the power of having simple routines, especially in the morning and evening. Having these routines can supercharge your day while simultaneously creating a sense of calm and sanity in your life.
I highly recommend that you think about your mornings and evenings, as they are two key times in your day, and they can do so much to change your life. You can skip this chapter and still get a lot out of this book, but examining your daily routines is worth considering.
THE POWER OF A MORNING ROUTINE
One of the most rewarding changes in my life has been finding peace with a morning routine. I’ve made it a habit to wake before most others, at about 4:30 a.m., and just enjoy the quiet and solitude.
It has made all the difference in the world.
I sit quietly with a cup of coffee, and enjoy the silence. I go for a morning run, which relieves stress and is perfect for contemplation. I use the quiet time before my family awakes to write something each morning. And I read, because a good novel is one of my favorite companions.
Now, not everyone is a morning person, of course. But that doesn’t mean you can’t create your own routine, one that incorporates something that gives you solitude, quiet, or stress release.
If you haven’t yet, I recommend that you create your own calming routine. Give it a couple of weeks to become a habit, focus on doing it every day, and soon you will not want to miss it.
With a well-planned morning routine:
There are other things you can do with a morning routine, but those three things alone make the morning routine a very powerful tool in transforming your life.
MORNING ROUTINE IDEAS
Choose four to six of the following ideas for your morning routine—or add activities of your own. These are just ideas to help get you started. Remember to keep your routine simple. More than six things will probably be too rushed, or you won’t have enough time for all of them. Test out your new routine for a few days, and make adjustments as needed. Sometimes the routine won’t go as you hoped, or it will take longer than you expected. That’s OK—just make adjustments.
Some ideas for your morning routine:
Notice that “check e-mail” and other work-related activities aren’t on this list. I suggest you wait until after your morning routine to get started on these types of things, otherwise you might get so caught up in e-mail that you run out of time for the rest.
SUPERCHARGE TOMORROW WITH AN EVENING ROUTINE
If the mornings are a great time for me, the evenings are just as wonderful. Planning a calming evening routine, especially one where you prepare for the next day, can make a huge difference to your mornings.
An evening routine can take as little as ten to thirty minutes, or as long as a few hours, depending on your goals. Some common goals of an evening routine include:
Pick four to six of the following activities for your evening routine, or add ideas of your own. And again, remember to keep the routine simple, try it out for a few days, and adjust as needed.
Some ideas for your evening routine:
Notice there’s no “check e-mail” or work-related activities here either. Use the evening to relax and prepare for the next day, if possible.
HOW TO ESTABLISH ROUTINES
It might sound easy to establish simple routines, but it’s just as easy to fall out of them. You want to make them a habit that will stick.
The key steps to establishing routines are to:
1. Focus on them. Keep your routine as your foremost goal for one month, focusing on nothing else. Having too many habits at once spreads your focus too thin, and makes success less likely.
2. Make them rewarding. If you establish a calming routine, the routine itself is your reward. Include enjoyable activities in the morning to start your day off right, so that you’re not rushed when you begin work. In the evening, quietly prepare for the next day, review your day, and have some quiet time. Satisfying routines like that will make you look forward to doing them.
3. Log your progress. Reporting your progress every day on an online forum is a great way to log progress, but you could also do it in a journal or some other type of log, or put a big “X” on a wall calendar. The key is to keep track of it and see how well you’ve done over the course of a month.