A Morning Routine For Real People
New year, new habits, new routines, new goals. It’s that time again to re-evaluate everything in our life. Happy New Year! I thought I’d share with you a routine that I’ve been struggling with since March 2020 (you all know what happened back then, no need to rehash, right?). Up until that month, my morning routine was operating on auto-pilot and it worked for me. So when it got derailed, I was left scrambling finding a new morning routine. So, today we’re going to talk about morning routines.
You’ve seen You Tube videos, read the books and scrolled past Insta-perfect photos of idyllic mornings. On your search for help improving your mornings, you fell down a hole that left probably feeling inadequate and wondering how the heck can you do all the things that you’re supposed to do each and every morning?
Your AM To-Do List:
Meditate. Write in your Grateful journal. Write your morning pages. Yoga. Hot water with lemon. Make your bed. Light candles. Exercise.
Got it?
I really don’t think your morning routine should exhaust you or stress you out. It should ease you into your day and set you up for success.
But, all those successful authors, CEOs and influencers have amazing morning routines that start at 5am.
I know. I hear you! But, what I know is that you need to find what works for you. And it’s okay not to do everything every single morning.
Keep in mind, you’re probably responsible for someone else or several people in your household and you’re probably juggling a job outside the house. Those things are time sensitive. Your kids need to be at school at a certain time, your mom needs to be at her physical therapy appointment at a particulate time and you need to get to your day job by nine o’clock.
Do you really want to do what feels like a full-days work between 5 am and the time you clock in?
No!
But you want to do all the morning routine stuff. Okay. Create a schedule and rotate the tasks. It’s okay to have an uncomplicated morning routine.
Mondays are for your journaling.
Tuesdays you’ll do yoga and meditate.
Wednesday do your three morning pages.
Thursday do more yoga and meditation.
Friday journal.
Every morning have your hot water with lemon, make your bed and light a candle.
Find what works for you and don’t compare yourself to someone else. I’ve been there and it’s not a comfortable place to be. I tried to do all the things for a morning routine that would lead to success, book sales, best seller list domination. What did I end up with? A half-filled journal, a feeling of failure and too many lemons.
Leave a comment letting us know what does your morning routine look like.
Debra Sennefelder is the
author of the Food Blogger Mystery series and the Resale Boutique Mystery series.
She lives and writes in Connecticut. When she’s not writing, she enjoys baking,
exercising and taking long walks with her Shih-Tzu, Connie. You can keep in touch
with Debra through her website, on Facebook and Instagram.
Great post, Debra! My morning definitely starts with coffee and a FB post. I wish I were a morning exercise person but I'm just not. So I've decided to move that to the evening. Like you, I'm making adjustments and finding what works!
Morning does not start for me until after a cup of coffee. I'm experimenting with doing Pilates first thing and then having coffee. I'll let you know later if that works! Debra,thanks for an interesting post!
My morning routine is not to have a routine. After years of being a teacher, administrator, and school improvement consultant, having to be "on" by seven a.m., I indulge myself in being able to vary my schedule to meet more personal needs. I do like exercising in the morning, though, when I'm more energetic.
A usual day in these times of semi-hibernation: Mornings start with half a piece of toast with nut butter and a slice of fresh fruit on top. this time of year, it's peanut butter and persimmon slice, or Bosc pear. Then it's time to write. My husband makes lunch, and we share time together then. Afternoons are either more writing, or reading, or running errands and doing personal business.
Debra, you are organized. Depends on what day it is, but I start with coffee and a bit of exercise, whether it's treadmill or yoga. I'm so consumed with health these days, that I confess I've made it a priority. At night I read, and research for book three. But I love the way you're able to mix it up.