Happy Friday! I am so happy that the weekend is finally here. I have a really fun couple days ahead, but I am most excited that I am this close to being done with this seven-day cleanse and wine, cheese, and anything delicious are in my very near future.
Today I want to talk about something that I’m still not very good at, but am certainly trying to be better at. I’ve read in quite a few different places lately the benefits of a morning routine. There are plenty of days where my “morning routine” is rolling out of bed at 7:30, throwing on the first clothes I see, brushing my teeth (and my hair if I am lucky), grabbing something to eat for breakfast in the car, and ending up at work by 8:00. You can see right off the bat how this may start my day out on a rushed, stressful foot.
The whole point of a morning routine is to give yourself the time before your “real” day gets started to get yourself ready for it. I wish I was one of those people who could incorporate exercise into their morning routine, but if I am being honest with myself, I just can’t. At least not on work days. I have tried so very hard to get up at 5:30am to be at the gym by 6 and home getting ready for work by 7:15, but it’s near impossible. And then I end up crying because I feel guilty that I didn’t go and it turns into a huge mess. So I just avoid pretending like I’m going to go altogether and save the clean-up. If I’m lucky, I’ll do maybe 15-20 minutes of strength training or a youtube video at home before work, but that’s about all I can handle.
So when I sat down and thought about it, this would be an ideal morning routine for me:
6:00-6:15am: hit the snooze alarm a bunch of times (I’m being realistic here)
6:15-6:20am: actually get out of bed and make my detox drink I like to have first thing in the morning (water, apple cider vinegar, lemon, cayenne pepper)
6:20-6:45am: read
6:45-7:00am: stretch or do a short workout to wake myself up a bit
7:00-7:15am: pick up around the house or clean/organize anything that needs it
7:15-7:30am: prep breakfast and pack lunch for the day
7:30-7:50am: get ready
7:50am: leave for work
Now if I could actually do that every morning, I’m sure my days would be much more chill and allow me to run around less and get more done. The actuality of me doing that every single morning is slim to none. So my goal for the next couple of weeks is 3 days/week of this. We shall see.
Along with putting together a morning routine comes another item to put on and check-off my to-do list. That’s not what I want this to be. I’ve been struggling lately with fully committing to things, just because I know I will need to add it to my calendar or to-do list and I’m just not 100% sure if that’s how I want to be spending my time. I want this to be something that is second nature and something that I do for myself; not because I feel like I have to. That’s when tasks become tiresome and a bother; when we feel like they must be done and we are unsure of the exact benefit.
Time blocking is something I have also read about a lot lately that I think anybody could really benefit from. Obviously I’ve known that you can block off time in your calendar for my whole life, but I first really read about this concept on The Skinny Confidential (obsessed). Lauryn writes in this post about how she organizes her days, gets so much done but still loves her life, and is as successful as she is today. I love her blog and how real she is. I really loved this post, because I feel like time blocking is something I try to do in my head, but this post showed me that there are literal devices that can take that work away from me. I sometimes feel like I shouldn’t have to physically force myself to adhere by start and stop times while doing a specific task, but why would I not if a cute little time blocking cube will do it for me? I’ve had it in my amazon cart to buy for weeks now and just need to bite the bullet and get it this weekend.
Another tip she shares that I want to start utilizing (maybe tomorrow?) is blocking out my entire day in Google Calendar. I’m not a super forgetful person, but I definitely can be sometimes. And why should I waste my energy and thoughts on trying to remember everything I wanted to accomplish in a day and trying to fit it all in when my calendar will literally do it for me. And if I can figure out how to manage my time better, I’ll have more time for my favorite activities: traveling and eating/drinking delicious things.
I am positive that a time cube and using my calendar correctly can help me to manage my days better, so I’m not sure what I’m waiting for in getting started. Going to implement this all this weekend and put it to practice starting on Monday. Excited. 🙂
Have a wonderful weekend! <3
Anything else you would add to your morning routine? Any good tips for time management?
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