I recently decided I need a more structure around my daily routine. Previously, I had a checklist mindset: I need to do these certain things before the day ends. While I liked the fluidity of that approach, I found I spent too much time planning when to do what. With a set routine, I don’t have to think about the order I want to do things when getting out of bed, saving some mental energy first thing in the morning – who wants to think when first waking up?! 🥱
What are the things I want to prioritize in my newly created routine? First, a caveat: this isn’t some efficiency hack to get more things done in less time. I’m a bit against that whole philosophy. In my opinion, it’s good to want to get things done, but not to the point where every minute is spoken for. Flexibility and fluidity throughout my day is super important. However, I’m the type of the person who needs some sense of order – eh, I need a lot of order. I need this in all aspects of life. When I move, for example, I’m the person who has to have everything out of boxes and in a designated place 24 hours after the moving truck pulls away. So yeah, this routine just helps my brain relax in a weird sort of way.
Here is the current list of activities I try to complete every day:
• A workout of some sort (currently a 2+ mile walk through he park)
• Meditation
• Reflection (gratitude, affirmation, random thoughts)
• MeStandup (planning my day)
• Journaling (a more focused reflection)
• Reading (a chapter or two in a book, or an article, ~30 minutes)
• 80oz of water
• Evening reflection
And the routine I’ve established:
6:30am – Out of bed, shower, etc.
7:00am – Morning walk through the park (listening to podcasts and headlines from Apple News Today)
8:00am – Walk with Sophie, my 3-year old daughter, part way to school, say our goodbyes 👋
8:30am – Meditation and reflection in the park (same bench every day, weather dependent, pictured above)
9:00am – MeStandup. I have a note I use to make sure I go through the same things every day: phone notifications, email, Slack (on weekdays), todo list, and my calendar. At the end of this time, my goal is to have a loosely defined plan for today’s priorities.
Reading and journaling I’ve decided to leave as flexible. My loose goal is to try to fit them in before noon. Interestingly, these are the two things I’ve missed most over the past week.
5:30pm – Pickup Sophie from school, walk home with her, and start dinner together.
Evening reflection I do before going to bed. I jot down three things that happened today and setup a quick todo list for tomorrow with a few main priorities on my mind.
I keep track of all this in Notion each day and then have a “current month” view. My plan is to use this to reflect on as I continue to work through this new routine.
And that’s it! 🎉 Let me know if you’re doing something similar, or even completely different. Always looking for new ways I can organize my life with the goal not to be more efficient, but conversely to give my brain the sense of order it continuously craves. 🧠
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