I’m not a morning person.
I have so many projects and people demanding my attention that I’ll just lose sight of things, or get overwhelmed and shut down.
So the morning routine has to be simple, easy to do every day, and adapt to leading into whatever the day has in store, whether that’s working with students, creative work, planning, meetings. . . whatever.
Since it constantly changes, here’s the current iteration:
- Wake up and make my bed.
- Get the coffee started.
- Clean up around the house. (This can be a few minutes or a longer ordeal.)
- Meditate 5-10 minutes. (Nothing special, just simple breath meditation.)
- Ten minutes or more of creative writing or work.
- Assessing all of my “to-do” tasks and planning out the day.
This last can lead back into more creative work, but I’ve found that if I start scheduling and planning before I get to my creative work I can easily lose control of my day. But if I don’t take some time to get things in order, my day will lose focus once the creative work wears on my willpower.
So it’s a balance – enough of a routine to get my day going in the right direction, but not so many tasks that I never get started on my creative work.
Depending on the day, there are other tasks I try to fit in early in the day such as e-mail zero and working out. But if I’m rushing to one thing or another there’s no choice but to get to them later in the day.
So that’s my solution – at least for now – what’s yours?