On the planning podcast Best Laid Plans this week, Sarah discussed creating a morning routine, and outlined her own. I always find this topic interesting, and like listening to others', so I thought I would share my own. I will say that Sarah's is very long and involved (which she acknowledges), mine is not that involved and varies more from day to day too.
To be clear, I'm talking about a personal morning routine that happens before the official "getting ready in the morning" routine. At different times of my life I have had no morning routine, which was fine for then (in my 20s I liked to sleep as long as possible for example!), but I do find now I have kids, I prefer to have some time to myself in the morning and use it in a way that feels good. In her podcast episode, Sarah suggested answering these questions first, so I'll answer these for myself first too.
What time are you willing to go to bed? I like to go to be early (I've definitely become a morning person in my midlife!), so I'm happy to go to sleep between 9.30-10pm.
How much sleep do you need? I need approximately 7.5 hours, which will usually vary between 7 and 8 hours depending on the night.
What is the “stop time” of your routine? We need to start our family morning routine about 7, so that’s my hard stop.
Thinking about what's very important to me in the morning, I want to a) wake up without an alarm (when at all possible), b) have my coffee in peace in a relaxing spot with my feet up, and c) have time to do some reading of either my favourite blogs or a current book (fiction or non-fiction). These three elements ensure I start the day off feeling peaceful, relaxed and thoughtful, which is important to me.
Other optional elements depending on the day are: d) A planning session with my paper planner; e) write a blog post, work on my side business or fiction writing; or f) a short strength training session at home.
The reason I have definite elements and optional elements is partly because I like some variability in my morning routine, but mostly because my kids are still somewhat unpredictable in their morning wake up times. On the podcast Sarah mentions that she has to wake up her 7 year old at 6.45 every morning - this is not always true of E (sometimes she sleeps in, sometimes she doesn't). O, in particular, being 4, is still an early riser, and is up anytime between 5 - 7. Oh how I wish it was more predictable! But alas, not yet.
If I go to bed at say 9.45, and I get 7.5 hours of sleep, I will usually wake up naturally about 5.30 am. This is perfect for me, and often happens a couple of times a week. In this case, assuming the kids aren't up, my routine will be:
5.30 - Put on kettle and make instant coffee with milk (first cup)
5.35 - Curl up on couch with my coffee (and the cat) and read blog posts
5.55 - Make second coffee
5.57 - Write a blog post/some fiction etc
6.30 - Probably a kid will be awake by now, if so chat to them, cuddle and maybe read them a book.
6.35 - Read my own book
6.45 - Either keep reading or do a short strength training Or planning session, depending on mood.
If I don’t do planning that time in the morning, I’ll often do it when I start work for the day, or even later in the day. Depends on how busy the day is and how confident I feel that I already know my plan (I also do weekly planning and have a white board on the fridge with the weekly plan written up, so I think a lot about what’s going on, doesn’t have to be first thing in the morning).
In contrast, sometimes I stay up a bit later, say until 10.15, or I’m extra tired, and then I might wake up at 6.15 (usually a couple of days a week). In that case my routine will look like this:
6.15 - make coffee
6.20 - curl up on couch with coffee and read blog posts and possibly current book (fiction or non-fiction depending mood)
6.50 - second coffee, chat to kids, maybe read them a book.
And that’s it!
I’m finishing this blog post during my morning routine. And today so far I’ve:
Gotten up at 5.15 (went to sleep before 9 last night, just after the kids)
Made coffee
Read two blog posts, made a comment
5.30 - Worked on this blog post
5.50 - O got up. Currently reading a book to himself next to me (he asked to play a card game - that was a hard no until I’ve finished this post and made my second coffee!)
6.05 - I’ll publish this blog post, make my second coffee, and then hopefully do some reading, planning, and strength. (And play a card game with O since he’s waited patiently!).
Well, there you go! A blow by blow description of my morning routine. As you can seen in varies a lot from day to day. Could I set my alarm at 5.30 every day? Yes I could, but I LOVE the fact that most nights I get the sleep my body wants and wake up easily. Totally acknowledge this is hugely lucky I can do this- many newborn years I slept in as late as I could, and there was about 18 months of time when 1 year old O woke up EVERY DAY at 4.30am- I kid you not. Glad those days have passed.
Anyway, I’d love to hear others thoughts on morning routines, and if you have one, what does it look like?
Image above by Wix
I would love to have more of a personal routine before the kids wake up at sometime in the future, but I’m just not there yet. On weekdays we get the kids up at 6:30 so we can be at the door at seven so I usually get up at 5:45 or six so I can start getting ready and be mostly ready when I get them up at 6:30. On weekends, the kids are almost always my alarm although sometimes I will wake up on my own and have a little bit of time to myself before they wake up. When that happens, I drink some coffee and work on my New York Times word puzzles and catch up…
I love morning routine content too! I feel like we have a pretty similar routine, actually! I typically set an alarm for 5:15 but sometimes snooze/ just lay there until 5:25. I go downstairs, make tea, and then usually sit and fill out my time log (my version of journaling) and habit tracker and plan out my day/ update calendar, to do list, etc. Then I aim to read non-fiction for about 10 minutes. Then, it just depends- sometimes I'll work on a blog post, sometimes I READ blog posts, sometimes I do email triage, or other personal admin type things, sometimes I start some work. It just depends. But usually I have from about 5:30/5:45- 6:45. I am not…
Oh morning routines... I have fallen off the wagon lately, with my Golden Hour and wake up around 6, coffee, read, chat/cuddle with kids, and that's it- then I have to get ready and be out the door by 7AM. My contractual time is 7:30AM.
Evening routine has been like this:
4:30-5 pick up kids from school
5-5:30 dinner
5:30-6:30 piano, words, quality time, baths
6:30-7 books/play
7 -7:30 lights out.
I go to bed after the kids...
Lately I have been feeling so squeezed..
When my kids were little, I had NO morning routine- I just woke up when they did (early) and was thrust right into the day. Looking back- that was not the best plan. It's hard when they're little and you can't rely on them to sleep in, but you're doing a good job of getting in your time. Oh, and I'm impressed that you wake up without an alarm. I definitely stay up too late, and wake up to a jarring alarm every day (sigh.)
I will admit I don't have much of a morning routine. I am NOT a morning person. It's tricky too because my routines vary dramatically from week to week if my husband is home. If I wake up early I generally stay in bed if he's still asleep because me leaving will wake him up. When he's gone, I get up early but also stay in my room but usually work/read blogs/write. I CAN leave my room without waking the kids most of the time, but I'm still gun shy after years of having to tiptoe around the house and inevitably having my quiet early morning hours filled with kids waking up and wanting to be with me!
You have…