The fate of our morning routine is pretty much set by our evening or night time priorities and rituals. But that is another story altogether. So, for whatever reason – whether we screwed up our sleep/having some stressful thoughts/something bad actually happened or some physical discomfort is there, when we wake up, the energy levels are not the same everyday. Sometimes we have the “get-going” attitude and other times we feel like a sloth.
However, getting to the core of these states of being and addressing them is important. But here I only want to discuss ways to better utilise them IF we have those varied levels of energy.
CREATING A SYSTEM
A system that can help serve ourselves better…
First, get into the details, the minutiae of your ideal morning routine. What I mean by that is- suppose you have the best of your energy. What are the things you would like to do in the morning. Write those things, tasks, activities in detail. Also, it would be helpful in devising the morning routine if you add the time needed to accomplish those activities.
For example- Reading – 15 minutes, brushing teeth – 10 minutes.. etc. Adding that time is necessary so that you don’t get surprised around brunch time thinking where did the time go. Sometimes we assume it will take 5 minutes for an activity but the reality is almost ‘always’ different. This point will be helpful especially to those who want to give time to their hobbies or some other non-work agendas in the morning but also have to start his/her work early.
So, If you want to create a morning routine which is focused on self care habits, a routine just for yourself, then it will demand a certain “wake-up time”. I believe it’s even more important for the people who are busy taking care of others all day long that they give time to themselves first thing in the morning before they serve others. So that they don’t become resentful over time.
Coming back to the point, write down all the activities that you want to do. Then add the timings and see if they have the right time allocation to those. By “right time”, I mean, the best you can do. For example, if the earliest you can wake up is 6 am and you have to start work at 9 am. But you want to read for an hour, exercise for an hour or so, work on your hobby for about half an hour. Still, you expect yourself to get ready, have breakfast and start work at 9 am. Which is absolutely unrealistic to start with. This is setting oneself up for failure actually.
As we can see, we need to be real about the activities first and then assign a time limit to those. It would be helpful if you start small. 15/20/30 minute activities would be great.
Moving on to the next step.
Highlight the things that are non-negotiable for you to start the day. Those are usually very basic things. Kind of the ones that make us presentable to the people around us.
Now highlight, using a different color or whatever method suits you, the activities that you can do if you have a bit better energy than those “low-feeling” mornings.
We can create as many levels as we want of course.There is no rule as such. But I like these 3 levels for convenience sake.
A- A morning with a ‘get-going“ attitude when we do all the activities that serve us the best.
B- A “mid-level” energy morning when we do the basic things plus we can push ourselves just a bit extra to add a few from the best morning routine activities.
C- Performing only the basic rituals to start the day.
For example, my ideal morning routine goes like this –
A- High-level Energy Morning- Listening to podcasts, meditation, Reading, Writing… which is never organised and is almost in the form of vomiting through the keyboard, Going to the gym and doing chores.
B- Mid-level Energy Morning- Listening to podcasts, meditation, 5 minute Stretching, Going for a bicycle ride or a short walk and doing chores.
C- Low-level Energy Morning
On these mornings, I just do the non-negotiable activities that draw a line between my being a barbarian and so called civilized human.You know, cleaning after myself basically. In the name of physical activities, I do house chores. Well, I am a sucker for cleanliness. Keeping the place tidy and organised is almost tied to my identity.
If you want to include some activity into your daily routine, one of the best ways is to associate it with something that you absolutely love doing. Lately when I was out of my schedule of waking up a bit earlier, I came up with an incentive to treat myself with coffee until I ease into the routine again. So, the moment the alarm goes off and I get these thoughts of going back to sleep, I almost scream to myself, ”Come on Mj, earn your coffee !”
Another association that I created was for meditation. I love listening to instrumental orchestra music while lying down right after a strenuous workout session or after running. So, I added a 5 minute meditation session at the end of the workout while listening to the instrumental music.
Final notes:
Just having a clarification about the activities of your choice and writing these down will give you a perspective that will serve you the best. More often than not we beat ourselves up a lot by not observing what’s going on within the body which might be affected by lack of sleep(oversleeping as well can create that effect), stress, biological changes etc.
The purpose of stating these factors is not to give a ticket to create excuses and not doing our best. We need to be truthful about the observations for our mind and body and create a list of tasks that are in sync with those observations while staying real to the requirements that arise out of different individualistic lives.
And, With THAT last sentence my friend, the fantasy ends, making the difference between “self-care” and “practicality” blur again. But is it entirely true though ?
