morning routines.
I'm a bit of a routine junky, I love the idea of having a routine and a lot of my YouTube recommendations are often other people's routines. I've even bought a book recently called Daily Rituals: How Artists Work to learn about rituals and routines of famous artists.
All of this fascination with routines spun from the start of the pandemic, where I (like most people at the time) had my daily life flipped on its head. No more daily commutes to the office and a whole lot of extra time I didn't know was possible to have. Before the pandemic, I'm not really sure what my routine was but it was definitely bare bones and barely felt like living. It was just getting up, getting ready for work, go to work, drive home, cook/eat dinner, get ready for bed to wake up early to go to work. But now that I had this opportunity of more work freedom (which a lot companies are trying to pull back on, unfortunately), I needed and wanted some kind of meaningful routine.
Early pandemic days, I'd wake and spend my mornings before work just playing Final Fantasy XIV. Not a great routine but if that's your jam and makes you happy, please continue the wake and game life. For me, I was feeling stuck and unhappy and also just out of shape and physically weak. It took me about 3 years to finally figure out something I think is working for me, 3 years of pure trial and error and hundreds of hours watching the "my [blank] routine" side of YouTube.
That being said, I still haven't found the perfect routine yet and I don't think I ever will. Even if I did, I'm sure it'd be so much that I'd burn out completely trying to do it every morning. However, I think what I've been doing lately has been working out pretty well.
Side note -- the app that I use for working out (I plan on talking about this more in depth later, stay tuned~) has been godsend lately with its updates. Previously, it only allowed for 4-5 days a week of training and those sessions would take me over an hour to complete but they've worked in a 3 day training week and an express option and it's been wonderful for my schedule and routine and has helped me really get into the groove of regularly working out at the gym.
My morning routine
Disclaimer: I'm only sharing my morning routine, I'm not saying it's the ultimate routine nor that anyone reading this should adopt this routine. Just wanted to share and hope that it could help someone else needing inspo and also for funsies.
Depending on the day, my morning routine differs slightly mostly based on whether it's a gym day or not. Gym days are mainly focused on getting ready as quick as possible and heading out to the gym, non-gym days are a little bit more slower/flexible.
the routine.
- Wake up (as of writing, I've been waking up at 5:50am and trying to build up to a 5:30am wake up time)
- Morning hygiene - brushing teeth, washing my face, moisturizing and sunscreen (ALWAYS PUT ON SPF) and I usually do this while listening to an audiobook
- Go downstairs, get yelled at by the cats for their breakfast, make myself a little greens, reds, & creatine drink and take my probiotic and tidy up the kitchen a bit (usually putting away the some of the clean dishes)
- Feed the cats their breakfast, check on their litter boxes & water (also give them pets)
- Lately, while drinking my green drink, I'll journal some for my creativity challenge and if I'm feeling it, I'll take some time for a quick meditation
- If it's a gym day, at this point, I usually gather all my stuff for the gym (stuff I set out the night before) and grab an energy drink and my water and head to the gym and try to get home before I start work at 9am
- If it's a non-gym day, I'll get some water and do a bit of Anime Cardio on our elliptical (I've just finished Chainsaw Man, thinking about starting JoJo's Bizarre Adventure) and that can last for about 30 minutes to an hour, depending on if I watch 1 or 2 episodes.
- Post Anime Cardio, I make my coffee and plan out the rest of my day, try to do something creative, or (like right now) write up a blog.
- Then I start up work around 9am
That's the jist of my morning routine as of lately, it can sometimes change depending on the season or depending on what happens the night before if I stay up late or not or if I'm just not feeling it one day! Those things happen and not doing your routine in the morning isn't the end of the world, not everyday will be perfect and that's what makes life interesting.