Tag Archives: mornings

What becomes routine

I have been writing, mediating, and exercising regularly for quite some time now. Writing and meditation are daily, while the workout is usually 5 days a week. I set my alarm for somewhere between 4:30 and 5:30 and I get up, peek at social media, then start writing.

I used to meditate first, then I realized that I wasn’t mediating as much as I was planning what I wanted to write. So I switched to writing first. Some week days I end up writing a bit more than planned and those days sometimes end up as my skipped workout days, or my workout becomes my 20 minute cardio and nothing else. I don’t ever let this happen 2 days in a row.

Recently though, it has been a bit of a scramble. I seem to be stuck going to bed later and waking up at the later end of my window. I then start my morning by checking out news and social media longer than I should before I begin writing. Today I realized that this has become part of my routine. It’s no longer a quick check to see what’s going on, it’s the first of four steps:

Procrastinate on social media, write, meditate, then workout.

This added step has made me more rushed in the morning. I’ve even skipped shaving a bit more regularly (easy to do when the only place you don’t wear a mask is inside your own office). The social media procrastination does, sometimes, inspire my writing. But more often it is just a waste of time. It’s interesting how a routine of focus and discipline can be slowly undermined by a bad habit. It’s easy to make distraction, procrastination, and entertainment part of a routine, without realizing how easily this can distract from the reason you developed that routine.

With just two more mornings of this routine before I start my two week holiday (when I won’t be getting up so early), I think I’m going to have to stick to a strict schedule to keep myself from wasting a large part of my days on a routine I usually keep to under two hours. And when I return in the new year I will need to be more disciplined about what my routine really entails.

Lazy habits form much easier than disciplined habits, and it becomes easy to make distraction part of a regular routine.

A moment to paws

Our cat has an early morning routine. He comes to me, crawls on my chest, starts purring, and waits for me to pet him a few times. He doesn’t really settle in. Then he goes to my wife and flops on her head, purring away.

Today we both got the flop.

It’s a nice way to wake up before your alarm, not as nice when it’s over an hour plus before your alarm… but I’m not complaining. It’s a pretty wonderful morning routine, and one that made me ‘paws’ and reflect on the simple pleasures in life this morning.

Slow starts

Summer is a time to rest for educators, but it can be hard going from 100 miles an our to 1 mile an hour without a little lethargy kicking in.  For me, it’s my morning routine. With no time constraint to push me, I can wake up early and get almost nothing done before the day really begins. Today, for example, I’ve had my coffee, I’ve done my meditation, and I read an interesting article on LinkedIn. Beyond that, I haven’t really done much in an hour and 45 minutes. Bleh.

Part of me wants to rationalize that it’s ok, but then part of me just wants to complete my routine… Finish writing this #DailyInk, get my exercise done, shower and really start my day. By that, I don’t mean that my day starts after this routine, I mean that my routine really starts my day!

I’m in a quiet house, everyone else still sound asleep, I’m feeling refreshed (I don’t need more sleep), and yet I’m being hard on myself about my slow start. Why? I think that I thrive when I’m intentional with my time. Even if that time is entertainment, or giving myself a break. But watching time disappear unintentionally is painful.

Part of my plan today is to create a list of ‘starter’ ideas for my daily write. I think that if I can get this done early, I’ll feel better about how my day started and that will be a self-fulfilling prophecy for the rest of the day. On that note, I’ve just added a new Daily Ink idea to my Notes on my phone: Why #dailyink. Let’s see what time I get that completed tomorrow?