Though I wouldn’t call myself a morning person, I have come to appreciate the way in which an early start and peaceful routine can set the mood for my entire day. I am constantly tweaking and changing what I want my morning to look like, and one thing I have learnt over the years, is if I don’t set myself up for success the night before, my morning routine consists of groaning at the alarm, hitting the snooze button, groaning again, making coffee, staring at a book until the kids are up…and then nothing has gotten done, I’m grumpy because I’ve wasted that time, I feel like I’ve had no “me time”, and I’m floating around with no clear goal for the morning until we start school.
To start with, the number one thing I do as I go about my evening routine, is review my diary for the following day, and write my to-do list. Another favourite morning procrastination tool of mine was the to-do list, spending precious quiet moments over coffee writing my list and pondering my day, instead of DOING my to-dos, and getting stuck into my day. Now, with my list pre-prepared the night before, I am ready each morning to get a wriggle on, and I find having the list done is a motivator – one of my “cheats” is to list “make bed” as the first item. I make my bed as I get up, so as soon as I look at the list, I have something to mark off!
Then, to make the most of the little bit of time I’ve carved out of the morning thanks to the early alarm, I made myself a basket to collate all the parts of my morning routine that I would like to touch on each morning, which I shared back when I first made it. I have rejigged it slightly, and it currently looks like this:
What I have, in order of use:
Essential oils – my personal focus blend oil roller (for the back of my neck) and a bottle of Balance (for under my feet)
A personal-size dori insert for 5 minutes of free writing to clear my head first thing – I use a gridded insert, just personal preference
My journalling bible and basic art supplies to read and journal a devotion each day
Last year’s Luminous journal about to be flipped and set up as my One Little Word journal for this year – a quick 2 minute check of where I stand for my goals
My morning stitches pouch (made by AJ for quilt camp) containing a new project ready to go (more on this project soon!)
Back to pen in hand, with my writing notebook for two pages a day as part of my #holidaywritechain that I hope to keep going into the year – currently I’m aiming for two pages a day on my main fiction WIP
And missing in action, is my kindle I will wrap up with, reading whatever my current book is, as I eat my breakfast and head into my day.
I will also pop in a little pouch with my vitamins every evening so I don’t forget to take it of a morning. Once I finish up my morning basket, it’s off to check the diary and the to-do list again, and the school plan, and then hit the ground running while I wait for the kids to wake up and my day really starts.
I know it sounds like a lot, but the two writing tasks are literally five minute each, as is the morning stitches. Add 15 minutes of bible time, and we are only at the half hour mark, with only the reading to go, which happens over breakfast anyway and doesn’t add any additional time to my routine. It’s just a matter of changing my habits from half hour of scrolling the overnight news, to half an hour of what fills me up. I also make sure to fill my diffuser the night before and add a nice morning blend so, again, all I have to do is hit start.
While I don’t have a huge amount of energy by the time the kids are in bed and the kitchen cleaned and the washing folded, and it sometimes feels like more effort than it’s worth to fill up my vitamins and diffuser and write my list, every morning when I wake up with everything ready to go, it really does make for such a lovely, gentle, start to the day.
Today I am still child-free, so I was a bit naughty and hit that snooze button more than once, and then enjoyed a nice cooked breakfast as I worked through my basket. The rest of the day until the children arrive home is all about cleaning & decluttering. I just about have another load of “stuff” to take to storage. The bathrooms are insisting I can’t ignore them any further. The sock basket is embarrassingly full…so maybe I can watch a movie and pretend like I am housewifing when I fold them? I have an i
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