I posted recently in my New Year’s resolutions regarding my desire to improve my morning routine. I was always feeling grumpy and rushed as I’m really not a natural morning person (!) and I wanted to find a solution for me, a routine that could add some calmness and restore some order to my morning.
In an attempt to stick to this resolution I invested in a book that I had been hearing a lot about – ‘The Miracle Morning’ by Hal Elrod which claims to give you the ‘Not-So-Obvious Secret Guaranteed to Transform Your Life (Before 8AM)’ – bam, some pretty big words right there.
To briefly clarify, I am neither a skeptic nor a devotee of self-improvement books. I have a lot of time for Tim Ferriss’ ‘4-Hour Body’ as it seemed to work for me and make sense, but other than that I don’t have much experience of them. I do, however, like to read, like to learn and I’m open to new suggestions. I think that you just have to find what works for you and I was ready to try another one!
Anyway, let’s review my old morning routine and then the new one that I’m trying to incorporate:
Old Morning Routine –
Alarm set for 6:30 am
6:30 am, alarm goes off – snooze
6:40 am, alarm goes off – snooze
6:50 am, alarm goes off (cue not insignificant amounts of grumbling from the husband about the effing alarm), drag my carcass out of bed, put the kettle on and hop in the shower. (Meanwhile husband walks the dogs)
7:05 am, after a quick shower I complete morning ablutions with a rather undignified amount of rushing (especially as the husband will be demanding the shower as soon as he gets back from the beach).
7:10 am, forget kettle had boiled, boil again, make tea and start the husband’s cooked breakfast (a wrap with scrambled eggs, spinach and cheese, if you’re wondering) (sidenote: solid food for me, especially eggs, at this time of day is distinctly unappetizing so I stick to tea.)
7:25 am, get dressed very hastily, pray that nothing needs ironing and feed the dogs.
7:40 am, race out of the house for a brisk 20 minute walk to the ferry.
8:00 am, enjoy lovely 30 minute ferry ride to work with just enough time to catch my breath, check my email, drink my tea (which I took to-go) and read a bit of my Kindle.
8:35 am, arrive on Tortola and race another 10 minutes walk to work.
8:45 am, get to my desk and reward myself with more tea.
There were some very obvious items in this routine which needed some work. Namely the excessive use of snooze and the not eating – I didn’t need Hal to tell me much about those.
Here’s how I decided to improve my morning. After reading TMM I implemented the following changes:
- I started to get up earlier (yes, I’m aware that this seems totally counterintuitive when you’re sleepy AF and permanently exhausted)
- I bought a blender – since solid food wasn’t working for me I decided to incorporate protein smoothies.
- I started to stretch – vigorous exercise first thing (like running) might be on the cards at some stage, but for now I’m starting small in an attempt to keep my new routine manageable. I’ve never been particularly flexible so this has the added benefit of hopefully making me a little more limber.
- I claimed back the morning dog-walking duties from the husband – which involves sunrise on the beach, not a huge hardship.
- I started to meditate – just a little bit. 5-10 minutes at a time. I’m currently using both Calm and Headspace and assessing which one works best for me. (I think I’m leaning towards Calm – anyone else have a preference?)
- I’m oil pulling.
- I started a gratitude journal and am working on my calligraphy.
New Morning Routine
Alarm set for 5:45 am
5:45 am, alarm goes off and I get out of bed (not exactly leaping, but not dragging my feet too badly either)
5:45 – 6:00 am, stretching on our deck.
6:00 – 6:15 am, hot water and lemon on the deck and some time to reflect and meditate.
6:15 – 6:30 am, work on my gratitude journal, calligraphy and positive visualization.
6:30 – 6:50 am, walk the dogs on the beach and through the quarry by our house, collecting sea glass and stopping to take endless photos of admire the sunrise.
6:50 am, time for a shower and oil pulling!
7:10 am, smoothie time – now that everyone is awake I can get the blender out… also make tea for the ferry
7:25 am, get dressed and feed the dogs
7:40 am, race out of the house for a brisk 20 minute walk to the ferry.
8:00 am, enjoy lovely 30 minute ferry ride to work, try to ignore my email, drink my tea (which I took to-go), make blog notes and read a bit of my Kindle.
8:35 am, arrive on Tortola and race another 10 minutes walk to work.
8:45 am, get to my desk and reward myself with more tea.
Because what’s not to love about starting your mornings like this…??
This is still early days (and I can’t swear to having done this every day so far this year) but so far I am loving my new routine and feel more productive and so much better prepared for my day ahead. I’m probably going to bed a little earlier but that’s no bad thing. I’m hoping that I can keep this up – any morning people out there who can share their tips and tricks?
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