A few years ago I had a pretty good daily routine in place. I got up and worked out for at least 30 minutes to an hour 4-5 days a week, prepared at least 2 of my own meals a day, went to bed at a normal time and was pretty productive with both my work and my blog. Life shifted, and now that my work is about 90% freelance, the schedule I had has gone out of the window. It’s funny, when you have a set schedule, you find yourself getting frustrated and thinking that you need MORE freedom to do more things, but in reality, even when you work for yourself you have to have structure to your day. If you don’t, you can find yourself going days with only getting 1-2 things accomplished and then having to pull all nighters more frequently than you’d like in order to not get overwhelmed with work (but in turn giving yourself more anxiety than necessary because you are behind on everything else).
The pandemic has caused another schedule shift for me, and to help me stay on top of things while pushing myself to do a little more, there are a few changes I want to make to my day to day routine. They say it takes 21 days to form a habit that sticks, and in the process of being fully transparent, I’ve got a few things I want to do differently before I shift into the second quarter of the year.
Get up 30-60 minutes earlier
I swore I would stop those crack of dawn risings if I ever got the chance (I’m NOT a morning person), but because the day can get away from you in the blink of an eye, I’m going to work to push my wake up time back. Now, I naturally wake up early on my own, I JUST DONT LIKE TO ACTUALLY GET UP EARLY, lol. Moving forward, if I wake up and it’s at least past 5:30 am, I’m just gonna go ahead and get up for the day so that I’m not groggy.
Start back working out
Raise your hand if you are currently wasting money on a gym membership. I’m still nervous about going to the gym right now with everything going on, but I miss working out and the health benefits that come along with it. Plus, it’s literally 5 minutes (driving) away from my apartment. If I get up early, I can drive to gym and easily get a workout in. I’ve started back going on walks around the neighborhoods (I can do a 20-40 minute loop), but I really want to go to the gym for the circuit training.
Block out dedicated time for reading
I’ve started back reading, but I’ll never knock out all of these books if I don’t get something in place where I can dedicate time to books only. Even if it’s only 10-20 pages a day, it’s SOMETHING, and I’ve realized that just like work and appointments, I have to block it off in my calendar. Otherwise, I’ll look up and the day has gone and I won’t be in the mood. I’m currently making my way through The 1-Page Marketing Plan and Atomic Habits.
Have at least 1-2 meals a day at/from home
My work has picked back up, which means grabbing coffee and a meal on the go has picked up as well. While I do try to make healthier choices if I grab something while I’m out (Juice Bar Midtown is my fave), it’s still better to make your own food bc you know exactly what’s going into it. I buy fresh produce, yogurt, grains, etc., weekly because I honestly prefer to cook quick and simple meals that don’t require a ton of ingredients, but I have to put myself in the mindset of putting it all together so that it won’t go to waste. Last week I had cravings for Mediterranean salads, so I picked up what I needed and actually prepped all of my veggies so that I could just throw them together, and I also picked up some easy veggie mixes that I could sauté and mix with quinoa and make little Buddha bowls. I didn’t waste food for the first time in a LONG time, so the key is in the prep work for me and I just have to designate a day for it so that I can keep it up.
There’s so much more that I want to develop better habits around, but this is a start, and they’re all pretty easy to implement.
What habits are you working on right now?
