How I Schedule My Morning
A few days ago i mentioned that we were doing a little shuffling in our editorial calendar at AFF. We’d been working on spring content to share with you guys, but it honestly just feels irrelevant and a tiny bit insensitive to go on as usual. However, we still want to be a source of inspiration and provide you with things to take your mind of the craziness going on in the world today (and in the case that someone is looking at this post in the future and thinking what the hell are you talking about? at the time this post was written we are currently dealing with the Covid-19 virus; most of the world being asked to self quarantine). It feels very strange to have to even reference that… I know that in a few years we are going to look back on this time and it’s going to be an important part of history. But now, I think we just all need things to keep us busy and digging deeper into how we can use our time productively.
So, I was going to share my morning routine, which I still am. But it has changed a bit in the past few days. Gyms, stores, and restaurants are closed, we’ve been asked to stay in our homes as much as possible, and personally, our AFF team has been working from home since last week. I am trying to keep my morning routine as normal as possible minus going into the office. So let’s go through how i start my day, talk about why i feel each step is important, and i’ll share how i’ve adapted my routine to fit our new “normal” for a while.
4:20 am - My usual alarm goes off. I started waking up early probably 8 or 9 years ago when i found a bootcamp around our house that started at 5:30 two to three days a week. Since then it’s progressively gotten earlier and earlier, and i go more often. Now we take a 5am workout class 5 days a week.I’ve even gotten my husband on board. I absolutely do not have to take this class anymore as I now work for myself, but it’s become a great way to start the day and i’m addicted to getting it done so early.
I love getting my workout out of the way in the morning. It makes you feel accomplished by 6am plus gives you time for a slow morning. We come home, have coffee and can do whatever we want for about an hour. I usually scroll instagram, catch up on emails + the news. I know that a lot of people find doing those things in the morning causes stress but that hasn’t been the case for me. You could also read, meditate, etc. and save the news for later;)
This week, I’ve been setting my alarm for 5:30 or 6am. I still want to get up and start my day fairly early but don’t see the need for the 4:20 wakeup call when I don’t even have to drive to the gym.
Luckily our gym has been sending us workouts and doing live classes on facebook. I’ve also been using the tone it up app (and it’s free right now!) as well as running outside when it’s not raining.
7:00 am - Usually my husband Ryan takes out dogs on a walk around now. I begin to tidy things around the house. This typically involves dishes, taking some laundry up to the bedroom, or just putting things away that were left out the night before. It’s only for a few minutes but makes the house slightly less messy to come home to. I’ve still been doing this, even though i’ve been working from home. I think it’s especially important to keep your space somewhat organized while you’re home. It tends to get messier faster as well.
7:30 am - Breakfast. By now i’m HANGRY. So I’ll make Ryan and myself something for breakfast. We’ve been on an avocado toast kick with eggs… but we’re a little worried of running out of eggs and avocados so we will be spacing our toast out with some oats:) I LOVE overnight oats so not a problem! Oats are a great thing to have on hand right now. They'll last you quite a while and you can throw in frozen fruit, nut butter + seeds; all things you probably stocked up on already as we are trying to avoid shopping right now.
If you’re in a rush in the morning there are a lot of things you can prep the night before. One of my favorites is oats, nut butter, blueberries, protein powder + chia seeds. Another alternative is this bento box type meal: hard boiled egg, cottage cheese, fresh strawberries + cashews. Eating a healthy and filling breakfast really sets the tone for how you are going to feel the rest of the day as well as what else you are going to eat… which all affects your work. 100% worth it to prep!
8am to 9am - I try to get ready and either be done or out of the house by 9. And during this time I always listen to a podcast. It’s probably the one time in my day that I can give my full attention to listening to something since putting on mascara doesn’t require me to think that hard;) I am not one of those people who can work while listening to podcasts… i wish i was!
Now that i am working from home, I haven’t been sticking to that time block as much. What I have been trying to do though, is listen to a podcast while doing something around the house. I finally got some airpods for my birthday which is making this SO much easier! I do eventually shower and get dressed (still important even though you’re home!). It just doesn’t take as long as i have stayed mostly in leggings and a bun. Definitely continue to do something that signals the beginning of your work day though, like changing your clothes or “getting ready”. Once i do this i know it’s time to get to my desk or laptop at the very least.
8:45 - Meditate. So far, I’m not doing great on this. I’ve found it really hard to justify 5-10 minutes of sitting still when there’s so much to do. BUT, every book i read and podcast i listen to says that it is very necessary for sanity, productivity, focus, and growth. I stuck this right in the middle of my morning because this is when i usually feel the most frantic. I’m currently using headspace as i am nowhere close to knowing how to do it on my own.
Right now, as we are working from home, I’ve kept an open mind to moving this around and potentially doing it later in the day. It’s still a really hard habit for me to get to stick, so maybe i will update you when i’ve seen more results. For now, I have to trust what everyone says and hope i see some changes after sticking to it!
9am to 10am - I start my workday. I usually log in to asana (where we organize all of our projects and tasks) and see what is on my list for the day. I’m pretty bad at jumping straight into unimportant tasks just to get them done. This is a bad habit i’m trying to break because i know that i am my most creative and productive in the morning. I should be using that time to get more impactful projects moving. So what i’ve been trying to implement this week is a new way of laying out my calendar. On Monday’s I will give myself 3 objectives for the week; basically 3 things that I want to celebrate on Friday for getting done. From there, I will break down those 3 things into 3 tasks to perform on 3 scheduled days of the week. Like, I literally put a meeting on my calendar with myself to work on that specific task.
For example: if this week I wanted to design a new wedding suite, I would break that into 3 tasks; sketching the initial design, creating artwork or lettering, and designing the pc in illustrator or photoshop. I would schedule task one on Tuesday, task 2 on Thursday, and task 3 on Friday. Breaking it up makes it less daunting. And be sure to schedule in time blocks. Once that time is up, you move on to what you have scheduled next. It’s another motivator to turn off your notifications and really dig into the work.
To be honest getting off the news app on my phone has been hard these days. But knowing I have these processes in place is giving me hope that if I just focus I will be able to push through the distractions and move on important projects for AFF.
So while things are looking a little different right now, it’s important to try and keep our normal schedules as much as possible. Otherwise we’ll all come out of this with nothing other than zero shows to watch on Netflix because we finished them all (haha).
And yes, what is happening all over the world is terrible, but we can also take this time (the time we always say we don’t have) as something we can do plenty of good with. If you find your days less full, do all the projects you’ve been putting off; work on new offerings or products for your business, or create content for your audience. We might as well make the most of this time at home!
Images by Kimi Domino
