Write | Inspire | Dream
Within every pillar of Intentional Living – Mind / Body, Career / Education, Selfcare / Relaxation, Lifestyle Development, and Experience – it is essential to create a routine that centers around setting intentions that better you and help you to achieve a goal. You’ve seen me preach in the Track Your Habits Blog and the Intentional Living Blog the importance of achieving small goals and seeing small success’ in your daily life in order to reach a much larger dream. This blog has the purpose of going more in-depth to explain how creating routines in your everyday life will show long-term change and success in living intentionally.
A Productive Morning Routine
I believe every routine that you create for yourself needs a healthy balance of give and take. What I mean by that is if you’re waking up an hour earlier than you normally do to start your morning routine, then make sure you reward yourself; you have that whole hour, maybe make yourself a delicious coffee at home or stop for one on your way to work. The most important thing to remember when you’re creating your morning routine is that this isn’t a punishment. This routine is going to set the tone for your entire day, so it needs to be something you’re excited to do when you wake up in the morning.
There is a long list of things you can include in your morning routine, many of them identical to what most people do every morning, drink coffee, brush teeth, get ready, eat breakfast, etc. So, instead of discussing the things you’re already doing, let’s talk about some things that could challenge you and mix up the morning routine you already have for yourself so thatyou may promote a positive tone for the dayand live intentionally. You already know how much I believe journaling benefits the mind based on my blog, The Importance of Journaling; even if you’re not ready to purchase the 6-Minute Diary, start right now by journaling in the morning. Write down the things you’re grateful for, how you can make the day great, and one positive affirmation for the day. This is a fantastic mindset exercise that prepares you for a great day; you are setting the tone for how you want the day to go and actively thinking about what you’re going to achieve and how you’re going to do so. Even if you forget what you wrote down, you’re subconsciously aware of achieving those goals throughout the day.
Challenge yourself to meditate for 10-15 minutes. Meditating, if journaling isn’t for you, is another excellent way of manifesting achievement in your day. On my blog, The Importance of Yoga & Meditation, I discuss many different benefits of completing these mindset exercises daily. Adding these to your morning routine will help stimulate your mind and body to reach a positive outlook on your day. If you feel like these are too heavy for you and want to start with something simpler, the options are truly endless, but the point is to try something that challenges you, so you walk away feeling accomplished.
Many celebrities, billionaires, and other incredibly successful people have been interviewed about their own morning routines, and a few specific things always pop-up. Something I have practiced doing and added to my morning routine is avoiding my phone for the first 30 minutes once I wake up. I know a lot of us use our phones as our alarm clock too, so if you’re looking for alternatives, I myself have gone back to a fantastic and sleek Digital alarm clock, and also love using my Amazon Alexa. I think many of us could agree that we’re too attached to our phones; it’s an unnecessary, and often an unhealthy attachment. There are a lot of benefits to leaving behind your phone in the morning; by ignoring the news and social media, it allows you to get familiar with your own thoughts, go over what you’d like to do for the day, and get into a healthy mindset for the day before you have all of this outside information cloud your head.
How to Design YOUR Day
In my blog, How I Design my Day, I go in-depth on my day-to-day and how I created a routine that works for me. The point of these two blogs is to take in the information and design a few different routines that you can test. Over the next few weeks, switch up your routine and habits and see where you feel most positive and where you’re most productive.
Here are my top tips you should test in every routine and see which proves most efficient and effective for you and don’t forget to purchase the La.Rue Daily & Weekly Planning Pages to keep you organized!
1. .Block out a certain amount of time every day to tackle your to-do list. Whether you work in a corporate job, you’re in school, or in between these two things, you should have a set time each day where you do nothing but tackle that list. Remember in the How I Design my Day blog, I mentioned how every day from 1-4, I dedicate that time to a particular subject within La.Rue. This is similar, take a few hours to commit that time to tackling the things you need to get done without distractions.
2. I’ve found that doing batch work is incredibly beneficial to getting more done in less time. Batch work is when you pool all of the same kind of work together and get it done then move onto the next. For example, let’s say for two hours, I only worked on writing, then for two hours, I only worked on editing, and then for an hour I upload my content. As opposed to working on one blog with writing, editing, uploading, then the next blog. Keeping your brain on one topic and working on it all together can help keep you focused and make your work stronger.
Once you find a routine that you like, stick to it. Routines help improve your overall productivity, so when you reach the end of the day and end of your week, a lot more work has been accomplished and you’ve done it in a way that you know you can do it again because you’ve created that routine. Does that make sense? Knowing what routines and habits work for you is a strength, so find yours and embrace them!
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