Establish a Morning & Evening Routine

A morning and evening routine can create some sense of sanity and calm in your life.

These are two habits that you can start today that will make a big improvement.

Now, because of different things that have come up in my life, I’ve fallen a bit out of my routines. I’ve also been changing them over the last few months as my needs have changed.

So, this month, my challenge will be to focus on re-establishing my daily routines, refined and simplified.

I’ve simplified my morning routine, to give myself more of a sense of calm.

Here’s my new morning routine:

Morning routine

• Meditate

• Shower

• Coffee/Read/Breakfast

• Write
• Clear out email

In the evenings, I want to get ready for the next day and do a one-sentence journal reflecting on my day before winding down for bed.

Evening routine

• Clean up

• Prepare clothes

• Journal

• Read

Establishing routines:

It might sound easy to establish routines like the ones listed above, but it’s just as easy to fall out of them. You want to make them a habit that will stick.

The key steps to establishing routines are to:

1. Focus on them. Keep your routine as your foremost goal for one month, focusing on nothing else. Having too many habits at once spreads your focus too thin, and makes success less likely.

2. Make them rewarding. In the morning, I meditate, shower, have my coffee and breakfast, read and write as part of my calming routine. In the evening, I quietly prepare for the next day, review my day and read. They are both very satisfying routines.

3. Log your progress. Reporting your progress every day in a journal or some other type of log, or put up stars on a calendar. The key is to keep track of it and see how well you have done over the course of a month.

Source: Zen Habits
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