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Routines

Chandra White

• 2 min read
Routines

One goal for 2024 is to improve my routines; morning and night.

To be honest, my nightly routine is way better than the morning one. I just need to adjust the time and be a little more diligent with the dishes; but for the most part, I close out my day pretty efficiently.

So, my main focus in my morning routine.

The goals:
1. Wake up earlier. 5 AM. Which I am normally up, but I am not out of the bed. Goal: wake up and GET up.
2. Unload the dishwasher. Remember leave it how I want to find it, which is empty when I get ready to cook in the evening.
3. Start a load of laundry. The Fly Lady says, "A load a day, keeps the chaos away."

Nightly Routine:
1. Move Laundry to dryer as soon as I get home, before I start to cook.
2. Load the dishwasher and clean the sink before bed.
3. Put away laundry
4. Lay out my clothes for next day.
5. Read for 30 min.

To help me improve this, I added a check list of both routines to my planner. That way I am not only looking at it every day, but also keeping track of my progress.

Creating morning and nightly routines are another way to help maximize your time and improve productivity. Your list doesn't have to be a long one either; baby steps.

Two things to add to your nightly routine:
1. Update your planner. If you don't do it before you leave work, do it before you go to sleep at night. Adjust task, update checklist, add thoughts or plans, or just review the next day plans.
2. Do one thing that will make tomorrow easier. You pick what that one thing is, it could be laying out your clothes for tomorrow or taking out the trash.

This is in my current planner, on the bottom of my Notes page.

Being able to customize my pages has been the best part about designing my own pages. However, you can keep up with your routines, or any other habit, by using a simple grid.

Simple handwritten tracker, you can add this to any page on in your planner. This is from my old Bullet Journal; as you can see, I didn't do a good job of tracking it that week.
Dot tracker that I tried once in my Bullet Journal. I learned this week that I couldn't walk and shine my sink at night.

The goal isn't to be perfect, it is to improve how you utilize your time. Start small, just a few task in the morning or at night, once you master, that adjust however you like.

Don't beat yourself up if you miss a task.

life happens. Just stick to the plan.