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I know the best way I can jump start my goals of overall improving my life and my house is to get back to a Morning Routine. I like to use a combination of Miracle Morning and Flylady. The Miracle Morning keeps me growing my mental strength and makes sure I get my workouts in and Flylady helps me take care of my house and keep things organized.
I will admit I’m not perfect in following my morning routine every day; however, I don’t feel as productive on the days I miss it. I keep my morning routine list (and other daily checklists) on my cell phone using the FlyladyPlus app. I am going to spend the remainder of this summer tracking my morning routine completions in my bullet journal. I’ll be posting more about my bullet journal in the next week. My morning routine consists of the following tasks:
- Brush teeth – I start the morning in the bathroom and feel much more awake and fresh when I start by brushing my teeth.
- Start my French press coffee – my family knows of my love for coffee, but my favorite way to make it is in a French press. Since I’ve been working from home in my corporate job, I’d rather take the time instead of using a drip coffee maker on a timer like I used to. It’s also my husband’s preference, so I know he’s happy too!
- Meditation and Visualization – After I setup the coffee grounds in the pot and start the water in the kettle, I go find a comfortable seat on my living room floor until the kettle whistles to do my meditation and visualization portion of the Miracle Morning. The book really does explain this very well. For meditation, I don’t do anything specific other than focus on my breathing and when I visualize, I think about my goals for the day being successful, as well as the long term goals and vision for my life as already accomplished.
- Start Today Journal – Next, I pour myself a cup of coffee and sit down on the sofa for my Scribe and Read part of the SAVERS steps of the Miracle Morning. If you notice, I don’t do them in the order of the book. I do what works for me! This is really from Rachel Hollis, but for the “Scribe” portion of my Miracle Morning, the journal I write in is my Start Today Journal. Every day I start a new page with the date at the top and write 5 things I’m grateful for, 10 goals I have as if they already happened and 2 affirmations that I feel I need to keep in mind throughout the day.
- Read from current Personal Development book – I’m currently reading – The 12 Week Year
- Exercise – When my first cup of coffee is done for the day, I put on my exercise clothes and go to the basement to workout. This is very important to keep my brain sane and focused. I find if I exercise in the morning, I feel like I am much more productive the rest of the day. I love my elliptical machine, but I also love BeachBody On Demand (especially their yoga workouts and 21 Day Fix). This is the elliptical machine I have and I love it! I bought a commercial grade one when the gym at my work closed down. This was the same kind they had at the gym.
- Make bed – After I workout, it’s time to go back upstairs to my bedroom to get ready for the rest of my day. I start with making my bed. I could do this when I first wake up, but my husband wakes after me, and is usually just waking up when I’m done my workout.
- Shower and get dressed to shoes – Even with working from home, I like to be dressed and put on a small amount of makeup for a workday to feel pulled together.
- Swish and swipe bathroom – After I’m done in the bathroom for the day, I like to wipe down the parts of the bathroom I used, ala Flylady! It keeps the bathroom fresh as we go through the week. I used to wait until the weekend to clean up the bathroom and by the end of the week, I couldn’t stand how gross it felt!
- Setup vitamins, empty dishwasher and setup first water bottle and breakfast shake – After I’m dressed, I head to the kitchen to setup vitamins for the whole family. The boys are usually up and ready for breakfast at this time, so I give them theirs straightaway. I can then empty the dishwasher as I usually run it at night. I also setup my water and my Shakeology. Sometimes I add Vital Proteins to my water and I love any of the vegan Shakeology flavors.
- Check calendar and to do list – I take my water and shake to the office and check my calendar for the day and what I have on my to do list that is urgent. I will make sure I know the night before if I have an early morning meeting!
- Check what’s for dinner – I will admit my husband is a much better cook than I am. I’m not bad, but he is amazing!!! We will still talk about what we think we want for dinner as I’m the planner and want to make sure we have all the ingredients we need or take what we need out of the freezer.
I think the most important is to find a routine that works for you! If you Google “morning routine”, you will find so much content. I don’t think anyone’s morning routine will work out of the box for everyone. I recommend get started writing down what items you believe will work for you and experiment on items and order to see if they are serving you. I do change my routine as well when something needs to be added or sometimes just the order of items. Tonight I did change the order of some of my tasks in the app, as I noticed the order was slightly off how I prefer to do items in one room and then move to another.
Have you tried the Miracle Morning or do you follow Flylady routines? Have you made it your own, taking items from other routines that work for your life and goals? What works best for you?