Getting Organized: My Morning Schedule

The last couple days, I’ve been going over my new three part plan to get my life organized.  You’d think by now I’d have figured it out… but better late than never, right?

My Sunday plan is to set the week up right and get my lists together for the week, and then my evening to-do list is to make sure that I get things done before going to bed, so that my mornings are easier… which of course brings me to my mornings… the dreaded mornings…

I am not a morning person.  I hate getting up and out of bed.  (I mean who does really?  Bed is warm and comfy…) But I love mornings when I do actually get up to enjoy them.  For a couple years now, my running buddy and I have been trying to go for at 6am run three times a week.  I say “trying” because we don’t always do it… for various reasons… sometimes the 6am text conversations look like:

“It’s raining out…”

“Yeah, it’s really wet… ”

“and dark… ”

“and cold… ”

“Try again on Friday?”

“Sounds good.  Enjoy your sleep-in.”

Anyway, the point I’m trying to make is that, after getting up at 6am for so long, you would think I would be used to getting up early in the morning and it would be routine… But it isn’t.  Mostly because on those days when we don’t run, I’ll sleep in, hit snooze a million times, and then have to scramble to get organized for the day.  And on the days that I do run, I get up right at 6am and scramble to get out and meet for our run on time, then come back, get distracted by something unnecessary and delay getting ready until the last minute…

By implementing my evening to-do list, I should be helping that somewhat, but I have also put together a morning schedule that I will follow every day (well, every weekday), if I am going for a run with my friend or not.  Many people swear by getting up a little bit earlier and having some “me” time first thing in the morning.  And I’ve started trying this last week, and I have to say, it has really helped.  So, I’m going to give this morning schedule a try and see how it goes…

5:30 am: alarm, wake up & get up.  (No hitting the snooze button!)

5:30 – 5:55 am: feed cats, make tea, water garden, check emails & blog updates. (“me time”)

5:55 – 7:00 am: on run days, this will be getting ready and going for my run with my running buddy.

5:55 – 6:30 am: on non-run days, do some yoga or stretching.

6:30 – 7:00 am: on non-run days, do 1-2 “to-do” items (like blog posts or a small decluttering task)

7:00 – 7:20 am: shower/get dressed/etc.

7:20 – 7:30 am: pack for the day (lunch, sports equipment, etc.)

7:30 am: leave for work.

If I get all that done every morning, I’ll have accomplished so much before I even get to work, AND I’ll get to work by 8am, which was part of my productivity at work plan that I made at the beginning of the year.  Impressive, right?  Now, I’m going to be realistic here, and understand that not every morning will go like clockwork, but my goal is to have more morning follow the schedule than don’t… and hopefully in the future, I won’t need a schedule because it will all be habit.

Do you have a morning schedule?  Do you have it written out?  Or is it just a routine that you follow without having to think on it?

Title Photo Credit: Flickr

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