7-Day Morning Routine Makeover Plan

Welcome to Day 4!

Determining what to do with your morning is crucial to a successful routine makeover.

Are you making the best use of morning time?

Yesterday, we talked about finding the time in your busy morning to include tasks and activities that are important to you.

Today, you are encouraged to reflect on what you believe is the best way to devote your time in the first few hours of the day. This is essential to establish. So often we get stuck in a routine of doing specific things repeatedly, only because that’s what we’ve always done without a second thought.

We might act on autopilot without considering whether what we’re choosing to do in the morning, is the best use of our time.

LISTEN TO AUDIO – Determining what to do with your morning is crucial

Work With The Time You Have Each Morning

Contrary to the advice of many books and articles on productivity and time management, a morning routine makeover is not about trying to squeeze more tasks into fewer available hours; the proper method is usually quite the opposite.

Trying to force into your morning what doesn’t fit within its time constraint, isn’t an effective long-term strategy for meaningful change. If you do try to cram more into less time, it won’t be long before you reach your limit of how much faster and more efficient you can get.

In order for your morning routine makeover to be successful, understand that it’s not about adding more to what you already do. Shift your perspective and work with what you have.

For example, let’s say you want your morning routine to also include 20 minutes for exercise.

The idea is not for you to now start getting up 20 minutes earlier, or shaving off your morning routine by showering faster, speed dressing, and wolfing down your breakfast.

You’re not being asked to add to your already lengthy “to-do” morning list. This tactic will only increase your stress and make you feel even more rushed than you currently do.

Use Your Morning Time Wisely

The optimal way to makeover your morning routine is to think about how to make the best use of your time. Refer to the exercise on Day 2 (and your associated notes), where you began defining what your perfect morning looks like.

Compare the notes with your current morning routine to identify any gaps and opportunities.

Ask yourself the following question:

What aren’t you doing yet on your ideal morning?

For instance, let’s say you want your ideal morning to include 20 minutes of spiritual study.

Think about what you can start eliminating from your current morning routine to create space for this activity.

This way it becomes easier for you to find and make time for the things you want to do.

Two Ways to Determine What Things You Can Stop Doing:

1 – Look for “Busy” Work That Is Eating Away Your Time:

Think about all the things you potentially do out of habit each morning, without considering whether they must necessarily be done daily at that specific time.

For example, first thing in the morning, before anything else, you:

• Check your email messages, then run out of time because you begin responding to them.
• Browse your Facebook Timeline aimlessly for half an hour, cutting into your precious time.

It’s perfectly fine, if that is how you prefer to spend your time; however, if you’re simply doing these things out of habit (the “Groundhog Day” syndrome), then you are unconsciously creating “busy work” for yourself.

If this is the case, it might be time to eliminate or redirect such ineffective activities from your morning routine.

Now, take a moment and write down at least 3 activities you’re currently engaging in out of habit.

Be sure to include how much of your time each of them takes and how it makes you feel afterwards (i.e. anxious, hurried, frustrated, etc.).

Determine whether you will eliminate or redirect to another time of day.

Finally, write down what you would ideally replace this habit with in your perfect morning. For each habit, answer the following four questions.

Habit Activity:

1. How much time do I spend on this activity?
2. How do I feel afterwards?
3. Eliminate or Redirect?
4. What do I want to replace this habit with?

2 – Define Responsibility and Delegate

The second method of earning back time is to check if what you’re doing for others each morning, is something that they can do for themselves.

The best example is kids 😊. If you’re currently in the practice of preparing their meals and cleaning up after them – ask yourself whether this is still necessary for you to do.

As a parent, it’s your responsibility to take care of your children when they are very young and unable to act on their own.

However, all too often, you might continue this pattern long after they’re capable of doing these things for themselves.

The same applies when we’re doing things for our life partner. There might have been a time when you had less to do within your morning, which allowed you to handle most chores in your routine.

Did things change? If they did, is it time to lighten your load and delegate some of the responsibilities to your partner?

A couple of small tweaks to your morning routine may be all it takes for you to create time in your busy morning for what’s important to you. 

Think about 2 things that currently overwhelm your morning. Write them down below. 

1.

2. 

Consider whether the above two items can be delegated to your partner.

Tomorrow, on Day #5, you’ll begin to come up with a new morning game plan.

See you bright and early!

This is the key to love life your way! Living by conscious design is walking the path of least resistance, one step at a time…