Building A New Morning Routine
Last week, I began experimenting with a new morning routine. Some of you may recall earlier Run and Drum posts that were kind of precursors to this idea, like the one about how much more productive I felt after making my bed or getting up early to get a workout in and get the day started, but I've taken a slightly different tack with this new one.
The past couple years have seen me take different approaches to mornings depending on what I needed to do that day and where I happened to be. Days off from work and class were different, days when I was traveling were different, days when I had projects due were different, and due to the nature of what I was doing, they were necessarily different. I couldn't have my coffee and breakfast routine when I was out of the state or if I barely had enough time to go from exporting a file to turning it in on time.
Admittedly, the value of having a more universally available routine didn't occur to me at the time that I started assembling this, but it worked out pretty well anyways.
What I've begun doing is journaling twice a day, upon waking and getting ready for bed, and meditating in the morning right after writing. I got these ideas from a podcast I've been editing called The Learning Leader Show. I've heard every episode at least twice so I can safely say that it's an awesome podcast with some great guests and Ryan Hawk, the host, is both a great guy and interviewer. Even if I wasn't working on the show, I'd recommend checking it out.
I noticed that a vast majority of the guests, who are all doing great things, would talk about the benefits of morning routines consisting of things like daily journaling and meditation. After hearing this from over a dozen of them, I figured there had to be some truth to it and decided to start building my own routine with these components. I've done this for at least 12 of the past 14 days and I already feel more positive and focused about everything I do from editing work to exercise.
I'm certainly no expert at meditation or even journaling, but just taking the time every morning to slow down, put some positive thoughts on paper and then take a few minutes to get focused puts me in a great mindset for getting my workouts in, getting work done, and generally being more productive. If nothing else, this trial run has motivated me to learn more about meditating and journaling to more effectively use them in my daily life.
One of the greatest parts about this, that I hinted at earlier, is that all I need to go through this routine is my journal and somewhere to sit which allows me to do this with greater regularity than some components of previous routines that I've worked with. As I refine this routine further and learn more about ways to enhance my practices, I'll post more about what I find.
In other Run and Drum news, The Bear race is coming up in less than a month so keep an eye out on Thursday for an update on that!