Every morning I begin by making my bed. This is my first small victory of the day. I follow this by drinking a glass of water, reading two chapters of the Bible, kneeling next to my bed, and stretching lightly to loosen my body from eight hours of sleep. Next, I wash my face, brush my teeth, and get dressed. Finally, starving, having not eaten since 9pm the previous night, I eat a toasted bagel with either turkey or peanut butter and drink chocolate milk.
It is now the afternoon, and I am getting tired. So, I take a 20-30 minute nap to rejuvenate my energy supply and destress.
A few hours later I do some form of exercise for roughly 30 minutes, then yoga or foam roll for 30 more, and finally play wall ball for another 30.
Lastly, it is nighttime and I want to go to bed. Before this, I read the current book on hand for half an hour, and tidy up my room to declutter my mind before sleeping.
Everyday I do the same thing.
This process, that I continue to optimize, promotes my personal well-being and removes unnecessary thinking.
Completely my routine, I improve my physical health through exercise, sleep, healthy food, and hygiene. I grow spiritually by consuming scripture in the morning to center my day on what is most important. And cumulatively, this routine allows me to remain at peace with myself, no matter the circumstances in my life. Having a structured routine for my day is the number one thing for my personal well-being.
Additionally, my daily routine removes unnecessary thinking, offering me more cognitive energy towards my intellectually demanding tasks for the day (like writing this blog). A key component to greater cognitive focus is an idea I picked up from Deep Work by Cal Newport known as time-blocking. With time-blocking, each night, I create a list of the tasks I am going to complete the next day. From this list, I give each task a time of day. For example, I will research publishers for my book from 10am to noon, and exercise from 5 to 6:30pm. Planning my day in advance, structured around my routine and tasks, removes the energy sap of constantly asking, What’s next? I am able to be hyper-efficient and give greater energy towards the demanding tasks of my day.
When I don’t obey my daily routine I am out-of-touch with myself. I am tired, stressed, and confused. I can’t fully articulate all of the benefits that my daily routine has for me, but I am a significantly better person because of it. If you don’t yet have a daily routine, I encourage you to build one. As my life has improved dramatically, so will yours. Now, I’m going to read.