How My Morning Routine Structures My Day!

My morning routine can take up to four hours! It wasn't always that way. In the beginning, it was an hour's coastal walk. Since I usually holiday a 'coast' somewhere in the world, this doesn't change when I am on holiday. When I am away for work, I will walk around the city I happen to be in, perhaps finding a river or an interesting cultural walk. The walk usually ends with a dose of caffeine. At the moment, I'm on soy cappuccinos.

Two years ago, I attended the Hoffman Process—not to be confused with Wim Hof ice baths! Cold water and I did not get along at all until the last couple of years.

The Hoffman Process was one of three major transformational experiences I have had in my life. Part of the Process involved starting the day with a guided meditation, which I have continued since the program. I journal what comes to me during the meditation.

Last year, I joined a book club with incredible women. We read The Artist's Way. Part of that experience was journaling/free-writing three pages every morning. I thought, "I could do that—three A5 pages—all good!" It turns out it was three foolscap pages. I wondered how I would ever fill those. I have done it easily every morning since January 24, 2024.

At first, I journaled and meditated at home. Recently, I have taken to walking to the beach to write with my toes in the sand. It is so grounding and re-invigorating, mostly because the sea is my happy place.

So, the journaling and meditation (including the walk to the beach) take me about 90 minutes. I start around 5:30 a.m., but this will change as the sun rises later each day. I then walk for 90 minutes, which still ends with a dose of caffeine. Billie, the black cavoodle, comes with me. Sometimes, depending on the "sniffing" stops we make along the way, it takes a little longer.

I am pretty OCD about this routine. If I'm travelling away for work, I adapt. If I'm on a 24-hour flight (aren't most of them from Australia?) I adapt. I have yet to miss a day.

What do I get out of the routine? Mostly clarity and focus. If something is bugging me, I write it out in the journaling. By the time I finish my walk, I have usually developed a plan of action to deal with whatever it was that was bugging me. That difficult-to-write email, the one I have been putting off for days? It gets written or considered in the journaling. I consider the words I might use and the emotions I wish to convey as I'm walking. What would make me feel like I had a successful day? I write it out and later transfer it to a To-do list. Lessons I learned the previous day? Written out. Contemplated while walking.

The process gives me space. And it is a process. Without a process to deal with the issues that used to just occupy my brain without weaving their way out to a solution or waiting until I had reached a "procrastination dead-end", they would drive me to distraction, and I would enter "focus avoidance" and have many non-productive days! Being a creative, deadlines throw me into a productivity whirl, so there has never been a deadline I haven't met - well, almost never!

That reminds me of my University days. Most of my assignments were started and completed within twenty-four hours before submission deadlines. Results were usually Distinctions. For one assignment, I decided I would take time, read over a greater period of time, write over an equally greater period of time, and have time to review what I had written. That assessment got me a Credit. I reverted to the pressure of the deadline.

Years later, I read a paper on procrastination and deadlines. It turns out creatives are constantly thinking about the task at hand at a subconscious level. So, in reality, we've been working on it just as long as everyone else, which is what happens to me in my morning routine. I am constantly thinking about the tasks I need to tackle, except I am now bringing them to a conscious level by writing and meditating. It works for me.

Why write about this? Certainly not to imply that anyone else's routine should take three hours! Some people have fifteen-minute routines that work well for them. It comes back to writing your own playbook. Mainly, it comes back to what works for you and what brings you joy.

My toes in the sand, the orchestra of the waves, the cinematography of a sun emerging over the horizon or behind the clouds - that's my joy. That sets me up for the day.

What sets you up?

#creativity #playbook #routines #purpose #innovation