Every once in a while, I go to My Morning Routine to peruse the site and gain some life inspiration. I went there today, and it actually inspired this blog post. I know I’ve shared a daily routine (or two) here before, but I don’t think I’ve filled in a morning routine questionnaire from this site. These questions are pretty much the same across the interviewees, but I’ll see different, additional questions thrown in here and there. I included as many of them as I could find in the few interviews that I read today.
1). What is your morning routine?
These days, I wake up anywhere from 5:00 to 6:30am, though most often at 5:30am. I take my morning meds/supplements, pour some coffee, open my laptop, and get into my writing.
2). How long have you stuck with this routine so far?
I started dedicating my early-morning brain cells to my writing sometime in the last 12 months. The rest of my routine hasn’t varied in years.
3). How has your morning routine changed over recent years?
My “dedicating my early-morning brain cells to my writing” discipline means focusing on my project before filling my mind with anything else of substance. Before, I would multi-task my brain between writing, email, social media, news, and so on. I’ll still scroll through instagram and twitter on my phone while drinking my first cup of coffee, though. I don’t click to read articles on twitter… early in the morning, I’m only there to check for major news headlines and traffic/weather alerts.
4). What time do you go to sleep?
Between 11:00 and midnight, usually.
5). Do you do anything before going to bed to make your morning easier?
No.
6). Do you use an alarm to wake you up in the morning, and if so do you ever hit the snooze button?
I do use an alarm, though my internal clock (aka my bladder) will sometimes wake me up before it goes off. I never use a snooze button.
7). How soon after waking up do you have breakfast, and what do you typically have?
If I’m working out that morning, I’ll have breakfast between two and three hours after I wake up. If it’s not a gym morning, I’ll eat four to five hours after waking up. I have the same breakfast every day. Since a month or two ago, it’s been a bowl of plain organic oatmeal (made with water) with light agave syrup and cinnamon. I also have a handful of raw mixed nuts.
8). Do you have a morning workout routine?
My morning gym routine is Les Mills Body Pump at the gym. I go three mornings a week.
9). Do you have a morning meditation routine, and if so what kind of meditation do you practice?
Working out is my meditation. The 50 or so minutes of continuous physical activity provide the best break for my brain. For the duration of the class, there are no thoughts in my head. There’s music and there’s someone telling me what to do, and I listen and I do it and that’s it. There’s no room for anything else. I try to stay in the workout, where there’s no thinking involved! If distractions enter my mind, I force them out. This is key to any sort of meditation practice.
10). Do you answer email first thing in the morning or leave it until later in the day?
I’m bad at checking email. Let’s just leave it at that.
11). Do you use any apps or products to enhance your sleep or morning routine?
Other than taking my anti-anxiety med and putting on my Fitbit to track the quality and duration of my sleep, no.
12). How soon do you check your phone in the morning?
As I’d mentioned above, I usually check instagram and twitter while drinking my first cup of coffee. That’s about 30 minutes after I wake up.
13). What are your most important tasks in the morning?
Cleaning Nenette’s litter box and doing my skin-care routine. I water my plants in the morning once a week.
14). What and when is your first drink in the morning?
Water, immediately.
15). How does your partner fit into your morning routine?
He usually wakes up at the same time as I do, and we have coffee together in the living room. He makes the bed as a part of his getting ready for work routine, and I make his lunch while he’s doing that. We’re a good team.
16). Do you also follow this routine on weekends, or do you change some steps?
Saturday is the day I’ll wake up at 6:30am, as I usually don’t write before going to the gym that morning. Sundays, I’ll try to sleep in until 7:00-7:30am. I write at different times over the weekend. The routine relaxes.
17). On days you’re not settled in your home, are you able to adapt your routine to fit in with a different environment?
No. If I’m not in my home, I don’t write first thing in the morning.
18). What do you do if you fail to follow your morning routine, and how does this influence the rest of your day?
If I fail to follow my routine, there’s a good reason for it, so it doesn’t impact the rest of my day. Whatever changes occur, my daily task list is always there to guide me through. The important thing is that by the end of the day, I’ve checked off as much of that list as possible.
Post-gym, seventh of June, two thousand eighteen.
Sorry this pic is so dark! Bad lighting and brownish walls aren’t the best for selfies, or anything else, for that matter.
The End.
That Asian-Looking Chick 