At this point, I feel like everyone who is going to be back in school is officially back. The first month back always felt like a prolonged period of getting back in the swing of things and attempting to establish a routine. I was recently talking with a friend about how we were both attempting to do the same thing workwise now that summer has drawn to a close. It seems as though fall never fails to become its own kind of busy so in an attempt to make weekend travel and day to day life a bit easier I’ve been doing my best to re-establish my ideal routine.
Y’all know I’m a routine person, so since I only was out of it for shorter spurts this summer, it hasn’t been too challenging to get back in the groove the past couple of weeks. Below I have included some of the things that have helped me most, and that will certainly be my go-to tricks when I find myself wanting to regain a bit of structure.
Do As Much As You Can To Help Yourself The Night Before
No matter how much I have grown to love mornings, before heading out the door can always feel a little bit rushed. My solution to this is to prioritize doing whatever I can do to make my morning easier the night before. Personally, that means packing my gym bag (whenever I do it in the morning I tend to forget socks), thinking about what I’m going to wear the following day, and packing my lunch. Packing my lunch is my least favorite of those tasks but doing it at night tends to make it easier to get out the door on time. In an ideal world, I’d have everything I plan to put in my lunch box already in its container (be it a ziplock or Tupperware) and even have my iced coffee ready to grab. This doesn’t always happen but is going to be my goal for next week to save myself time and maybe even earn a few extra minutes of shut-eye.
Set Your Alarm Earlier
Hi, my name is Dorothy, and I never wake up to my first alarm. This fact tends to surprise people, but if you were to look at the alarms I have set on my phone, you’d be baffled. I have so many set, and they are oddly in three-minute increments. I usually get out of bed around 5:30 after my first alarm going off at 5:15. It would be great to get out of this habit but popping out of bed right when the first one sounds is not my strength. If I am aiming to get out of bed earlier, I know that my first alarm needs to be at least 10 minutes before I actually need to get up. Having that extra ten minutes in the morning makes me feel calmer as I get ready, which in turn allows me to start my day with a better attitude.
Reward Yourself
Personally, re-establishing a routine doesn’t just involve waking up on time to head to work. Instead, it means going to the gym and meal prepping, among other things. While rewarding yourself may sound a bit generous, I don’t necessarily mean it as getting something just for doing something you know you should already be doing. Instead, as you ease yourself back to going to the gym, reward yourself by doing your favorite workout so that you don’t dread it. Or as you’re preparing food for the week make your favorite recipe so that you at least know that you’ll be excited to eat what you’ve worked so hard to make in advance. It really is the little things when it comes to trying to re-establish your everyday.
Create An Achievable Ideal Schedule
I think that the hardest thing that people face when it comes to a routine is overcommitting themselves to thinking they can do a lot more than they actually have time for. Realizing that you’re not able to get it all done can be discouraging. Instead, create an achievable ideal schedule by writing out the priorities you have for yourself each day. From there, build that into your schedule while also giving yourself plenty of time for flexibility!
What do you do when working to re-establish a routine?
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