★ Our Morning Routine

It’s 6:30AM and your alarm clock goes off.

you hit snooze

Around 6:45, you grab your iPhone and browse through email and make your way to the bathroom flipping on the coffeemaker as you pass. From the shower to a brush of your teeth to the comb that goes through your hair, you slowly complete your routine. Slacks are thrown on, perhaps a tie is tightened and you pour a cup of coffee while making toast & spreading jam.

This is your routine each and every week day. Is this a healthy way to start each day? Let’s discuss.

This Reader’s Digest article has some fantastic tips for starting your day and I do many of these. My life has never had a routine. It may sound odd but it’s true. Anyone that knows me well will see my routine change each day and it’s never intentional and always takes no time at all to prepare for my day. I’d like to list my required actions each morning and then list the things I often skip:

• Wake up as soon as my iPhone alarm goes off. Half of the time, I’m awake 10-30 minutes before the alarm goes off. I always jump out of bed if it’s a weekday. Most of the time, my eyes open as soon as the sunlight enters my room.
• Pour a glass of water to jump start my body and start off hydrated
• Wash my face
• Get dressed ( I never plan what I’ll be wearing)
• Sit in Silence
• Stretch
• Read news & review emails
• Pack up my bag and load up the car and head to work

Things I skip 25-50 percent of the time:

• Eating breakfast
• Drinking coffee or tea
• Showering
• Brushing my teeth
• Running or doing crossfit
• Make my bed
• Do my hair (sometimes, I just throw on a hat)
• Pack a lunch
• Look in the mirror

Most of the time, both of these items are in our morning routines. Maybe this isn’t the case for those of you in college or in your teens but for most working professionals, all of these should or are in your routines. For me, I have stuff that I just don’t do sometimes.

Getting ready for work takes no more than 30 minutes each day. It’s a 15 minute drive to work so I’ll leave around 8:30. My alarm usually goes off right at 8 and I’m up and dressed 5 minutes later. If I wake up before the alarm, I’ll make coffee, stretch, run and shower. It all depends.

I don’t have a routine.

I tried to find evidence on the web on the effects of not having a routine but I can’t find anything. I’ve never rushed to get out of the house or stressed about not finding the right clothes. Each Sunday, I do laundry so am never without clean clothes. I always have beans ready to be grind for coffee and always have boiled eggs, jam & English muffins for breakfast and things just go easily.

The odd thing is that sometimes I read my email before getting out of bed and other times, it’s not until I’m fully dressed. Sometimes I will put on clothes and then wash my face and brush my teeth and other times I do it the other way around. I’ll drink coffee at home or take it to go. Sometimes I’ll stop on the way to work for a sandwich at a local cafe or sometimes I make it at home and often, I just skip it.

When thinking about this post, I was not sure if the lack of a routine is beneficial or if it is adding stress & wasted time to my day. Do routines help or hurt us? I don’t feel like always watching good morning america or listening to NPR or playing Pandora (all via my Boxee Box). Sometimes, I just want silence. I like to think that the daily wrench in my routine is a great thing. The fact I keep my morning non-ritual under 30 minutes is a great thing. I always get 8-10 hours of sleep each night and always start the day differently.

What’s your routine? Do you have one? What do you think?