Quarantine? I thought you said "new routine."

Well, ain't that the truth! It definitely feels like lately the only thing that is constant is change. Just about everyone's daily life looks vastly different today than it did earlier this year. I was inclined to write "just a few months ago" but in case y'all didn't notice, it's July. January was seven months ago. As I was saying, ever since my classes got moved online toward the end of the spring semester and due to my internship shifting to remote, I've been feeling like my productivity decreased. It may just be because there's not much I can do besides work on my laptop or maybe because just about everything is closed. But this past weekend, Nick and I started going on daily walks. We did a mile on Saturday and two on Sunday. We leave our phones at home and just talk or enjoy nature's silence for a while. On our Sunday walk, I began complaining that there is so much I'd love to do in a day from learning sign language to picking up an instrument again but there just doesn't seem to be enough time for it all. Mid-sentence, I had a magical mindset shift. I literally stopped myself in my tracks and said, "you know what? There's plenty of time in the day. Why don't we just start waking up earlier?"

A little backstory here, when Nick and I first met, he was Mr. Motivation. He lived off of Les Brown videos and woke up at 4am on a daily basis. Me being the sleepy head I've always been, I rubbed off on him after a year and a half or so of dating and he fell off that awesome track he was on. Not to beat myself up about it too much but it was totally all my fault. Fast forward back to present time and we were sleeping in until around 10am on weekdays and 11/12 on the weekends. Not surprisingly, our days felt super rushed as we tried to squeeze everything in. We would often eat dinner after MIDNIGHT and obviously not hit the hay until even later. But y'all, things are changing around here.

Sunday night, I wrote down a jam-packed itinerary for Monday starting with a 4am wakeup call and including everything from an hour of leisurely reading to tea time, meditation, coding practice, and a workout. We were both so excited for a week chock-full of productivity that we hardly slept. We tossed and turned and Nick at one point asked me what time it was and it was ~only~ 2:30am. We wanted it to be 4 already! It's only been three days but I love this new routine. I found myself hoping the sun wouldn't rise for a little while longer. We feel so accomplished by 8am having completed our 2 mile morning walk, workout, breakfast, shower, Bible study, journal, and reading. Another thing I love is that I don't touch my phone until 9am so those first 5 hours of my day are tech-free.

Sidebar: I now totally understand why my mom would mandate tech-free weeks at our house during the summer when I was a teenager. I used to loathe those weeks and wonder why she must strip me of my primary source of entertainment. Now, I mandate them upon Nick lol.

I'm also newly hooked on Yerba Mate. I knew I would need a little caffeine boost throughout the day if I was going to keep this up and I had seen Yerba Mate on Zac Efron's new Netflix show Down to Earth. I had been drinking black coffee but on the show, an herbalist mentioned the incredible health benefits of Yerba Mate. I'm digging it so far. I bought this cute stainless steel whistling kettle too to make tea time a little more refined than microwaving a cup of water(ew).

Another recommendation from the above photo is this incredible devotional journal from DaySpring, a really cute Christian site with beautiful products for great prices. I bought it way back on Black Friday and am finally putting it to use.

When I finally finish Eat Pray Love, which I'm currently reading and has taken me forever to get through, I plan on writing a sort of review post about it. Spoiler: I have mixed feelings.

In case you're wondering, here's my routine:

As you can see, my day is very full but full of things I love to do. Since starting this new routine, Nick and I both agree that we're happier and feeling more confident in ourselves. Happiness and confidence are major keys to success.

Let me know if this post has inspired you to wake up earlier or if you're more of a night owl!

If you're interested in the American Sign Language course I'm taking, you can find it here(it's free!).

If you're interested in the Coding course I'm taking, you can find it here(also free!).

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#DailyGrind #MorningRoutine #Productivity #Lifestyle