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How many times a day do you think you do things without even thinking?
Who knows, right? Because you're not thinking about them!
This is exactly why they are so powerful... and important. Small things you are doing every day without thinking which can be just as easily moving you forwards or backwards from what you want and you don't even know it's happening. 😱
Here's the hard part - how do you know what little things you are doing that are compounding and long term sabotaging you when you don't even think about them when you do them? AND how do you add little things that will compound and move you forward in a way you don't have to think about because they are "just something you do"?
First things first... pretty hard to know where to go if you don't know where you're starting. Starting with the moment you wake up, list out your current morning routine you can remember right now. Do a very general, normal working day morning. It might look something like this:
- Wake up about 6:30 a.m.
- Have coffee and yogurt while watching morning news.
- Shower and brush teeth.
- Hair, makeup, and get dressed for work.
- Pack lunch.
- Leave at 8:00 a.m., drop off kid at school and go to work.
For the next few days, check if what you thought was happening is what's really happening. Make adjustments as necessary to reflect what you are truly doing. After a few days you might find it's looking a little more like this:
- Wake up about 6:45 a.m.
- Have coffee and yogurt while watching morning news.
- Yell at teenager to get out of bed.
- Shower and brush teeth.
- Yell at kid again to get out of bed.
- Hair,
makeup(nope, no time for that), and get dressed for work (discover later your socks don't match). - Yell at kid you're leaving in 10 minutes and if they aren't at the front door they can take the bus.
- Pack lunch (discover later the bread you used is moldy and buy lunch instead).
- Mill around for 15 minutes stewing.
- Leave at 8:15 a.m., drop off kid at school and arrive to work in the nick of time.
Holy smokes, just READING that feels stressful! 😅 You might be thinking all kinds of things at this point - my kid messes up my morning, I have to start waking up earlier, this is just how it is....
At this point let's just focus on how to get what our morning is actually like to match more closely to how we think it goes. There is a small easy thing we can do, a medium thing we can do.... and one BIG thing. Let's start with the low hanging fruit - the easy thing.
*QUICK TIP* Pre-load the evening before at your own pace to take the pressure off the morning. Why are you dealing with your lunch in the morning? Prep and pack the night before so all you are doing is grabbing it out of the fridge in the morning. BOOM. No moldy bread and matching socks.
Try the Quick Tip for a week or so for the quick win and confidence boost. A week of matching socks and edible lunch goes a long way!
Now it's time to consider your wake up time. Are you hitting snooze for an extra 15 minutes because you're going to bed to late? Try setting a bed time alarm on your phone about a half hour before you want to be in bed so you don't fall into the OMG it's 11:30 p.m. trap. Or, maybe, just maybe, your body just feels better getting up at 6:45 a.m. If that's the case, it's time to get real with yourself. Time to accept you may or may not slap on the makeup, or it's time to simplify the whole hair/make up thing. It's no use beating yourself up that you can't get up at 6:30 a.m., instead look at your existing morning and figure out how to make it work without all the self-flagellation.
Last but not least - we have the hardest action. It's the hardest but also with the biggest reward. Why do you waste so much time and start the day with so much negative energy yelling at your teenager? Yes, teenagers are notorious for not getting out of bed... BUT they are teenagers, not toddlers. They can start to take some responsibility. If the bus is an option get serious when you say it. Do your first wake up (since they sleep through alarms that make the neighbourhood think the city is under attack), but start with "I'm leaving at 8:00 a.m. I will give you a ride if you are ready to go, otherwise you'll have to take the bus, you have your transit pass on the table.".... and MEAN IT.
And now.... your new morning with matching socks and all:
At this point let's just focus on how to get what our morning is actually like to match more closely to how we think it goes. There is a small easy thing we can do, a medium thing we can do.... and one BIG thing. Let's start with the low hanging fruit - the easy thing.
*QUICK TIP* Pre-load the evening before at your own pace to take the pressure off the morning. Why are you dealing with your lunch in the morning? Prep and pack the night before so all you are doing is grabbing it out of the fridge in the morning. BOOM. No moldy bread and matching socks.
Try the Quick Tip for a week or so for the quick win and confidence boost. A week of matching socks and edible lunch goes a long way!
Now it's time to consider your wake up time. Are you hitting snooze for an extra 15 minutes because you're going to bed to late? Try setting a bed time alarm on your phone about a half hour before you want to be in bed so you don't fall into the OMG it's 11:30 p.m. trap. Or, maybe, just maybe, your body just feels better getting up at 6:45 a.m. If that's the case, it's time to get real with yourself. Time to accept you may or may not slap on the makeup, or it's time to simplify the whole hair/make up thing. It's no use beating yourself up that you can't get up at 6:30 a.m., instead look at your existing morning and figure out how to make it work without all the self-flagellation.
Last but not least - we have the hardest action. It's the hardest but also with the biggest reward. Why do you waste so much time and start the day with so much negative energy yelling at your teenager? Yes, teenagers are notorious for not getting out of bed... BUT they are teenagers, not toddlers. They can start to take some responsibility. If the bus is an option get serious when you say it. Do your first wake up (since they sleep through alarms that make the neighbourhood think the city is under attack), but start with "I'm leaving at 8:00 a.m. I will give you a ride if you are ready to go, otherwise you'll have to take the bus, you have your transit pass on the table.".... and MEAN IT.
And now.... your new morning with matching socks and all:
- Wake up at 6:45 a.m.
- Have coffee and yogurt while watching morning news.
- Wake up kid.
- Shower and brush teeth.
- Easy hair, minimal makeup, and get dressed for work.
- Grab lunch from fridge.
- Leave at 8:00 a.m., drop off kid (or not) at school and go to work.
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