I’m blogging my way through Crystal Paine’s Say Goodbye to Survival Mode 7-Day Challenge. Join me, and you’ll get a daily email from her with information about how to start getting your life back, including a new challenge each day to help you along! Sign up here!
Today’s challenge was all about developing a routine – specifically, I was supposed to identify 5 things I wanted to accomplish each morning.
Crystal doesn’t advocate for a minute-by-minute daily routine that is easily thrown off-balance. Instead, she encourages the purposeful identification of things that you want to accomplish, so that you can prioritize them and actually get them done. As dull as a routine may sound to some, it creates structure and keeps those valuable minutes from slipping away so they can be used for something intentional and productive.
At first, this activity seemed like a bit of a stretch. Working outside the home, I’ve always felt like my mornings were non-negotiable time – just get the basics finished so I can get myself and the kids out of the house on time. In fact, very recently I spent time reviewing my morning schedule so I could do just that because I was struggling with lateness. But then I realized – my mornings were always in Survival Mode. They were happening to me, instead of the other way around.
I have a very effective routine that gets me and the kids dressed, fed, and out the door by 7:25. And those are all good things, but I often find myself wanting to do other things too – check the news, do social media, blog – and that can throw everything off. So while I initially thought today’s challenge wouldn’t really be applicable to me in my current season of life, I found that it actually was. I could figure out how to prioritize some of those things I want to do in the morning along with those things I have to do.
What are some of the things that you want to make time to accomplish during your morning routine?
