I’ve written about different past routines several times on this blog, and it’s about time for a new one.

Life has been very much simplified by coronavirus and lockdown, and there’s been increasingly more work to do for our business. However, since a slight summer slowdown seems to have kicked in, and my work isn’t too hectic if I keep on top of things (we’re ahead on free resources and stock photos for the next few months, yay, but behind on blog posts), it seems like a good time to fix up my lack of routine.

At the moment I’m very reactive to things, instead of controlling my own time more. This has always been true to some extent as doing live sales chats means I’m effectively on call, and since I’ve needed to feed Ginge so much to get his weight up, I’ve been stop-starting tasks constantly (which drives me nuts as I like to have things done and dusted).

lockdown peaks & troughs

At the beginning of lockdown I was doing some kind of workout most days, and eating better and looking after myself better in general. I was kind of on a delayed response I think.

At peak lockdown I was only going out once a week to get food shopping, and while now food is easier to get hold of, and in fact we get most things delivered from various places, I still didn’t really have a routine (or a plan).

At this stage of lockdown, it’s been like “whatever is easiest.” This has meant a lot of Deliveroos, poor sleep, and literally everything revolving around Ginge and the business and nothing else registering.

I also feel like it got way too easy to make crazy excuses like, “I want a rowing machine to work out” even though I have everything I need to do Les Mills workouts (apart from as much space as I’d like!), an exercise bike and YouTube.

My goal is to find a way to fit certain things into my day, for example cooking/eating proper meals, not snacking as much, drinking more water, a short workout and some audiobook. Unsurprisingly, I feel much better about everything even by taking five minutes to do some skincare and listen to a chapter of an audiobook. Because there’s no time, I usually end up squeezing some time at 2am to read a book or something like that, and then I end up exhausted and not sleeping properly.

New plan

My overall plan is to create a habit of the following that I can continue through autumn:

1. Wake up, get ready for the day.
2. Do cat and house-related tasks.
3. Do some kind of short workout.
4. Eat a breakfast/brunch type meal.
5. Work.
6. Possibly eat a lunch type meal depending on the time.
7. Back to work.
8. Go for a long walk.
9. More work.
10. Food.
11. Some kind of relaxing time?
12. Some kind of yoga/relaxing stretches for a few mins.
13. Bedtime routine, book/audiobook

Somehow I need to build in the relaxing time and also have enough energy to do some kind of workout. I’m planning to start small with that and build up, and also not necessarily do something every day if I’m too tired (since I always get 10,000 steps walking regardless of what else is happening).

Food we have plans for – cut down on the takeaways, and have lots of mains planned and ingredients sent by Gousto. They actually seem to do a lot of meals/proteins Joe likes, and cutting down on the thinking/organising time by having everything delivered should help a lot. In addition to that, having a more protein-based breakfast (thinking eggs will feature heavily) and a very quick lunch (e.g. soup, sandwich, jacket potato) should help keep the planning and washing up under control.

Ultimately, the goal is to have a bit more balance, instead of working every waking hour. And primarily the initial focus is to get into the habit of looking after myself better, instead of trying to ignore the fact I exist and getting lost in everything else in the world because it’s more interesting XD