Do you ever worry about how much personal information you have on the internet?

I don’t. I’ve been blogging so long, and so much of what I do is logged (from what I eat to how many steps I walk to what I’m reading), that it’s not a big deal to add more into the mix. I love random data more, like the fact I’ve walked over 8,785,714 steps since I got my Fitbit at the end of 2012. Worst case scenario, I’m the only person that cares.

There are some things I do draw the line at – you’ll never see me signing up for @bedpost, for example! – but generally, I’m happy to share reasonably personal stuff. So today I’m talking about my morning and evening routines.

This post was inspired by watching random people’s routines on YouTube. Vlogging isn’t really my thing, but I’m interested in the topic, so here’s my text version :) As always with these kinds of posts, it’s half ‘here’s what I do’ and ‘here’s some tips for doing it yourself’, but I’m always looking for more ideas and I’m curious about your routine so please leave a comment with your thoughts!

(Oh…also. This post only covers the beginning and end of my day. If you’re interested in what happens in between, check it out here: What my working day is like).

My morning routine

I hate the winter months because I’m not great at getting up when it’s dark and cold – I prefer to hibernate. However, when it starts getting lighter again, I start waking up earlier and I enjoy having the extra time in my day. So this routine is pretty new (March this year), and it’s specifically for the lighter months.

• Catch up on social media (10 mins) – This should be scheduling my own stuff and reading useful things, but to be honest at the moment it’s mostly just catching up on messages from when I’ve fallen asleep mid-conversation. Need to work on that!
• Read a book (15 mins) – I always have a non-fiction book on the go. It’s usually something business-y or personal development related, but it can be anything from history to science to economics (follow me on Goodreads for a list). I tend to read non-fiction in the morning because I find it gets my brain active, which is the last thing I want at night.
• Check to do list (1 min) – I worship at the temple of ToDoist.
• Feed cats (2 mins) – All the previous usually happens with cats crawling all over me/sleeping on me/fighting/playing, so this is the point where I’ve had enough and get up and go downstairs to feed them.
• Workout (15 mins) – This is usually a short EA Active workout, YouTube video, or just a stretch. Occasionally in summer I do yoga in the back garden, but that’s pretty rare.
• Get ready (20 mins) – I’m low maintenance when it comes to getting ready (a big relief to everyone, including myself, since I’m so high maintenance in other ways), so generally it’s just a shower, teeth brushing, mouthwash swilling, hair brushing, dressing kind of thing.
• General chores/clean up (5-10 mins) – This usually involves any leftover washing up, tidying things that have been left out, clearing surfaces, putting shoes away etc. This isn’t really an every day thing at the moment because we don’t spend a lot of time in the house and we just got a cleaner.

To get all this done before leaving for work, I generally wake up at 7:30am at the latest. There are hundreds of articles on the web about training yourself to get up at 5am if that’s your goal, but since I go to lots of evening events and Joe is naturally a night owl, I’d be exhausted and we’d never see each other if I got up that early.

Starting the day with social media is also probably not top of the advice list for most people. I do it because that ‘don’t look at screens before you go to bed’ rule works nicely in reverse. That same light-emitting screen that stops you going to sleep also helps you wake up. If you’re a ‘walk in the forest to start your day goddess,’ then that’s your thing and it makes you happy. The internet is mine. We can co-exist without being judgemental.

Breakfast is noticeably missing from this list; that’s because I tend to eat it after I get to work, and usually have a yoghurt or shake or something.

I don’t necessarily stick to this exact routine every day; some days I spend more time reading, some days I skip bits altogether etc., but it’s generally the best quality time of my day. I wake up pretty fast and ready to go most mornings, and I’m normally tired in the evenings, so I enjoy having some wide-awake time to myself first thing.

My evening routine

This was a lot harder to decide on, mostly because I was originally working on a ‘do this this day, do that that day’ system which just wasn’t flexible enough. It’s important to me to feel like I’m being productive and getting somewhere, but it’s also not something I want to waste endless time planning each week (I spend enough time in my diary as it is).

After trying different things and having them fail miserably, I wrote a list of what I wanted to get done and then came up with a pick-and-mix type process. I really have to push myself to do anything productive in the evening because the lure of the sofa and inevitable pile of cats floors me unless I have specific plans, so this helps with that. It’s also easy to adjust based on what I feel like doing or whatever last minute plans happen.

Step 1: Do one of these for at least 30 mins:

• Go to the gym – Normally I spend an hour there.
• Do a workout at home/go for a walk
• Work on house stuff – Anything from organising to buying to planning to decorating to rearranging to paying bills.
• Work on website/web projects – Including this blog, client work, catching up on emails, returning comments etc.
• Do some photography – This is a good one to combo with going for a walk.
• Food prep/baking – Joe does the cooking, but I prep food for our lunches and also bake things for the week like breakfast cookies.
• Complete to do list items – This tends to have some crossover with the things above, but is a good go-to list for when I want to do a bunch of short tasks.

Step 2: Do all of these:

• Washing up/tidy (10 mins)
• Prep lunch for next day (15 mins)
• Check diary (1 min)
• Sync Fitbit and log outstanding food in MyFitnessPal (2 mins)
• Check to do list (1 min)
• Put clothes away/in laundry and pick new clothes for the next day (5 mins)
• Get ready for bed (10 mins)
• Read fiction book (30 mins)

Ideally I want to be starting step 2 around 9:30pm, which means that getting home at 6pm and completing step 1 gives me a few hours of totally free time in the evening, assuming nothing else is happening!

Tips for a good daily routine

If you’re looking at making or changing your routines, here are some things I learned when creating mine:

Make sure it works for you
Other people can be super judgemental, so ignore them. Do what you need to do and what makes you happy. There’s no point creating a routine that involves doing crazy things that are unsustainable in the long-term. Equally, if your routine only involves brushing your teeth, washing, and getting changed, don’t feel bad about that either. It’s your routine, it’s important you’re happy.

Keep it somewhere visible
You’re more likely to do things if they’re in your line of vision. I keep a couple of notes on my phone, but you could have a notebook on your bedside table, a wall planner, or similar.

Consider separating weekdays and weekends
I tend to keep weekends pretty relaxed, but there’s no reason not to have a separate routine to account for waking up later, going to sleep later, and having more free time.

Use your routine to form new habits and break old ones
Adding something into your routine is a great way to introduce a new habit with less effort, for example keeping a water bottle on your bedside table and having a routine reminder to finish it before you leave the house.

Calculate the times
Work out when you need to go to sleep at night, and when you need to leave the house in the morning. Then write a list of items, assign a rough time estimate to each, and fill in the gaps.

Work to your best time
For me, mornings are my peak time, so I assign more important or more annoying tasks then as I know I’ll be likely to do them. I tend to do less in the evenings because I like to start unwinding from the day early.

Do you have a daily routine or do you wing it? What are your tips for developing good habits?