Routines That Are Saving My Life Right Now
Keep reading this post to learn:
⋒ How I view routines and how I use them to steward my time and energy well
⋒ Why it’s important to focus on the intention of a routine vs the actions themselves
⋒ 4 new routines that are supporting my life well right now
If you know me at all, you know I’m a big routine girlie!
I am constantly trying out new routines based on my season of life – routines bring me a sense of peace and make my life feel more calm. They help me to steward my time and energy well every day and every week.
I feel like I need to do this anytime we have a routine-specific blog post because it’s important to keep these things in mind when we’re talking about routines. It’s too easy to hear or see other people’s routines and over-glamourize them or try to cram your life into their routine and that winds up stressing you out and leaves you feeling defeated – that is not the vibe around here.
I know some people think routines are rigid and box you in but I view them as tools to give me more freedom – with the help of my routines, I don’t have to expend as much mental energy trying to piece together what needs to be done and when. Instead, I know where everything lives in my day and week so it’s easier to show up and do what needs to be done because I’m not wasting energy trying to figure out how I’m going to get everything done. Routines position us to be intentional with our time and energy.
Having routines in place also makes it easier to shift things around when you need to. I see routines as a blueprint or guide for how to show up for our lives.
One of our Hustle Sanely mantras is – our schedules and routines are tools, not chains – all too often, people get wrapped up in the motions of a routine. I encourage you to pay attention to the intention behind your routines, too – why are you doing this routine? What’s the purpose of it? Don’t let yourself get bogged down by the tasks that make up a routine or the what – sometimes life happens and we have to pivot our routines – focus on accomplishing the why behind your routine even if your what looks different from day to day.
For example, the purpose of my evening routine is to spend quality time with my family and to wind down from the day and prepare for a restful night of sleep.
I usually do this by having dinner with my family, spending time with Adam, journaling, and reading before bed.
But sometimes, in the evening, instead of reading, I’ll spend time with a friend. That’s still helping me unwind – just in a different way, you know?
So again, don’t get too wrapped up in the tasks that make up routine – instead, focus on the intention behind the routine. Kinda like that whole “be firm on your goals but flexible with your methods” – same kinda vibe.
Last little note before we dive into the routines I want to share with you today – back in May, I wrote a blog post titled: 5 Routines Keeping Me Sane as a New Mom – those routines are all still part of my life and important to me BUT I wanted to share some new ones that I’ve sprinkled throughout my life so if you like this post, check out that one too!
Alright, let’s get to it – I jotted down 4 routines that I’m really loving in this season that I’m gonna share with you!
And remember – read to these routines and keep in mind that they support me for my season of life – use them as inspiration to create routines that support you for your season of life. Don’t spend your energy comparing my routines to yours – that’s fruitless. Focus on how you can create your most peacefully productive life!
Routine 01: Me Time Fridays
Okay, if you follow me on Instagram, I recently shared that we are trying this new routine out and now a few weeks in, WE LOVE IT!
Let me explain:
Fridays are a me day, Saturdays are an Adam day, and Sundays are a family day.
So on Fridays, I have the day to do whatever I want while Adam spends quality time with Everly. Usually, I do some form of self-care. I go to a workout class, read at a coffee shop for a bit, and then either go to a hair appointment, lash appointment, nail appointment or grab lunch with a friend. Just whatever I want to do that fills my cup!
Sometimes, I do use the day to work on a creative project for work if I feel like it.
I don’t have any rules to follow on Fridays – it’s just whatever I’m in the mood to do… it’s my day!
Saturdays, we flip and I spend quality time with Everly while Adam has the day to do what he wants. Sometimes he’ll golf, get lunch with a friend, or get a project done he’s been trying to work on (like the shed… he is chipping away at it, y’all, lol)
Then on Sundays, we do something together as a family – go to church and get lunch, play in the blow-up pool in the backyard, you know... stuff like that! Then Sunday evenings/nights is date night for Adam and I. I’ve shared this before but every other week, we do a date night at home after Everly goes to bed and on the other Sunday, my parents come over and hang out with Everly so we can go out on a date.
I have been loving this little weekend routine we have because everyone is getting their cup filled and for me, I feel like I’m able to spend better quality time with Adam and Everly because I don’t feel like I’m running on E.
It’s so nice to be able to focus on me on Fridays, Everly on Saturdays, and Adam on Sundays. I’m a more present mom and wife because of this routine we have going.
Obviously, I still spend time with both of them on Fridays and Saturdays – we don’t like avoid each other on our me days, lol – we are just intentional about having me-time carved out for each of us once a week so we don’t get burned out.
Routine 02: Social Media-Free Sundays
I can’t remember exactly when I started this but talk about life-changing! I’ve been doing it for at least 3 months at this point… maybe more!
My plan was to only do it for one week as a kind of reset and one week turned into a month and now it’s a regular weekly thing for me.
As someone whose job is heavily online, it can be easy to feel like I’m always scrolling if I’m not mindful.
So Sunday is a hard no social media day for me and I can’t tell you how life-giving it’s been for me. My anxiety is lower, I find that I’m more intentional about my time on social media throughout the week, and I feel more creative when I’m creating content now, too.
And maybe this is extreme sounding, but I do feel like taking a full day away from social media a week has helped break my addiction to social media. It really does have less of a hold on me and I didn’t even realize how big of a hold it had on me until I started doing social media-free Sundays.
I am off of my phone between 8:45-9 PM every night so on Saturday night, when that time comes, I don’t get back on social media until Monday morning at least an hour after I wake up.
People ask me how I stick to it/isn’t it hard and honestly, the first week or 2 was eye-opening because I’d reach for my phone and my fingers would automatically hover over Instagram. I didn’t realize how often I mindlessly opened the app until then.
I would say I’m a pretty disciplined person. Mostly because I’m clear on my vision – as in, I know what I want. I’ve experienced what it feels like to not be on social media one day a week and I really like how it makes me feel and that is my motivation to do it.
I don’t feel the need to delete or log out of apps every week – I stick to my word because I want to. No one is forcing me to do social media-free Sundays… I choose to do it, you know?
Routine 03: Praying while I rock Everly to sleep
One thing that’s been challenging for me since becoming a mom is spending quality time with Jesus. I used to do that during my morning routine but honestly, a lot of the time, Everly wakes up and is with me while I do my morning routine – that’s fine for reading personal development and journaling. But it’s tough for me to focus on reading scripture or to pray/meditate. Reading the Bible takes a lot of undistracted brain power for me and that’s not feasible when she’s with me in the mornings.
And then obviously it’s difficult to focus on prayer/meditation when I’m distracted by her.
So instead of just saying screw it, I found routines that work for me in this season to help me prioritize connecting with the Lord regularly.
One of the routines I have is praying while I rock Everly to sleep – for both naps and bedtime. I rock her to sleep every day so I use that time to connect with God through prayer. Sometimes I pray out loud and sometimes I pray in my head but I’m rocking her for 5-15 minutes usually each time and that really adds up.
And honestly, knowing that I get to pray while I rock her to sleep makes me not get anxious about how long I’ll be rocking her – being in a state of prayerfulness as I rock her, keeps me calm and she totally feeds off that energy.
Routine 04: Listening to worship on the way to the gym and an audiobook or podcast on my way home from the gym
I’m big on habit stacking and trying to use my time and energy wisely. Driving to the gym is something that I do at least 4, usually 5 days a week. My gym is like a 20-minute drive each way so I’ve really been enjoying spending the drive to work listening to worship music and then spending the drive home listening to an audiobook or podcast.
Y’all know I’m big on being mindful of what you’re consuming and since I go to the gym in the morning, that means I’m starting my day by filling my heart and mind with worship and that really does help set the tone for my mindset the rest of the day.
I like to think about it like this – if I am driving to the gym 5 days a week, 20 minutes each way, that is a total of 100 minutes each way every week.
So that means that I’m worshipping for 100 minutes and either reading or enjoying a podcast for 100 minutes! That’s so rad to think about, right?
I know sometimes, when your life is full, it can feel like you don’t have time to do things that you want to do – I challenge you to shift your mindset and figure out where you have pockets of your day that you can be more intentional about because a little bit every day really does add up.
Oh also another perk of this gym driving routine – I have car anxiety – it’s a real thing – and doing these things while I’m driving puts my mind at ease while I’m driving.
Alright, friends — that is what I’ve got for you today – some of the routines that are saving my life right now!
To recap, the 4 routines are:
Routine 01: Me Time Fridays
Routine 02: Social Media-Free Sundays
Routine 03: Praying while I rock Everly to sleep
Routine 04: Listening to worship on the way to the gym and an audiobook or podcast on my way home from the gym
Let me know over on Instagram stories if you’re stoked to try any of these for yourself or if they sparked an idea for a new routine you want to create!
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