I’m not a super high energy person. I don’t consider myself to be a naturally organized person either. What I’m saying is that, it’s HARD for me to get stuff done. A tidy home, structure, and routine don’t come naturally to me. And yet, oddly enough, I’ve had multiple people tell me that I seem really organized and on top of things. I’ve finally settled into a place where I (mostly) get the important things taken care of every single week. What’s my secret? These 5 easy routines. They’re the framework that seems to hold my life together, and even though I don’t always adhere to them strictly, I come back to them again and again, because these five easy routines keep my life running smoothly.
Morning Routine
This was BY FAR the hardest routine for me to set up since I am not a morning person. But I realized quite a while ago that there were some pretty key things that I really wanted to be part of my day every single day and they just weren’t happening. In order to make it work, I had to start getting up earlier. The bonus is that almost all of the things in my morning routine are things that I look forward to, which makes it that much easier to convince myself to get out of bed.
Here’s what my morning consists of:
- Wake up and make tea
- Read a book for a few minutes, usually a Christian non-fiction book
- Work through my prayer journal
- Journal (usually only one page)
- Read the day’s reading from the One Year Bible Plan
- Get up and get ready for my day
Evening Routine
I’m still not always the best at sticking to this routine, but when I do, it makes a HUGE difference for how I start my day.
- Pack lunch
- Pick out clothes for the next day
- Set out everything I need for my morning routine
- Put water in kettle
- Wash face + brush teeth
Eventually I’d like to add a couple things to my evening routine, like reading more and working through this journal. I’ll have to evaluate whether that will actually be helpful or if it’s just something I think that I should do. The key to success for me has been that all of these are easy routines. The minute they become too hard or burdensome is the minute I’ll quit doing them.
Friday meal planning
Since I go grocery shopping on Saturdays, I almost always plan the meals for the next week on Friday. At first this took me forrreeeever as I was trying to figure out which recipes were a good fit for both me and Charles and our schedules. Thankfully it’s gotten a lot quicker for me over time, especially since I don’t reinvent the wheel every week and scour Pinterest for more recipes to try.
One huge help in meal planning and grocery list creating has been the Paprika app. It took a while to set up with all our favorite recipes, but now that most of them are in there, I can quickly plan out meals for the week and then export a grocery list. It’s so nice not having to go through each recipe and list the ingredients I’ll need to shop for one by one. And when it comes to actually making the food, I don’t have to hunt down the recipe from wherever it’s hiding (usually in a pin board). Everything is in one place. A free but more glitchy app you can use is Pepper Plate. We used it for quite some time before I finally purchased the Paprika iOS app.
Saturday chores
I quickly realized that after working 9 hour days, I just don’t have enough energy to get chores done in the evening. Especially in the winter when it’s dark before I get home. Since I like to knock them all out in one day, Saturday is IT.
- grocery shopping
- clean bathroom
- sweep (and mop every other weekendish)
- laundry
- vacuum
- any errands that need to be run
Church + Rest on Sundays
This year I’ve been trying to make a point of actually resting on Sundays. I believe that God had our good in mind when He told us to keep the Sabbath, so I’ve been trying to honor Him by doing that. It’s really hard, and I am by no means perfect. But even what little progress I have been able to make with rest on Sundays has felt so, so, so good for me. I plan on studying up on Sabbath and trying out different things, but for now here’s how I make it work.
- work real hard on Saturdays so I have a clean come to rest in
- don’t make a to-do list for the day
- allow myself to only do things I “feel like” doing and not anything that I feel like I “should be” doing. This looks like reading a book in bed all afternoon instead of organizing our closets. Unless I feel like organizing closets, in which case I would do that.
Mondays always feel a LOT better after this restful day.
What easy routines keep you going?
