Routine Design
Playing with the building blocks of my life.
Routine Cycles
I operate within a few different cycles. Here’s the rough overview of how it works:
Yearly
Every year I conduct a yearly review to check how did my last year go, and adjust my course for the next 12 months. The entire process is spread over a few days. I also book at least 2x holidays of at least one entire month.
Quarterly
I like operating within 90 day cycles to review the progress and set goals for my business and myself. I also use this time to plan my days off within the quarterly cycle.
Moonly 🌕
Every New Moon I start a new page in my Minimalist Journaling System and it always makes me feel like a new beginning. I also like to celebrate the Full Moon, ideally somewhere in nature with a group of friends and a campfire. 🔥 That’s something I’ve learned in Rainbow Gatherings and I’m very fond of. I'm also sharing a public Moonly Review in my personal newsletter.
Monthly
I no longer do this. I prefer to align with the Moon 🌕.
Each month I update KPI (Key Performance Indicators) for myself (eg. habits in my digital habit spreadsheet) and my business. I also conduct a relationship retrospective with Silvia (here’s a podcast episode about that).
Note: I might suggest to align this review with the Moon. Somehow it feels nicer this way.
Weekly
Monday is my self-day. No appointments, no commitments, no work. It’s a perfect time to do whatever I feel like doing, and have some time to myself (we’re trying to spend as little time together with Silvia on that day as possible).
Tuesday to Friday are for work.
Saturday is for work, too, although I’m working towards making it my day off.
Sunday is a day off.
Every Saturday I conduct my weekly review, which is one of the fundamental journaling practices in my life. I used to do it on a Monday, but it felt like a commitment and I want to keep Mondays commitment-free.
Daily
My daily routine changes depending if I work or not, but the morning routine remains the same every day for some time. I tend to have a fixed routine for a while, gradually implement tweaks, until I hit a day when I feel like a complete reboot/routine makeover.
Here's a sample morning routine, which I was sticking to in Spring 2020:
Wake Up (ideally at 0530)
Toilet / Brush Teeth
Put away the dishes from the drying rack
Quick Stretch
Drink 1.25l of warm water with lemon (while looking at the Ocean)
Journal (30-60 minutes)
Minimalist Journaling System
Dream Journaling (if I remember my dreams)
Most Important Question (If I have one)
How am I feeling right now
Anything else that I feel like journaling about
Meditation (30-60 minutes)
(ideally) read a little bit from The Mind Illuminated
write down intention for the sit in my journal
meditate
Stretch and quick dance (I recently found that doing a plow pose here make a huge difference to how I feel)
Breakfast prep
Breakfast (a porridge with fruits or a smoothie–a huge bowl with loads of delicious toppings)
Reading while eating–mostly non-fiction books or articles related to what I’m working on.
Morning walk with Silvia (or alone on Monday and Thursday)
Check In / Connecting with each other
Processing / Consolidating Learning / Brainstorming / Coaching / Fun
(here’s a podcast we recorded about our morning walks)
As you can see, I’m quite a routine beast. I found this structure to work perfectly for me over 3 years of intentional experiments and documenting the process in my journal. I’m not a slave to it though.
My routines are there to help me be in the best possible state every day. I can change them as I see fit, whenever I see that they are no longer serve me.
Notice, that by the time I hit 10 am, I’ve already journaled, meditated, learned, fed and hydrated myself, and moved my body quite a bit. I’m pretty much ready for anything that the day can throw at me.
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