A little while back I mentioned James Clear’s weekly newsletter, which is, in my opinion, the best newsletter I’ve ever subscribed to. In this past week’s edition, James shared this thought:
Most situations in life have a tendency—a direction in which things want to flow. You can choose to go against the flow (just as you can choose to carry water uphill), but your results tend to be better when you find a way to work with the gradient of the situation.
James Clear, 3-2-1, January 27, 2022
Back at the start of the year I mentioned that I have a consistent daily routine I follow. Well, the routine laid out in that post was my routine back before the Christmas holidays and the start of the Spring school semester. However, over the past month, I’ve revamped my routine.
I felt like my prior routine was fighting against the natural direction my life wanted to flow in. I fought that fight all last semester, but this month, coming off COVID, I just decided to relax things a bit. As a result, my revamped weekday routine now looks like this:
- 6:30: Get up, let the dogs out and start on breakfast for the boys
- 6:45: Wake up the boys
- 7:15 – 7:45 AM: Take the kids to school, coffee in hand
- 7:45 – 9:30 AM: Spend an hour running (or spinning/swimming if it’s raining) or working out and then take a quick shower
- 9:30 AM – 5:30 PM: Work
- 5:30 – 9:00 PM: Family time
- 9:30 PM: Kids are headed to bed
- 11 PM: Start heading towards bed
They probably aren’t obvious at a glance, but I’ve made three significant changes to my routine:
- I get up 30 minutes later and no longer try to get in a workout first thing in the morning before taking the boys to school.
- I’m making breakfast for my kids before they go to school. Previously, my wife got up every morning to make breakfast while I worked out. This is one of the ways where I feel I wasn’t going with the natural flow of life. My wife is caring for a baby. She doesn’t need to get up at 6:30 AM to fix breakfast, especially if I can do it.
- I used to try and work out quickly (20-30 mins) every day. Now, I only work out twice a week (and running the other three days each week) but when I work out, I work out for about an hour, so the total time spent working out is pretty similar.
This new routine works, for now, and as long as it’s working I’ll keep it up. That’s the great thing about routines, you can change them anytime they no longer suit your needs.
I love seeing the flexibility for your routine here! There is something to be said for analyzing a routine and making adjustments as needed.
I also love seeing you take over breakfast for the boys. Give that woman a break! 🤠
Yeah, she kept saying she didn’t mind, but it’s also pretty clear she damn well doesn’t mind sleeping an extra hour either. 😂