Time to get back on track

Fall is the best time to start new routines and habits-

As a health coach, I know just how detrimental a bad routine filled with stress of the unknown can do to overall well-being and creative process. So just how do you build better routines when you go full-time employed by yourself? You’ve got to create fulfilling routines that leave you feeling like your best self, ready for your day and get you excited to be in this stage.

It’s not everyday that someone gets to go employ themselves, and with some many unknowns, it can be easy to slack off, be more relaxed on everyday wellness routines, and take for granted all that you worked so hard for.

Below I have outlined 3 steps to helping habits stick.

3 tips for routines to help them stick:

1. Building on the routine each week if it stuck the week before

   1. Meaning, if the first week I start a habit, I aim low at 9K steps per day. If I hit it everyday, then the next week I add 1k and continue until I feel like I’ve hit a good amount that keeps me feeling energized, fulfilled and is easily attainable within my day.

2. Build in the routine against something else

   1. If you look at my routines throughout the day, I try to chunk things together. In the morning, I go to a coffee shop and then immediately go to the gym. If you look at my lunch routine, I go for a walk AFTER I eat, like clockwork. And before dinner, I try to walk the dog, again moving my body throughout the day. It can be short as 10 minutes or longer like an hour.

3. Be grateful, take the time, and do not rush

   1. The worst thing you can do as an entrepreneur is to let you routines slide. You are your own boss which means you have to hold yourself accountable. I like to keep a tally to check off each day that I successfully complete my routines. I haven’t made a prize for a certain amount, it’s just for me to keep track of how I am doing each week. Sometimes I fail, like no routine at all, and sometimes I kill it. I have learned to accept it all, welcome it all but ultimately keep trying each moment to find it again.

My AM routine (70% of the week), times can vary quite a bit depending on what we have going on for deadlines:

• Wake between 5:30-5:45

• Daily gratitude and meditation (walk if possible 10 min)

• 6:30-8:30-ish Design at the Coffee shop with Andrey

• 8:30-9:30 GYM- just work muscles, get the heart rate up, and move my body in a way that feels good

My LUNCH time routine:

• Stop for lunch between 11:45/12

• Make a wholesome lunch filled with greens, protein and a side snack

• Go outside, move around, play with Tobee, check on chickens, get the mail, power walk around the block

• Get back to work around 1/1:30

My PM routine:

• Stop working around 4:30/5:30 pm (depends on when husband calls to say he’s coming home)

• Take Tobee for a walk (decompress from work, reset my mind and body, and get ready to be present for the evening)

• Make dinner, light a candle, dim the lights and do a quick clean up of the house (again, setting my night up for success)

• House projects from dinner till 8/8:30 pm

• Clean up and reset for next day, make Bedtime tea (our favorite thing to wind down for the day)

• 9 pm watch an episode with hubs (I know, late for a show but it helps us connect decompress and we look forward to it)

• 10 pm- bedtime!