When I was in boot camp, I had to wake up at 4:45 to get ready for our morning workouts. At the time it was absolute torture because, ‘ew, 4:45’, and ‘most of my friends at home are still up partying right now‘.

But aside from the obvious reasons to loathe those early mornings, I eventually found some peace in the routine of it all. In boot camp (at least when I went a decade ago—a decade!?!?!) everything was incredibly structured, and for my personality type that works pretty well. But I’ve never been the type to have a single routine because life with the hubs is so unpredictable that I’ve been used to bobbing and weaving as needed to just get whatever the task at hand is, done.

But I’m finding that in the recent slowdown of our life, (it’s deliberate) I’ve got more time to develop a routine. And I’d like to because I think it’ll help me achieve a little more zen in my life (hands up if you could use a little less chaos around you! ??‍♀️??‍♀️??‍♀️).

In 2018 twe intentionally did not travel from home as much as possible because we’d drained ourselves with commitments over the years and frankly, we were t i r e d. Literally. Figuratively. So we stayed home and I focused on literally just going to sleep (post on that another day). And in a weird way, it worked! I don’t have a bedtime and it’s not a magic number of hours that I need each night, but I have learned to recognize when I need sleep, and more importantly, rest.

In 2019, I don’t want to make any major adjustments but I do want to continue to focus on small parts of my day to day that I can make better. So far, I’ve figured out that if I can manage to not be hungover on Sunday (and it only takes 3 glasses of not-so-great wine, people!), I can meal plan, clean a bit, relax all afternoon, meal prep, and then study at night with an entertainment wind-down (podcast, audiobook or paper book [as opposed to a kindle or something with a screen] have been favorites as of late), and I feel a little more calm come Monday morning. #adultingsohard

It’s been a total of like 2.5 weeks that this has been successful because for one Sunday I was hungover and only semi-functioning (30amiright?) but it’s been incredible how much of a difference it makes in my #Sundayscaries or #moodyMondays (what you thought it was only Sunday that was tainted? LOLz, babe).

It’s so millennial of me to come to this realization at 31 years old, but honestly, my generation has been re-working the status quo for so long that became normal to matrix-bend our lives to ‘just make it work’ a la Tim Gunn. Intentionally slowing down and consciously discovering how to interact with our time and spend our energy is truly the last priority for so many of us, and it’s high time we re-evaluate how we’re using these limited and precious currencies.

I’m going to keep trying to shift and adjust that schedule so it really starts to feel like it’s a flow that I’m excited for (which honestly I already am, is it Sunday yet??) and I’m looking forward to finding more ways to incorporate a little more zen into my week!

Curious what y’all do in your life that’s an absolute *must* for your routine/sanity/rhythm, whatever you want to call it!

Happy Monday,

P.S. I say y’all now.