My New Morning Routine for Productivity and Self Care

I’m excited to share a little about my new morning routine, and how it’s helped with productivity (and self care) and which I hope will help you with self care and productivity in you life, as I’m hoping to inspire YOU to introduce a morning routine. Since the world shut down with Covid, my life has been, a lot of ways, up ended and many of my routines have gone out of the window. At first, this felt good. No lunches to make for work? Can sleep in the morning? Don’t have to get dressed for work, and wear comfy clothes? I think you all enjoyed this for a time…and then you began to feel less energized, like a slob, and just out of routine and lacking in motivation. And while in the midst of lockdown, I was pregnant and not always in the best of health. And as Covid restrictions lifted in some parts of the world, Baby J was born and I stayed in a disorganized routine as I adapted to mommy life and the baby.

Essentially, since March of 2020, I haven’t had much of a real routine since I haven’t worked nearly at all since the pandemic hit.

And, that takes a toll. It’s made me unfocused in some respects, I’ve been lacking in energy, suffering from poor body image, feeling insecure and finding it hard to find my feet again in life.

However, I decided to take some action and have engaged both a holistic healer and personal trainer. Losing weight has continued proved challenging and while I have lost a few pounds, I do want to lose a lot more. But I also wanted to do more than merely eat healthy diet and exercise because I hadn’t had a lot of luck with this in the past. I wanted an approach that was more personalized and holistic to my body and needs. Which is why I am seeing a holistic healer.

Introducing a Morning Routine

To be quite honest, my morning routine was always about getting ready for work, and I had simplified it so that it made for great productivity throughout the work day. But, since I wasn’t going to work, it became a routine of anything goes. And that proved inconsistent and just a bad way to start the day. But I wasn’t sure how to get away from it with a small baby whose needs were changing as he grew. But, with my holistic healer, I’ve begun a new morning routine so that my day starts off on the right foot.

My morning routine is to wake up and do a bit of bed yoga. It’s called bed yoga because it’s gentle and easy and quick and can be done in bed. The rationale for this was to get the blood flowing and the muscles moving again. After this, I get Baby J up (he’s usually in the bed with me while I do this so it’s a really quick routine) and he eats breakfast while I enjoy my warm lemon water, and then Baby J heads into play time. While Baby J plays and watches Cocomelon, I have my breakfast, tea and begin my morning crochet work and social media work. I don’t have a lot of social media work so this takes about an hour and then the day can start. Hopefully as I grow as a blogger and crocheter, I can become more organized about my social media updates and posting. It’s still a challenge and not one I’m stressing about right now.

The morning routine helps me feel balanced and as though I’m doing something with my day instead of rushing around trying to do a million things. But the best thing has been having those few moments in bed to stretch and wake up my body. It helps my mind wake up too.

How the Morning Routine Makes Me More Productive

Once I have us all up and fed and I’ve decompressed a little before starting things (hence the crochet and tea) then I can start other tasks that need my attention, like laundry and tidying up areas of the house that are messy–think the kitchen. If you cook and eat, this is one room in the house that will always need cleaning and tidying. And I no longer feel as though I giving up time I want to spend blogging and crocheting and working to be Molly Maid. Instead, I feel like it’s a nice, quick break from crocheting and baby minding.

Related Article: How I Feel About My Big, Fat Postpartum Body

By the way, Baby J is pretty independent. He’s happy to play with trucks and blocks as long as I’m in the room with him. Sometimes he wants attention and then generally we cuddle and watch some TV until he decides he’s ready to play again. Also, his dad works from home so he sometimes gets Daddy to play with him too. And once he’s down for his nap, I can do more work. Such as writing this blog post 😉 See how this morning routine is helping with productivity?

Before I had the morning routine however, I did feel like Molly Maid a lot of the time. I was always putting off doing chores because I wanted to blog or play with the baby and things stayed messy sometimes even though I tried to do it all and wanted to be more organized. It’s strange how such a simple routine in the morning has changed my whole day.

Morning Routine to Improve Self Care

Having a morning routine has helped me improve my self care too. Instead of feeling frustrated with everything, I feel a lot more calm and in control and I can now take the time to journal and read in my day if I feel like a moment to breathe. I can even fit in exercise time! My personal trainer/holistic healer has helped me by providing me with exercises I can do at home that build strength and muscle. I’ve already lost a few more pounds without too much effort!

Final Thoughts

I knew having routines was important–I loved my night routine when I was single as it set me up for an easy morning to get my butt out the door and to work without too much effort. Having a morning routine now that allows me time to really wake up and transition from sleepiness into wakefulness (something I’ve always struggled with) has really made my day happier and more productive. I’m so glad I re-introduced this into my life!

Do you have a morning routine? How does it help you in life? Share in the comments!