Tips to Establish a Morning & Evening Routine (with an August Challenge)

I’ve written before about how morning and evening routines can create some sense of sanity and calm in your life.

These are two habits that you can start today that will make a big improvement in your day.

Now, because of different things that have come up in my life, I’ve fallen a bit out of my routines. I’ve also been changing them over the last few months as my needs have changed.

So, this month, my August Challenge (read more about the Challenge below) will be to focus on re-establishing my daily routines, refined and simplified.

I’ve simplified my morning routine, to give myself more of a sense of calm. Lately I’ve also fallen into the trap of doing email in the morning, which I know isn’t good. So I’m cutting that out.

Here’s my new morning routine:

Morning routine

4:00 Exercise/shower
4:45 Coffee/read/breakfast
5:15 Write
6:00 Make lunches

In the evenings, I want to get ready for the next day, log in my Challenge progress on the forum, and do a one-sentence journal reflecting on my day before winding down for bed.

Evening routine

Prepare lunches
Prepare clothes
Clean up
Clear out email/log in to forum/journal
Shower
Read

Establishing routines
It might sound easy to establish routines like the ones listed above, but it’s just as easy to fall out of them. You want to make them a habit that will stick.

The key steps to establishing routines are to:

Focus on them. Keep your routine as your foremost goal for one month, focusing on nothing else. Having too many habits at once spreads your focus too thin, and makes success less likely.
Make them rewarding. I’ve written about establishing a calming routine, and that’s what I’m doing with these two routines. In the morning, I have running, coffee, reading, writing, and showering as part of my calming routine. In the evening, I quietly prepare for the next day, review my day, shower and read. They’re both very satisfying routines.
Log your progress. Reporting your progress every day on the Zen Habits forum is a great way to log progress, but you could also do it in a journal or some other type of log, or put up stars on a calendar. The key is to keep track of it and see how well you’ve done over the course of a month.

I will be gradually getting into the morning routine, for a couple of reasons: 1) I have been waking at 5:00 a.m. recently, which means I need to transition to a 4:00 a.m. wake-up time; and 2) I’ve been exercising in the evening lately, which means I need to re-learn the habit of morning exercise (which I know can be very rewarding).

The August Challenge
So my personal challenge for the month of August is to focus on these routines, while maintaining my successful July Challenge of daily exercise.

But the Zen Habits August Challenge, which you can join by going to the Zen Habits forums, is really for any goal that you want to accomplish in August. You can do exercise, eating healthy, getting organized, meditation … anything you want, really.

The only guidelines I offer for each monthly challenge:

Do one habit only. Too many people try to do multiple habits at once, which nearly guarantees failure. You need to choose one for this month, and give it your complete focus. You can always do the others in subsequent challenges.
Start small. Many people also try to bite off more than they can chew. That’s natural — people get enthusiastic. What you want to do is to set as your goal something very easily achievable, somthing you know you can do. If you do this, you will be successful. If you get too ambitious, you will likely fail.
Report often. Each day, there is a daily check-in thread on the forum for people to report their successes and failures. I suggest you check in daily, or as close to daily as possible, so you are accountable to the group. This is a virtual guarantee of some success, especially coupled with the above two guidelines.

Interested in joining the August Challenge? Sign up on the Zen Habits forums!

Tips to Establish a Morning & Evening Routine (with an August Challenge)

I’ve written before about how morning and evening routines can create some sense of sanity and calm in your life.

These are two habits that you can start today that will make a big improvement in your day.

Now, because of different things that have come up in my life, I’ve fallen a bit out of my routines. I’ve also been changing them over the last few months as my needs have changed.

So, this month, my August Challenge (read more about the Challenge below) will be to focus on re-establishing my daily routines, refined and simplified.

Here’s my new morning routine:

Morning routine

4:00 Exercise/shower
4:45 Coffee/read/breakfast
5:15 Write
6:00 Make lunches

In the evenings, I want to get ready for the next day, log in my Challenge progress on the forum, and do a one-sentence journal reflecting on my day before winding down for bed.

Evening routine

Prepare lunches
Prepare clothes
Clean up
Clear out email/log in to forum/journal
Shower
Read

Establishing routines
It might sound easy to establish routines like the ones listed above, but it’s just as easy to fall out of them. You want to make them a habit that will stick.

The key steps to establishing routines are to:

Focus on them. Keep your routine as your foremost goal for one month, focusing on nothing else. Having too many habits at once spreads your focus too thin, and makes success less likely.
Make them rewarding. I’ve written about establishing a calming routine, and that’s what I’m doing with these two routines. In the morning, I have running, coffee, reading, writing, and showering as part of my calming routine. In the evening, I quietly prepare for the next day, review my day, shower and read. They’re both very satisfying routines.
Log your progress. Reporting your progress every day on the Zen Habits forum is a great way to log progress, but you could also do it in a journal or some other type of log, or put up stars on a calendar. The key is to keep track of it and see how well you’ve done over the course of a month.

The August Challenge
So my personal challenge for the month of August is to focus on these routines, while maintaining my successful July Challenge of daily exercise.

The only guidelines I offer for each monthly challenge:

Do one habit only. Too many people try to do multiple habits at once, which nearly guarantees failure. You need to choose one for this month, and give it your complete focus. You can always do the others in subsequent challenges.
Start small. Many people also try to bite off more than they can chew. That’s natural — people get enthusiastic. What you want to do is to set as your goal something very easily achievable, somthing you know you can do. If you do this, you will be successful. If you get too ambitious, you will likely fail.
Report often. Each day, there is a daily check-in thread on the forum for people to report their successes and failures. I suggest you check in daily, or as close to daily as possible, so you are accountable to the group. This is a virtual guarantee of some success, especially coupled with the above two guidelines.

Interested in joining the August Challenge? Sign up on the Zen Habits forums!

Posted on 2 August 2007 in Habits |
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Comments (24)

Frits Says:

August 2nd, 2007, 5:11 am

Dear Leo,

I was wondering when you wake up at 4:00 in the morning, at what time do you go to sleep? And if you sleep early, doesn’t this cut you out of a lot of social events which happen in the evenings?

Leo Says:

August 2nd, 2007, 6:05 am

Hi Frits … actually, I haven’t been waking up at 4:00 in the morning recently — 5:00 or 5:30 is more like it (the whole family sleeps in during summer). But when I was waking at 4:00 or 4:30 (and I’m going to transition back into that), I would try to be in bed by 9:30 or 10:00. Sometimes I would sleep later, in which case I was really tired.

As for social events in the evenings, the truth is that I don’t go to a lot of social events. I’m more of a homebody, and love to spend time with my wife and kids. Plus, it’s cheaper! Of course, there are times when I go to a family gathering, such as a birthday party or wedding or something like that … and in those cases, if I stay up late, I usually sleep in. But it doesn’t happen often. :)

Balfour Says:

August 2nd, 2007, 6:12 am

Here I am checking blogs and email in the AM instead of doing MY morning routhine! I wonder who is studying the jones for getting on blogs and email and what they’re finding?

Jarkko Laine Says:

August 2nd, 2007, 6:14 am

Hi Leo,

That sounds like a great plan!

I read about your morning habits earlier and thought that it was a great idea. At that point (about three months ago, I think) I tried it with some success, but now I have had to drop it again to get to spend as much time with my two month old son.

Currently I wake up at 5 and go straight to work. This way I can get back home already around 2-3 PM.

This brings me to my question: how do your kids and wife let you do this? :) I mean, if you wake up at 4, does it happen that they would also wake up? And how do you handle your routines then?

Or what if they want to stay up later, and keep you up all night?

Good luck with the challenge, and thanks for sharing it with us!

Jarkko

Brock Tice Says:

August 2nd, 2007, 8:10 am

I’ve found that if I use morning and evening checklists, it allows me to establish multiple habits all based on one: doing the checklists. I have morning and evening checklists at home and on-arrival and before-going checklists at the lab.

I have a couple of posts about using checklists:

Importance of daily checklists

Hard copy checklists.

Also, for goal tracking, my wife recently pointed out Joe’s Goals. I haven’t tried it out yet, but it looks handy.

MDB Says:

August 2nd, 2007, 8:14 am

I completely agree with your principle of only tackling one new habit at a time. I think its always one of my big mistakes that I try to take on too much and end up with all my efforts petering out.

I find it hard to have such a set routine though, sometimes my wife bugs me, sometimes the kid starts crying etc. How do you cope with such interruptions?

Patricia Says:

August 2nd, 2007, 8:20 am

I am new to Zen Habits and am excited about all the new things I am learning. Making my August challenge a morning and evening calming routine is just what I need. Thank you for all your great suggestions and overall global encouragement. I look forward day by day to a simplier, calmer, more creative quality of life as I learn from Zen Habits.

Jessica Says:

August 2nd, 2007, 9:03 am

I’d like to know: Have you always only required 6 hours of sleep? I seem to be exhausted after 6, I need about 8. Can I re-train myself to require less? Also, should I assume that you do not watch television at night? I’m sure it sounds shallow, but I easily become addicted to 1 or 2 shows and consequently can’t stick to a routine from 9-11 some nights. Just curious if you avoid that trap as well.

Lodewijkvdb Says:

August 2nd, 2007, 9:14 am

I’m in on the challenge for the first time.

I’m have been a real night owl for most of my life (going to bed at 2am usually), but my goal is to transition to waking early, coming from 8:30 am. I start with 6am and my goal is 4:30 am. I check in daily on the forum, but will also post weekly updates on own blog.

And for morning routines…well I’ll first start by being awake in the mornings. One habit at a time, please.

William Profet :: OneJobTwoSalaries.com Says:

August 2nd, 2007, 10:53 am

The daily routines are the key! Leo, thank you for this post! It’s just what I needed!

Jose Says:

August 2nd, 2007, 11:27 am

Leo: do you use an alarm clock to wake that early or do you “just get up”?

Leo Says:

August 2nd, 2007, 15:29 pm

Hey guys, thanks for all the comments. To answer some of your questions:

* I use an alarm clock to get up. Sometimes I wake just before the alarm clock, but many times I really need it. :)

* Have I always required 6 hours of sleep? Well, I’m not sure … I wasn’t really aware of it when I was younger (I’m 34). I didn’t purposefully train myself to sleep less or anything. I think different people have different sleep requirements. It’s possible that you could train yourself to need less sleep, and it’s worth a shot, but I should stress that I’m not advocating that everyone sleep the same as me … if you require 8 hours, there’s nothing wrong with that!

* My wife and kids don’t wake up at 4 or even 5. Right now it’s almost 5:30 (I got up at 4:45 this morning) and I’m going to wake my wife up soon, as she just started working again and needs to get up earlier now. In general, I wake up earlier and sleep later than the rest of my family. So the time I have in the morning is my “me” time, which is why I’ve focused on solitary activities like running, reading, and writing.

* I start my evening routine after I put my kids to bed, usually around 8:30 p.m. This gives me an hour or so. My wife is still awake, and she’s starting an evening routine too, so it’s kind of like teamwork — we’re helping each other establish our routines. She’s very supportive of everything I do.

Vincent Says:

August 2nd, 2007, 15:50 pm

Alright, Leo. You’ve convinced me. I’m joining the forums and the challenge.

Brock Tice Says:

August 2nd, 2007, 17:02 pm

Why did my comment never get through moderation? Do you not want me linking to my own stuff? It was 100% relevant to the topic at hand.

anonymous Says:

August 2nd, 2007, 17:43 pm

What’s up with taking two showers a day???

Sara Says:

August 2nd, 2007, 17:47 pm

Come on, Leo…if you’re going to rip off Pavlina again, wait at least a month! Steve did this on the 18th!

th1nk p1nk Says:

August 2nd, 2007, 17:58 pm

I wish I could wake up early and be so awake! Sometimes I have to be to work at 6 AM and it’s hard enough getting up at 5:15 for that. No way I could get up any earlier. Then again, I’m in college so that gives me a little leeway, right? Haha.

Leo Says:

August 2nd, 2007, 21:42 pm

@Sara: I haven’t read Pavlina’s post on this. Sorry if it seems like a rip-off. I’ll go read Pavlina’s post now to see what he has to say.

@anonymous: Actually, on most days I won’t take two showers. It really depends on when I exercise — morning or evening. Right now I’m exercising in the evening, so that’s when I shower, but I plan to transition to morning exercise, and I’ll shower then.

@Broce Tice: Any comments with two links or more get flagged as spam automatically — I don’t do it personally. If you have a comment that’s stuck in moderation, feel free to email me and I’ll review it.

Leo Says:

August 2nd, 2007, 21:45 pm

@Sara: I just scanned through a whole month’s worth of Pavlina’s posts (back through to June) and couldn’t find a post on morning or evening routines. Perhaps you could provide a link? I’d like to read the post. Also, to be fair to me, I’ve written about these things several times before, so I don’t think you could accuse me of ripping anyone off.

Terry Says:

August 2nd, 2007, 22:14 pm

My husband showers twice a day even without exercising. It’s wierd. I love your site. I love your suggestions. I have started waking up at 6:30 and am working my way backward. It’s tough.

whacky tobacchi Says:

August 4th, 2007, 0:23 am

FYI: i think the article sara’s talking about is the one steve did on the 18th last month, setting a “scaffold” (basically having routines in the morning and evening that are simple, but wrap up all the little stuff and keep things on track).

Ruckus Says:

August 4th, 2007, 18:22 pm

Leo,

I don’t know how to contact you directly, but I tried to join the forum and never received my authorization code. Can you help? You can email me directly. Thx much!

miracle Says:

August 6th, 2007, 23:48 pm

Last year, I had to wake up at 5 to drive an hour and half to work so that I can be there early as a teacher. I’m glad I have moved on from that job, but it did set up a good morning routine. As a father (you probably know this too), you don’t get much time during the day to do stuff you need to do to stay healthy and productive. It does take some kind of early morning or late night routine to get the needed things done.

also, great idea about the preview comment plugin

tim Says:

August 10th, 2007, 11:05 am

Am waking up at 5 and then just laying there must try and get upright not going to get up at 4 unless i am being paid need about
6 to 7 hours of sleep .Need a routine though.