What is it about four-day weeks that makes them feel six days long? This week was so busy at my 9-5 day job, I was working late and struggling to keep my emails at bay.
When I think back to the beginning of the year, I can’t get over how much my daily routine has changed (which is obviously totally understandable considering we are in a global pandemic, but still). I was thinking about how I used to get up early for morning workouts and then head to my train to commute to my office tower in the city. I still get up early but choose to start my day on a slower pace.
I’ve been working from home since mid-March and it looks like I’ll be home for at least the rest of the year. I’m a creature of habit and I function better when I have my days planned out. When COVID hit and everything shut down, things seemed so crazy that my daily routines were so thrown off. I was staying up waaay too late and rolling out of bed 15 minutes before I needed to sign on for work. I’d stay in my PJ’s until about 10am.
I wasn’t feeling overly productive and felt kinda blah, so I tried changing up my daily routine to see if that made a difference. It’s taken a couple months to figure out what works best for me now that I’m home ALL. THE. TIME.
Here’s What a Typical Monday to Friday Looks Like For Me:
5:15 am – my alarm goes off and I wake up. Even though I work from home, I still love getting up early and having the house to myself. There’s just something about keeping the first hour or so after you wake up low key that I am very much into. Plus, now that summer is winding down it’s still dark at this time too. The first thing I do is make some warm water with lemon (warm water, juice of half a lemon and a pinch of pink Himalayan salt).
5:30 am – I’m down in the basement ready for some early morning yoga. I started doing yoga before work as a way to get my body moving first thing in the morning because I know the rest of the day is going to be spent at my computer. The one thing that I miss the MOST about giving up our gym membership is my 6am hot yoga classes on Thursdays. When everything shut down because of COVID, the hubs and I decided we’d give up our gym membership and turn our garage into a home gym. My hubs built the plans online and we’ve been investing in some equipment. We’ve used our garage gym everyday since, so it was definitely well worth it but I still miss my yoga instructor. She was the best and her classes were so amazing!!
6:15 am – depending on how long of a yoga class I did, I’m usually back up in the kitchen by now. On Monday I decided to start my first Whole30! Between the quarantine snacks and summer socials with my sisters, my eating habits have taken a bit of a downturn. Prior to doing Whole30, I’d make a smoothie for breakfast, but now I pour myself some green juice (you can get my blender version recipe here). I’m trying to add some guided meditations to my daily routine… if I can get myself to sit still for 15-20 minutes…
7:00 am – I start my work day, which means I head into my home office and turn on my laptop. I refer to my day job as my 9-5 but my actual “office hours” are 7am-3:30. I’m very lucky to work for a company that allowed us shift our hours down to accommodate our personal schedules. I’m also way more productive at my job in the morning than the late afternoon, so this schedule works well for me.
8:00 am – this is a new additional since Whole30 but this is when I have my coffee (it’s not strictly at 8am but anywhere around this time. Before Whole30 I had coffee immediately after my breakfast). I only have one coffee a day now, so I make it count. Pre-Whole30, I used to have two coffees a day but I woke up on Tuesday and simply decided to only have one. (Honestly, it’s so weird. I woke up on Tuesday with all this new motivation for eating healthier and sticking to the “rules” with no problem. I guess when you give something a name, it’s easier to stick to it).
9:30 am – I now have breakfast. The coffee keeps me pretty full so anywhere between 9-9:30 is usually when I have breakfast. It’s always simple and doesn’t take long to either make or heat up. I bring my breakfast back into my office and eat away while attacking my emails. I’ve been researching Whole30 approved breakfasts, so if you have any suggestions please feel free to leave them below.
12:00 pm – my lunch break aka workout time. I’m a huge fan of the Fit Body App by Anna Victoria (you can read my review here) and I recently decided to try the “Sculpt” workouts, which are supposed to be gym-based, but since we now have a garage gym I’ve been able to make some simple modifications. After my workout I shower and make some lunch.
3:30 pm – time to sign off from my day job and work on my blog 🙂 I trade my office desk for the kitchen counter and get down to planning out blog posts, writing, researching, etc. I’m also usually snacky, so I grab something quick (like apples and almond butter…. literally my favourite snack) and hit my laptop. It’s crazy how much time blogging actually takes. If I don’t put a timer on my phone, I’ll be here until it gets dark and by that time I’m absolutely starving (it’s happened before).
6:00 pm – this is when my phone alarm goes off and reminds me it’s time to make dinner. I’m a huge fan of meal prep (check out this post for tips) and I’m also a huge fan of big batch cooking and having leftovers. On Sundays I’ll make up dinners for the week, so all I have to do is pop them in the toaster-over to reheat. Even though I’ve been working from home since March, I still like to keep things simple and easy during the week. I also don’t want to have a ton of dishes to do in the evenings.
7:30 pm – by this time, dinner is done and the dishes are washed (or at least put in the dishwasher). If my hubs is home, we’ll either put a movie on or catch up on a show we’ve been watching. If he’s not home, sometimes I’ll do laundry or check out YouTube… basically the night is mine for the taking 😉
9:30 pm – this is a very important time slot…. it’s when I do my night time skincare routine. I’ve been perfecting it for a while, checking out different products and brands. I don’t like waiting until right before bed, because most nights I’m so tired by 10am so all I want to do is flop into bed. By getting my face washed and ready for bed at 9:30(ish) still means I have the energy to do it properly.
10:00 pm – time to hit the hay and call it a day! (OK, usually I’m scrolling TikTok for what I think is only 15 minutes but ends up being 45….)
How much have your daily routines changed since COVID hit?
xoxo Kells
Oh Kells No 