ICYMI, last week I shared 10 tips on what to do if your website has been affected by Google's Helpful Content Update.

In this week’s post, I talk about how 12 months ago, I overhauled my morning routine to make space for three important things: exercise, creativity, and drinking coffee (away from my desk).

This a routine that works for me because a) I like structure and b) I’m a morning person. But even if neither of those applies to you, I hope that this inspires you to carve out time—no matter how early or late or sporadic—to do the things that make you feel great, regularly.

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Less than a year ago, I still believed that getting up as early as possible to start work was the key to my “success”.

I’ve always focused best first thing in the morning—before most other people are awake. So I figured that if I could get up, get through emails, and make headway on my to-do list all before 9 a.m., then I was surely winning at life.

That’s what I used to do at my previous corporate job and for a while, it worked.

That is until I realised what a fool I was being.

I was racking up a normal day’s work (9-6) plus an extra 1-2 hours before I’d even made it to the office. All for the pleasure of 20k per year (in 2015). In London.

A few months into that job I decided to stop wasting my precious early morning energy on out-of-hours unpaid work for my employer and instead do something for myself.

Every morning, for an hour before work, I wrote a few hundred words of a book.

Several (unpublished) novels, two changes of jobs, and many years later, I made the decision to quit my job and become self-employed. Then c*vid happened and all notion of structure went entirely out the window. It didn’t help that I was 3 months into being my own boss and was slightly panicking about how on earth I was going to make money long-term.

Fast-forward a couple more years and last September, excited by the prospect of a New! School! Year!, I decided that my early morning routine needed a shake-up.

This is why:

One

Besides walking Winston the corgi, I wasn’t doing any regular mildly challenging exercise. I’d tried so many things including YouTube videos, attending IRL classes, and even my former nemesis, running.

The problem was that I was always leaving exercise as the last thing on my to-do list. And guess what? I’m tired at 6 p.m. I don’t want to start moving my body in the evening and I sure as hell don’t want to do it when it’s as dark and cold as it is in the UK in winter.

Two

I wasn’t satisfied with the progress I was making on novel #3. I was waking up at 6.30-7ish most days and by the time my brain had kicked into gear, I’d only managed a small amount of good writing.

I knew I needed to bite the bullet and get up earlier.

Three

I wanted to test starting my official “work” day at 10 a.m. rather than 9 or 8.30 a.m. I’m a firm believer in Parkinson’s Law—that work expands to fill the time allotted for its completion—so I decided to give myself a slightly shorter day to get tasks done and minimise distractions (checking email/Whatsapp as late as possible) to help stay focused.

Starting at 10 a.m. would also give me an extra 20-30 minutes each morning to finally try out these ‘rituals’ everyone on LinkedIn was talking about.

A ritual is defined by psychologists as “a predefined sequence of symbolic actions often characterised by formality and repetition that lacks direct instrumental purpose”.

According to scientists, rituals help to “buffer against uncertainty and anxiety”.

Not one to ignore the science, I decided I’d have to implement my very own sequence of purposeless actions.

Putting it all together into a “routine”

Once I’d diagnosed what was missing from the most energising, fruitful part of the day for me (the morning), I identified the 3 things I needed:

• Creativity
• Exercise
• Me time

Then I took those and figured out when and how I was going to fit them into my day.

This is what I came up with:

P.S. I’ve included some prompts for you below each ‘activity’ IF you’re interested in creating a similar sort of morning/evening routine. Feel free to skip right past these if they’re not relevant!

1. Creativity (6am-8am)

It’s hard to explain why I love writing. It’s a largely thankless endeavor that no one’s asked for (!!) and yet I can’t function without doing it on a regular basis.

I think it’s because it makes me feel like there’s more to my life than paid work (which helps to keep ‘what am I doing with my life??’ thoughts at bay). It makes me feel like I’m producing something a little bit magical. It makes me feel excited about the possibilities of a project that I might get to share with others one day.

So each morning, Mon-Thurs (and several hours on a Friday, when I limit client work), I set aside at least 90 minutes to work on a novel.

Prompt for you: Is there a creative endeavor that lights you up, but which you never seem to have the time for? Could you carve out 30-60 minutes first thing in the morning or later in the evening, when no one else is awake (or while other members of your family are watching TV), to work on that?

2. Exercise (8.15am-9.15am)

I used to loathe running. I couldn’t make it more than 5 minutes without almost choking to death with exhaustion.

So why did I decide this as my thrice weekly form of exercise? Because a) it’s free b) it doesn’t take up much time c) it feels challenging enough to feel like I’m actually working out, and d) I can listen to my favourite podcasts while doing it.

To become the type of person who runs and doesn’t despise it, I made a pact with myself: you will only do 25 minutes of running and if you need to stop every minute, so be it.

When I started doing this in late September 2022, it was hard. Some days it still is. The only way it became far less hard, far less often was to just keep going. Now, something quite miraculous has happened… I look forward to running.

I know it’s only 3x per week. I know I don’t have to eventually run a marathon. It’s a goalless exercise routine and it’s the only one I’ve ever been able to stick to in 31 years.

After I run, I immediately take Winston out for his morning walk. Then I come home, shower, and get ready for me time ☕

Prompt for you: Are there too many hurdles between you and exercise e.g. exhaustion, lack of accountability, a commute, the cost? What’s the easiest and simplest form of exercise you could try for a few weeks (solo or with a friend), knowing full well that it will be hard in the beginning (+ that’s ok!!)?

3. Me time (9.30am-10am)

Towards the end of lockdown I purchased a Sage Barista Express coffee machine on a 0% interest credit card.

Reader: If you love delicious coffee and don’t own this machine, stop reading and purchase it now. You will absolutely NOT regret it.

When I sat down to figure out my new morning schedule and realised I had a spare 20-30 minutes after writing, exercise, and before my 10 a.m. start I was elated.

This was the perfect time to just be (hello, ritual!). To make an oat latte for me and my husband, and then sit on the sofa and stare out the window while listening to Off Air with Fi and Jane or The Rewatchables or Dish or Techish.

I cannot tell you how wonderful it is to start my work day like this. No Whatsapp notifications, no emails, no staring at a computer screen processing what I need to do next.

Just enjoying the taste of coffee and something funny/inspiring/educational in my ears. It sets me up so well for the rest of the day.

Prompt for you: You don’t need me to give you permission to take even 15 minutes out of a busy day just for you… or maybe you do? If so, here it is. Now, when could you do this? Is there a little portion of the day (ideally before you get bogged down in work/life to dos) that you can reserve for a solo walk or coffee? Emails can wait. Work can wait. Scrolling on Instagram can wait. The world will keep spinning. The biggest thing stopping you from doing this is not scheduling it in your diary. Commit to it—regularly—and like any other appointment, it will happen. And you will feel amazing for it.

👋Over to you!

How would you rate your morning or evening routine on a scale of 1-10?

1 = time to be creative or move my body? you must be joking!

10 = the LinkedIn bros WISH they had my routine.

Whether there’s room for improvement or you have your own routine you love, hit reply! Let's exchange tips!

Until next week,

Bella

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