Simplifying Daily Routines – 30-Day Personal Challenge Wrap-Up
GOOD ENOUGH
I’ve been working my simplified morning and evening daily routines for almost a month now. My execution hasn’t been perfect. Things go awry every day. My success rate is maybe 80%. But that’s good enough. Overall, my simplified daily routines are keeping me on track. So I consider it a very worthwhile experiment overall.
As a result, the garden is well-hydrated. Our son’s teeth are squeaky clean. The kitchen is reasonably clean. And so are the loos.
It’s been nice to focus on just the basics: 10 carefully-chosen habits. It’s been helpful to keep my expectations realistic.
In this blog article, I’ll explain my progress in turning my domestic weaknesses in well-established habits. I’m sharing this with you, with hopes you’ll benefit from my experience, so you can fine-tune your own habits and routines to maximize your effectiveness.
It’s been nice to lower the domestic achievement bar. I’m able to get most items on my lists done every day. That’s so empowering. It gives me a greater feeling of control over my time. I can’t do everything. But I can effectively do the limited things I prioritize. Those things I prioritize can be customized depending on what I’m trying to achieve. What you focus on flourishes.
I’d like to acknowledge my husband, who contributes greatly to our household in many ways. I appreciate him and all he does. Let me clarify, the personal challenge I’m describing here is only about me getting better control of me.
BETTER CONTROL OF TIME
The best part of focusing on all this dirty work is getting it done, so I can have a clear mind to focus on my loved ones, my strengths, and my big exciting goals. Part of the reason why I’m trying to get a better grip on my time, my schedule, my routines, and myself, is because I’m planning to cram another project in soon: I want to write a short book to create passive income. It’ll be a delicate balancing act squeezing book creation into my already busy schedule, alongside mothering, full-time work, blogging, and everything else.
I do feel more confident about writing the book, now that I’m optimizing my time with simplified daily routines.
As a reminder, here are the 10 habits I’ve been focusing on, which I introduced earlier this month in my blog at the beginning of this personal challenge:
And here’s a quick look at my current simplified daily routines:
Current Morning Routine
- 5am Wake – Be ON TIME
- Keep GARBAGE Current
- Keep LAUNDRY Current (Rotate)
- Clean the LOO
- SHOWER Really Early
- Limit SOCIAL MEDIA
- Natural ALLERGY Treatment
- Brush Toddler TEETH
- 6:45am Go Downstairs – Be ON TIME
- Keep DISHES Current
- 7:15am Leave Home – Be ON TIME
- 8am – Be ON TIME
Current Evening Routine
- 5pm Leave Work – Be ON TIME
- Keep LAUNDRY Current (Rotate)
- WATER the Garden
- Limit SOCIAL MEDIA
- Keep DISHES Current
- 7pm Go Upstairs – Be ON TIME
- Natural ALLERGY Treatment
- Keep LAUNDRY Current (Put Away)
- Set Clothes Out (So I Can SHOWER Really Early)
- Brush Toddler TEETH
- 8:30pm Get in Bed – Be ON TIME
- 9pm Sleep – Be ON TIME
It’s been a lot of work transforming my weaknesses into well-established habits. It’s hard work doing chores. And our house still isn’t perfectly clean. But the result of having the worst chores done, and having my life more in order, is so nice. My husband and I of course do many chores beyond what’s listed here. But as I’ve explained, the emphasis is on the habits featured here. The following is a quick rundown of my experience so far establishing the 10 habits of my simplified daily routine.
PROGRESS SO FAR
- Be ON TIME: I’ve been hitting my marks pretty well. I’m still not perfectly timely. I tend to get engrossed in whatever I’m doing, which can cause delay. But having this goal of timeliness has improved my results. I’ve been watching the clock and adjusting accordingly.
- Keep GARBAGE Current: I’ve been emptying the garbages upon awakening. It’s nice to avoid overflowing cans.
- Clean the LOO: I’ve been cleaning toilets and cat litter boxes as needed, nice and early. It’s a relief to always have them clean for guests.
- Keep LAUNDRY Current: I’ve been rotating the laundry early in the morning and right after work. Then every night after our son bathes, I put all the clean laundry away. No more giant piles of dirty or clean laundry. It’s a Festivus miracle.
- SHOWER Really Early: I’ve been showering before breakfast. This allows me to pick up the pace and get the day started early. This has been brilliantly wonderful, especially on weekends, as I might otherwise slug out all day.
- Natural ALLERGY Treatment: Even in the height of grass pollen season, I’ve completely switched to natural allergy remedies and neti potting. I’m totally off prescription and over-the-counter drugs. Shockingly to me, my allergy symptoms are bugging me less than ever. I feel healthier this allergy season than in the past 10 years. It’s been a multi-pronged strategy: I’m also prioritizing sleep, stress-reduction, and a mostly plant-based diet. The combination of all these lifestyle improvements could be resulting in the positive effect on allergies.
- Brush Toddler TEETH: My husband and I have been brushing our son’s pearly whites twice a day, most days. He still hates it. But hopefully his teeth will be healthier in the long-run, because of our insistence on brushing.
- Keep DISHES Current: I’ve been consistently cleaning all the dishes and countertops after each meal. I’ve also been quick to run and empty the dishwasher. I love having the kitchen clean. There’s nothing worse than messes in the kitchen and bathroom, in my opinion. I’ve also been better about removing dirty drinking glasses from the bathroom countertops.
- WATER the Garden: I give the garden a good soak right when I get home from work, if the ground is dry. If it rains, I gladly get the day off. My husband runs the sprinkler system to water the grass and big shrubs. The plants, flowers, vegetables, and grass are looking mostly lush.
- Limit SOCIAL MEDIA: I’ve been checking each platform only once per day: Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, and Pinterest. I’ve limiting texts and personal email in similar ways. This is the only item on the list that isn’t a chore. I enjoy social media and connecting with people. But I can sometimes go overboard, so it’s been good to limit my time online. So I’m now fully enjoying my once-a-day opportunity to reply to messages, look at posts, and connect with people on social media. I’ve been making occasional exceptions, visiting platforms more than once per day, only if I’m posting something new. Overall, these limits have freed up time and mental space.
ONWARD
Moving forward, I plan to continue working my simplified daily routines. They keep the household functional. They serve as reminders. They keep me on productive autopilot when I’m too sleepy to make wise decisions. It’s nice to not have to think about these chores too hard, and just get them done and move on with life. It conserves energy for the more exciting things in life.
I sincerely hope that sharing my journey will do you good in some way. I’m big believer in the compound effects of good habits and routines at home and work. It’s nice to feel like you’re in charge of your own life. I hope we can all consciously harness our daily actions to make beautiful things happen.
