My Routine

I have found that the best way for me to stay sane is to stick to a few routines, and others agree. I can get obsessive about this, so I've tried to keep it as simple as possible. This routine is meant neither to be all-encompassing nor to fit every minute of my day. Rather, it is a guideline or checklist…just to make sure I fit in all the important things!

Important Things: 1) Keep down the clutter; 2) Plan meals; 3) Work out; 4) Blog.

My routine:

Monday - Declutter; Blog; workout

Tuesday - Banking/Personal Business, Synch

Wednesday - Meal planning; Blog; workout

Thursday - Shop; food prep; workout

Friday - Synch; Blog

Saturday - Longer workout; major cooking 1/month

Sunday - Unpack; Bake; Synch

 
 

Blog: Because it's new, I'm starting with three days a week. I'm putting some structure around it: participating in Menu Plan Mondays and Fight Back Fridays. This gives me only one free-form day. I have tons of great ideas…so I'd better get started!

Workout: I hate working out. I love to play (hike, climb, bike, run), but the gym has never appealed. My workouts go in fits and starts. I usually do well for a week or so and then I twist an ankle or pinch a nerve. This tells me I need to be more consistent in my workouts and be much better about stretching. So, the goal here is stretching, cardio and calisthenics at least three days a week. This is much easier in the summer, so I'm making a big push to establish this routine now. Stretching is runner's stretches and some yoga. I'm working on my right hamstring. Cardio is a 45-minute walk, aiming for a "fat burning" pulse in the 130 range. Calisthenics is 100 pushups. Pushups are good for you. It's probably not perfect, but this is where I'm starting. I find that the walk fits in in the morning as an extended walk to the commuter train, at lunch, or after dinner, so I have a lot of choices. I try to stretch and do the calisthenics in the evening, which gives me more energy to do other evening activities.

Synch: I have an iPhone, and I love listening to podcasts (favorites include Nutrition Diva and Wait Wait Don't Tell Me (sadly, my thumb on current events)) and audio books. So, I keep them synched. I also synch my calendar between google, outlook and the phone. This is not as cumbersome as it sounds. It's in my routine because if I don't do it I find that I'm missing information for appointments or bored on a walk without an updated podcast list. I also synch Evernote to my desktop.

 

TV: I don't watch a great deal of television. When I do, I have a few tasks I try to get through, including folding laundry, opening mail, and mending holes in Hubby's clothes (I don't know where they come from).

Mondays: after the end of the weekend, if we are home there are usually tools, projects and layers of clothing in random places around the house. This drives me crazy! So on Monday I clean it up.

Tuesday: On Tuesdays I have a well established routine for dealing with all my personal business, including banking, going through the mail, and other paperwork. I don't really think about it anymore, but it took a while to get it set up.

Wednesday: Wednesday works well for meal planning for a few reasons. First, I usually have a pretty good idea of what the following week is going to look like by then. I plan Thursday through the following Friday (8 days), and it helps to know which evenings I might be eating out or on the road. Second, it helps me plan the shopping. There is a farmer's market near my office on Thursdays. I can shop there and then fill in at the grocery store on Thursday evening. The third reason is that it's a couple days before the weekend, so I can be finished with the meal plan and shopping in preparation for the weekend activities. I don't have to run to the store on the weekend when it's busiest.

Thursday: I shop on Thursdays, then take the food home and do some food prep. If the veggies are washed dinners go together so much easier.

Friday: I tend to travel on the weekends to camp and visit friends and family, so I usually work a short day on Fridays in my home office. This makes it easy to synch, because I'm not running out the door in the morning. It also tends to buy me an hour for blogging, the time I would normally spend getting to and from the train.

Saturday: On weekends that I go away, it's easy to fit in a long workout because the weekend usually revolves around a bike ride or other active pursuit. If I stay home, I ride or walk locally for at least an hour. On weekends that I stay home I cook large batches of food for the freezer, bake, and make more elaborate dinners.

Sunday: We made a rule a few months ago to unpack on the day we return from large trips, and we apply this to weekend trips, too. We used to leave stuff in the living room and trip over it for upwards of a week. Now we put it away, laundry goes downstairs, house gets a decluttering. I always get ready for work on Sunday night, so it makes Monday morning more tolerable.