Buster Benson I need more goals.

develop a daily morning routine (read all 4 entries…)
Squeezing more time out of the day. 4 years ago

I’ve been interested in figuring out a way to squeeze more out of each day without completely disrupting my normal daily flow. Since my evenings are usually a lot more varied and unpredictable than my mornings, I think the best way to do this would be to wake up an additional half hour or hour earlier than usual (not difficult since I usually don’t wake up until 8:30 or so at the moment) and spend that time on a deliberate routine of some sort.

After trying out a few different ideas this last week, I think I’m going to continue to experiment with a few things that can all happen in the morning:

  1. take my vitamiins
  2. eat breakfast
  3. stretch/sun salutations/morning yoga
  4. listen to one of my French tapes
  5. do a NYT crossword
  6. read out loud

I think it would take longer than an hour to do all of these things, so I’m going to try different combinations to see if any of them stick. The French tapes I just got today are pretty good… they’re all conversation based and so can be easily listened to while stretching. I have an old AM/PM yoga DVD that seems to work well on the iMac (I lost my yoga mat in the move though). And the reading aloud comes from a book I saw a week ago called “Train Your Brain” that stated that the brain is most active when reading out loud. Maybe I could make this fun by reading the morning news out loud and recording it on Odeo or something weird like that. Or by reading whatever book I’m reading at the moment.

This morning ritual’s most challenging detail is whether or not I can actually do it. But since we’re half way through “Deliberate Self-Improvement Month” it seems like I can try to at least make it the rest of this month. These things are always easier once they have actually begun.

Nov 13, 2005, 04:25PM PST | 6 cheers


Comments:

Stephanie

That does seem

.... like a lot to pack in an hour. Maybe you can listen to the french tapes while eating breakfast and getting ready. ‘Cause aren’t those AM/PM DVDs like a half hour.

Nov 13, 2005, 05:32PM PST | Thread | Respond to this

Buster Benson I need more goals.

Yeah, the yoga thing is a half hour. And the tapes are a half hour. And crosswords take me quite a while too… I think I may try alternating the yoga and the crossword perhaps. Or maybe do the crosswords at night. Mostly, I just need to find out which things are fun to do in the morning and let the most enjoyable thing win.

Nov 13, 2005, 06:29PM PST | Respond to this

Andrew Harbick

Any chance you can read...

Nov 14, 2005, 05:56AM PST | Respond to this

k

do you do the daily crossword?

I find that by thursday, doing the crossword actually makes me have worser days b/c I’m not smart enough to make enough progress on them.

My faves are sundays – I used to have a routine for about a year and a half of going to brunch and doing the sunday crossword.

Nov 14, 2005, 12:18PM PST | Thread | Respond to this

Buster Benson I need more goals.

I don't usually.

But I bought a little book of Will Shortz’s favorite crossword puzzles of the last however many years. They vary on their days… and I may end up skipping the later in the week ones.

What happened to your routine? How long ago was it and why don’t you start it up again?

Nov 15, 2005, 01:22AM PST | Thread | Respond to this

k

no more crossword company

its sort of pathetic i suppose, the person i had brunch and did the crossword with moved to nyc. and after that, i felt sort of weird about going back to our ‘regular spot’ by myself.

i still do the crossword, just not there.

I do miss having brunch. there’s nothing like bloody marys in the morning.

Nov 15, 2005, 12:02PM PST | Respond to this

Melissa Axel Free & "pay-what-you-like" downloads! http://melissaaxel.bandcamp.com

those were...

some awesome choices, looks like you ended up with the ideal combo.

Dec 06, 2005, 02:54PM PST | Respond to this

Moose Moosie in the sky with diamonds

sounds like a plan!

I like the idea of doing a different combination of things in your extra hour each day if there are too many to do them all. I hadn’t thought of that!

Also definitely think the reading aloud thing is true.

Oct 19, 2006, 05:54AM PDT | Respond to this


Buster Benson has gotten 6 cheers on this entry.

 

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