Routines. Routines. Routines.

 I am a creature of habit. I love habits and routines. I know that probably sounds crazy to most people, but it's just who I am. Monday mornings, I typically sit and drink my coffee in the same spot most mornings. I spend most of my time (outside of work) with the same 3 people. I believe in deep friendships and quality time. I believe in intentionality and in real life relationships with people. However, if I get too caught in a routine, sometimes I need a break and I need spontaneous adventure. This summer has taught me that I really don't need a lot of spontaneous adventure though. The season I'm in right now needs consistency and calm. 

Routine has almost become a buzz word in the planner community. Everyone's plan with me's on youtube seemed to include a spot for their AM Routine and their PM Routine. Am I wrong? I sat for so long thinking that I was less than, because we didn't have intense, down to the minute elaborate morning and evening routines. So I started thinking a lot about my mornings and my evenings. People act like routines need to be these elaborate, super intense timeframes. Honestly, I don't believe that. I think that routines can be as loose or intense as you need them to be. 

My husband and I typically get up less than an hour before we need to leave the house. We are working on getting up earlier and putting our workouts into our mornings. However, it is tough for two not morning people to get up super early. So I decided to sit down and really just start thinking through our mornings. I came to the conclusion that right now, our season needs flexibility. We had to sit down and assess where we wanted our time to go. You'll never get more hours in a day, so we decided to make our workouts an act of spending time together. Now don't get me wrong, we don't always do the exact same workout, because we have different goals. However, after we started viewing getting up early as a way to spend extra time together, I think it really helped our mindsets. 

Routines don't have to be intense, y'all. I've said all this about our workouts to remind you that your routines need to fit YOU. You can look to others for inspiration, but just because your favorite blogger/instagrammer/youtuber/whatever other content I'm missing decides to get up at 4am every morning and do certain things, doesn't mean it's going to work for you and your life. 

Recently, I was sent a new item from Erin Condren: the rituals and routines notebook. I think that book is what reinvigorated my desire for routine. I had been in a season requiring a lot of adventure, because honestly, I really wasn't happy with my day to day life. I wasn't happy with our routines. They weren't serving our season. I wasn't making progress towards my goals. I won't say that this book fixed absolutely everything, but it definitely has helped. The pages have given me a lot of inspiration to sit and focus on what truly matters to me. It has allowed me to be realistic about my season, and to see progress.  

I spent some time setting up this book to really reflect our season. I'm so excited to share our growth in the next few months. Routines have become less intimidating, more realistic and more reflective of where we actually are in life right now. This is good, y'all. I'm excited. 

So the next time you feel intimidated or frustrated about routines, feel free to come back to this blog. Remember that your routines need to serve your season. Sometimes those hours and hours of routines aren't really feasible. Make adjustments and find what works for you.