Why My Morning Routine Didn't Work

Are you losing morning because you can’t get enough sleep?

Ugh, meee tooooo…

So last month I tried to start my day with intention by creating a morning routine. I set about 5 short timers that kept me on schedule with different, peaceful morning activities. And guess what?

It worked!!!

….until it didn’t.

That is, until I guess my body didn’t want it to work.

“Here’s the thing, the idea of waking up early to peacefully start my day was exciting. Legit.”

Here’s the thing, the idea of waking up early to peacefully start my day was exciting. Legit.

But it was the sleep that was the problem. I could not get myself to sleep at night.

So of course I analyzed. I needed to know why I couldn’t get to sleep at a decent hour at night. Then I realized like countless other people, it’s the damn phone. Honestly I’d stare at that thing until my eyes turned blue. Ridiculous.

Dreams Vs. Reality, Time to Take Action

I recently heard that a good trick to getting some shut eye is to charge your phone in another room. Which sounded awful. But I decided (3 weeks later) to try it anyway.

So this week I started my 30 minute nighttime routine. I have to say, this lead to some very peaceful sleep at a pretty decent hour.

Here are the steps I use to wind down...

1. Plug my phone in an outlet in my bathroom. My bathroom connects to my room with no door. I know, it’s weird but for this it works.

2. Turn on spotify playlist “deep sleep.” It’s soft music that reminds me of meditative music but without the chanting. I used to play this in my classroom and it helped create a more peaceful environment.

3. Turn the timer on for 30 minutes. Make sure that you change the settings to “stop playing” or you’ll have some loud ass chimes screaming at you after your 30 minute cool down.

4. Step four is self care. I brush my teeth, wash my face and put on toner. This is always apart of my routine (duh) but usually it’s done while staring at my phone. Not today, satan.

5. Fill my diffuser with water and essential oil. So that my room can not only sound relaxing, but smell like the cleanest yoga studio you’ve ever been to.

6. I finally cozy up in bed and do something relaxing like reading or writing. I’m currently working on writing goals so this is a good 20 minutes of nightly writing practice.

When the music stops playing I know it’s time to put up the pen and go to sleep. There’s no fumbling around with the phone because it’s across the room and my timers are already set for the mornings.

If you try this, be prepared for the morning surprise when you instinctively reach for your phone by the side of your bed and Aha! tricky tricky, you gotta get yo ass up to get it.

Whatever you do, don’t crawl back into bed. It’s a trap.

Sound doable? Let me know your thoughts on nighttime routines in the comments below!