Good Morning. Good Night.

Suzanne DaileyBlog, Manage Better, Self Care Better, Teach Happier

TL;DR:

  • Morning and evening routines can contribute to your well-being and happiness.
  • In the morning, the routine involves preparing for the day the night before, enjoying alone time in stillness with coffee, exercising, and listening to intellectually or spiritually enriching podcasts.
  • The evening routine includes winding down by indulging in humorous and light-hearted content, minimizing phone usage, expressing gratitude in a journal, and reading fiction before bedtime, emphasizing the importance of intentional habits for a purposeful and anchored life.

It’s March. The beginning of springtime. A natural time of the year for us to pay attention to the way we move through our days.  My friend Lindsay has a buddy who loves to say, “Have a good day on purpose.” I just love that. Have a good day on purpose. 

So how do we do that? How can we proactively set the conditions to have a good day on purpose? I am asked a version of this question from readers or listeners often.  People ask me how I move through most days in a pretty happy and healthy headspace and heartspace. If you’ve been reading these Teach Happier posts for awhile, you know that I work really hard at it. Feeling anchored, content, aligned, balanced, steady…that takes discipline and priority. Well-being is not found; it’s created. 

This month’s post is where I will share my non-negotiables of morning and evening routines; things that are a part of my daily rhythms that make a big difference in my well-being and happiness. As I share the short list of things that I consistently do in the morning or evening, think about your routines and habits. What helps you create your sense of well-being? 

These 7 things aren’t wild. They are 2-degree shifts in thoughts and actions that allow me to move through my days feeling as anchored, grounded, and stead as realistically possible. Click To Tweet

Good Morning!

Let’s start with the morning. My morning routine actually begins the night before. Each night, I make sure 2 things are ready for the morning: coffee and clothes. Before I go upstairs to bed, I make sure the coffeemaker is programmed to start automatically at 5AM . This helps “tomorrow Suzanne” tremendously. When the coffee is set, I walk upstairs to get ready for bed. As I brush my teeth, I grab my workout clothes from my dresser and put them right by my bathroom sink. This is one way I practice Shawn Achor’s “20-second rule.” Getting those clothes out ahead of time takes away the 20 seconds it would take me in the morning, which ultimately allows me to get closer to my good habits. 

Fast forward to the morning.

My alarm goes off and my workout clothes are ready by my sink. I put them on and come downstairs to enjoy that automatically started coffee. It’s not just the coffee that is comforting; an important part of my routine is that I enjoy that coffee ALONE. ALONE AND IN COMPLETE STILLNESS. 

Family is busy and people-y, school is busy and people-y, and I need a bit of time without people (I sense you nodding). I pour the coffee and sit quietly for about 15-20 minutes. Around 5:30 I head to my basement to spend 20-30 minutes moving my body (hello, Cody Rigsby!). I don’t love walking down the stairs to exercise, but I love how I feel when I walk back up. Exactly 100% of the time, when I exercise in the morning, I have more of all the things: patience, energy, creativity, productivity….I just feel better. 

After time in quiet and time to move my body, I now feel ready…like really ready to begin the day. The third and final thing I do in the morning is listen to a podcast while I am getting ready and driving to work. These morning podcasts challenge me intellectually and spiritually.  I choose to listen to more serious, cerebral, and earnest stuff that provides inspiration or perspective. Podcasts like Kelly Corrigan’s Wonders, Jen Hatmaker’s For the Love, Everything Happens with Kate Bowler, or the Happiness Lab with Dr Laurie Santos. It gets my head in the right place. 

In summary, the 3 things I do every morning are spend some time alone in stillness, move my body, and listen to something that will enrich my head or heart.  

Good Night

I go about my day doing my thing at school and the after-school routine begins. Those cerebral podcasts from the morning? No ma’am. After work, it’s a sharp left turn into complete and utter nonsense. Watch What Crappens, All Things Iconic, The Deep Dive. I just want to laugh and have a little pop of serotonin in between school-work and home-work. 

Insert child/husband/dog/household things, and we get to 8ish. Around 8/8:30PM, I try my best to shut down texts. I really do try not to get involved in back-and-forths. I need my brain to detach a bit and get into a calm, content space.  

After detaching from my phone, I program that coffee, get my workout clothes out, and then do my most impactful daily practice—write in my gratitude book, which is something I’ve been doing since 1999. I take 10 seconds to write down 2-3 great things that happened that day. Then, I climb into bed and read a fiction book. I get lost in someone else’s story which allows me to tune out of mine for a bit, get my eyes tired, and fall asleep. (PS I am reading Kristin Hannah’s latest, The Women, and it is SO GOOD!) 

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Have a Good Day on Purpose

Let’s pause and think about these things, these underwhelming things: time in quiet, exercise, inspirational media, nonsensical and absurd media, minimizing phone noise, gratitude, and reading. These are things I do to have a good day on purpose. These 7 things aren’t wild. They are 2-degree shifts in thoughts and actions that allow me to move through my days feeling as anchored, grounded, and stead as realistically possible. Putting morning or night routines in place is not meant to make our lives rigid or overly structured, but rather a way for us to put some things in place that we know will make us feel good. Even on the crappy days, these things will hold. 

Our invitation this week is to examine our morning and nightly routines to see what positively impacts our overall wellness.  

Make it a good morning.

Make it a good night.

With purpose.

On purpose. 

Small Shifts, BIG Gifts!

When you reflect on your morning and evening routines, what are the intentional things you do that help you feel anchored, steady, and balanced? Being aware of these non-negotiables helps protect our limited time and capacity. If you want to adjust something in your routine, the beginning of spring is the perfect time to do so.

 

About Suzanne Dailey

Suzanne Dailey is a proud member of the Teach Better Family! She is an instructional coach in the Central Bucks School District where she has the honor and joy of working with elementary teachers and students in 15 buildings. Suzanne is Nationally Board Certified, a Fellow of the National Writing Project, and has a master’s degree in Reading. She is dedicated to nurturing and developing the whole child and teacher. Suzanne lives in Doylestown, Pennsylvania with her husband and two children.

Check out the Teach Happier Podcast here!