Our 6 best tips for designing your own routine

If you’re ready to get started on your own awesome routine, here are some tips to get you started.

1.) A good breakfast can still be fast and easy

This is a great suggestion which can help you get your morning routine going. If you struggle to eat breakfast every day because it’s too much effort or takes too long, this one’s for you.

Preparing your breakfast the night before by getting out the dishes you’ll need or cutting up fruit pieces can save you time the next morning. You might want to opt for a simple meal like cereal to save time and effort as well.

If something more time-intensive like oatmeal is your thing, you can make breakfast for the whole week in 5 minutes – perfect for a Sunday night before your week starts.

• Try to pick ready to eat food.
• Oatmeal muffins
• Corn Flakes 
• Frozen fruits smoothie
• Sandwich 

2.) Do creative work for when you’re tired

Our bodies have built-in clocks that determine the best times for us to eat, sleep, exercise and work. You might not have the flexibility to do everything at the right time for you, but try listening to your body clock as much as you can.

If you do better creative work at night, for instance, try to put creative tasks off during the day and schedule more admin or analytical tasks for your mornings.

If you find, like Evan, that exercising is best for you in the middle of the day, you could try doing this during your lunch break or taking a mid-afternoon break from work and hanging back a little later in the evenings.

3.) An alarm to wake you up might not be enough – have one to tell you to go to sleep

Most of us have alarms to wake us up in the mornings but we all-too-easily stay up later than we plan to. Having an alarm to remind us when it’s bedtime can be a great help in sticking to a regular routine for sleep.

Setting an alarm to tell when to go to bed was even more effective than one to get up in the mornings.

To get you ready to wake up fresh and rested the next day, try simulating natural sleeping patterns as much as possible. An alarm clock like this that simulates sunrise, or even a gentle alarm sound like birds chirping can help you wake up more gently in the morning. Making your bedroom pitch-black and keeping the temperature low (and consistent) can also help with a more restful sleep.

4.) Switch yourself off at night to sleep better – the “zero notifications” method

We’re pretty fond of hacking and experimenting with our routines at Buffer, but a nightly wind-down routine is one we pay particular attention to. Many of us have found that this makes a big difference to how much—and how well—we sleep.

You might want to try a walk, like Joel, or some quiet reading time. Other great wind-down activities include meditation, drinking tea, sitting quietly, stretching and taking a bath.

And since light of any kind, including backlit screens like our computers and phones affect our sleep patterns negatively, try avoiding these for a while before you go to sleep.

5.) Develop a morning routine that you keep on weekends too

Building up a habitual morning routine can help you to start your day in the best way.

I love this point especially, because I’m prone to have big sleep-ins and late nights on weekends, which can make my morning routine much harder to get into on a Monday morning.

6.) Track your habits to understand yourself better

It takes time and effort to track everything you over a day. I recently started tracking my weekday activities and noticed that remembering to track each activity is the hardest part for me.

Having said that, if you can put in the effort for a few days, you might find the insights you need to improve your daily routine. Understanding how you live right now can help you to work towards how you want to live.

Thank you Belle Beth Cooper