Building a Better Daily Routine
...and a better me: a first general progress report
In my January 6 post, “A Year of Permanent Gains,” I wrote that “I’m trying to lay firm foundations upon which to build better days and a better me.” My approach to that has been to reconstruct my daily routines and habits starting with the morning and working my way forward through the phases of the day. And I’ve been tracking my progress through posts like this and with my habit tracking app.
Waking Recitation
I began with the very beginning of the day at the very beginning of the year. On January 1, I began reconstructing my waking habits by composing and publishing a poem to memorize. I recited that poem upon waking on the morning of January 2 and every morning since, for a streak of 16 days. That micro-habit has helped me exactly as I hoped. It has provided me the reminder and guidance my disoriented waking brain needs to avoid dithering awake in bed and to either get busy sleeping or get busy rising.
Morning Motions
The next deeds of my day are what I call my “morning motions”: the physical route from my bed to my writing desk with a few momentary pit stops along the way (starting the coffee machine, taking my anti-cancer medicine, etc). I’m trying to plot an optimal path and guide myself along it using a checklist in the Reminders app on my iPhone. I’ve used that checklist 15 days in a row. It has definitely helped my still groggy self avoid meandering in the morning and to start writing sooner. But I still find myself stumbling a bit each morning, so I still want to smooth that sequence out more.
Habit Writing
Then comes my most fundamental new habit: the “cornerstone” habit upon which I’m building all my other new and improved habits. I write about my habits: at least one sentence and ideally finishing and publishing an entire essay every day. I’ve written at least one sentence about something for 23 days in a row. And, with this post, I’ve published an essay about reforming my habits 17 days in a row: every day of 2024 so far. I’ve also published an “extra” essay on my superheroes Substack, which makes my current essay count for the year 18. Taking stock of my 2023 essay output on New Year’s Eve is what first inspired this renewed commitment to daily writing and habit reformation.
My habit writing habit has paid great spiritual dividends. It has made me more deliberate, motivated, and accountable in my self-improvement efforts. It has helped me start my days strong in a creative flow state. And I have received heart-warming messages from readers expressing that these posts have inspired them to improve their own habits, and especially their writing habits. (Thank you so much to those who have reached out.) I’ve also made some progress in developing a routine for the writing process itself, but I haven’t been following that regularly, so that needs more work.
Bible Reading
The day before yesterday, I started a daily practice of reading the Bible every day: at least one verse and ideally five chapters. I’m starting by following the “50 Days in the New Testament” plan along with my church. And yesterday I started doing that daily Bible reading in the mornings, right after I finish my morning writing.
My Next Morning Subroutine
My next problem to figure it out is exactly what I will do every morning after my Bible reading. I would like that morning subroutine to be something that helps me descend from lofty and inspiring “fundamentals” thinking (habit writing and Bible reading) into my down-to-earth, granular, day-to-day work.
Yesterday, I tried jotting down notes about the day prior in order to jog my memory about current things I need to follow up on. (This was partly inspired by reviewing my notes from the work retreat I attended last week.) I’m going to develop that practice further this morning and probably report back about it in tomorrow’s daily habit post.
By building better habits, I’m building a better me. My thanks to everyone following my journey and helping me stay accountable.