This is part of our series on Leo Babauta’s Simple Living Manifesto. We invite you to join us on the journey.

The 53rd idea in the manifesto is:

Create morning and evening routines. A great way to simplify your life is to create routines at the start and end of your day. Read more on morning routines and evening routines.

Sunset over the lake | Photo by Jonathan Blundell

I’m still working through a regular routine in the morning and evening.

As part of our “moving in” process we’ve been forced to water our new lawn either nightly or every other night.

We’ve been using part of that time to get some sort of exercise in at night — usually trying to do it before dusk.

We’ll either go for a walk with the dog, or I’ll go for a short jog, or pull out the bike for a short ride.

I usually try to get 30-45 minutes in during the week.

After that, it’s shower and plan ahead by writing a few blog posts if I can.

I’ve been trying to shift the majority of my blog writing from late at night to earlier in the day — but it hasn’t been super successful yet.

Also, if time permits, I may try and get some stretching or simple yoga in before bed as well, but doing so tends to push my bedtime back further and further.

On most nights, bedtime comes between 10 and 11:30 — but it’s been known to creep into the next day on a couple times a week. I really need to get that down to a more regular time for sure.

As for my morning routine, it’s a little more set. Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday I’m up between 6:30 and 6:45.

I get dressed and fix my hair by 6:55 or 7, pack a quick lunch and eat breakfast and head out the door by 7:15.

I’d like to shift some of that time from staying up later, to getting up earlier — but so far my night owl tendencies have held on fairly tightly.

Now I could just end the post there — but where’s the challenge or change in that?

As part of our summer schedule at work, I’m switching to only four days of work for the next couple months.

That means, arriving at the office 30 minutes earlier and leaving 45 minutes later.

So in order to do that, I’m going to challenge myself to waking at 5:45 a.m. each morning.

Granted, this might have dire consequences for me.

I have a horrible habit of hitting the snooze button at least once every morning (my wife typically gets up before me). So the mornings I get up earlier, she can get a little upset (understandably) if I don’t get up with the first alarm.

So we’ll see how it goes.

Let’s see if we can get in a routine together – starting today (well tomorrow for the rest of you).

Try and get up 45 minutes earlier than you normally do on the weekdays for the month of June. (If you’re really in the mood — try the weekends too. But I’m shooting for weekdays to get things rolling.)

Let me know how it goes!

Join us!

Write a blog post about the point above and then share the link in the comments below…

keep reading...

• Simple Manifesto #54 – Create a morning writing ritual
• Simple Manifesto #29 – Establish routines
• Simple Manifesto #72: Will this decision simplify my life?