We must realize that not everyone is a crack of dawn morning person. There’s studies that support that there are genuinely morning people and night owls. In my home we are night owls. However, I have made a personal choice, and a commitment with my self to wake up at a reasonable time. A true effort I must say!
After reading the book The Miracle Morning by Hal Elrond; that I recommend you all to read. I realized how many dreams were dormant in me; as well as all God had called me to be that had not yet come to flourishing like this website and our youtube channel. I analyzed my particular lifestyle and what would be the best practice for me, and decide to incorporate Hal’s practices but modified them to fit my own lifestyle and incorporated them in my morning routine.
First we must acknowledge the elephant in the room. And that is that as I am writing this blog and filming this video we are in quarantine due to the events that are currently affecting the world, therefore there is a normal morning routine and a new different routine during the quarantine. Under normal circumstances I would do things differently as far as time to wake up and the order I do things. However, this quarantine schedule can be looked as the school break (or summer vacation) routine; when the kids are home and out of school.
- Wake-Up early. It is crucial that we wake up before everyone else in our home. During the school break or vacation we sleep in a little but I ensure I wake up no latter than 9 am. It can be 7am, 8am but no latter than 9am (considering I go to bed between 1:30 and 2:30am every day). During the school season, I wake up before 6am.
- Self care routine – We must take time in our day to give our selves a little love. Shower, do my skin and hair routine, drink vitamins, eat a good healthy breakfast and of course COFFEE!!!
- Pray – One of the most fundamental practices in any woman, or man of God, is our prayer life. Some people feel inadequate going to the presence of God because they see God as a distant, angry God, but he is longing to have a relationship with his creation. We can’t relate in our mind to remember all the things we need to bring to the Lord in prayer, because we will forget. For this reason, I created a prayer list that I use in my quiet time with the Lord to intercede for those who are in need. For the most part I spend anywhere from 30 minutes to an hour.
- Read the bible – Normally right after, and many times during my prayer time, I incorporate reading my Bible. I absolutely love the You Version Bible App for my short reading. I am not sponsored by them but they are by far the best Bible app for daily devotionals. In addition to my “short daily readings” I do something called inductive bible study. Where I study different books of the Bible chapter by chapter verse by verse. I have a lot of Bible reading practices, tips, and techniques to study the bible that will enhance your bible reading experience; and we will share those with you in a following article and video.
- Write – Writing is a great practice to allow your creativity to flow. Whether it be journaling, writing in your bible study, or maybe in prayer. When you write you pour out your thoughts and organize them helping you think better.
- Exercise During school season, I normally drop off my children in school at 8am and head to the park to meet up with some friends, and we walk for about an hour (3.5 miles approximately) at a firm steady pace to ensure we spike our heart rate to burn some calories. During the unfortunate events we are living now and when my children are out of school, I bring this practice home and what I do instead is walk to a lake we have inside our neighborhood, or hop on my treadmill for at least 30 minutes. When we talk about exercise anything is better than nothing. If you don’t have an hour, if you don’t have 30 minutes, do 20 minutes, do 10 minutes, do something. The bible says in 1 of Corinthians 6:19 that our bodies are the temple of the Holy Spirit. Therefore we must take care of our bodies feeding it clean and nutritious food and exercising.
- The 20/20/20 Cleaning Method – Every day I set my timer for 20 minutes, 3 consecutive times to attend my daily cleaning tasks. This is all a battle with time. The first 20 minutes I clean and tidy the kitchen, living room, and entrance. The second round of 20 minutes I tackle the office, the downstairs bathroom and sweep and mop the whole downstairs floor. The last 20 minutes I tidy the master bedroom and the master bathroom. If you set yourself a timer I can assure you you will get all your cleaning done and sometimes have time to spare. I’ve even tried it with my children because they are responsible for cleaning their own rooms.
- Listen to a faith building or self development message. Every day on my way to drop off my children to school. I play an inspirational message that will encourage them and me to face the day with faith and hope. Throughout the day when I’m performing a mindless activity, like cleaning or cooking; I listen to a podcast or a video that will help me grow in my career or my ministry (a self development message).
- Go over my plans for the day. I manage my day in two forms. The good old paper calendar and task list for the things that come to mind; and a task or project management system. In the past I was using a system called Trello, but just recently made the switch to Notion.so. In notion I keep track of EVERYTHING. Our church, the Woman of God Ministry, my personal life, this is my command center for my husband, my four children, my mother, my mother in law, my projects, my congregation; EVERYTHING. I look at the tasks that are due today, this week and plan ahead for future tasks. I take a look at my Dashboard at night before going to bed to make sure I know what to look forward to on the next day.
Tomorrow we repeat it all over again!