My Daily Routines + Habits

I’m on a constant quest to fine tune my daily habits and routines in order to reach optimal life for myself. 

I spent a lot of my life living for the future, for the possibility of what could happen one day, but I’ve learned to appreciate the time I have (nothing’s guaranteed). 

I’ve been trying out a few new daily habits that I wanted to share with you today. 

Positive Affirmations

This is one of those things that I saw as frou-frou for a long time. But I can’t begin to describe the impact that your thoughts have on your actions and your emotions. 

Some may scoff at me, but I’m a big believer in you get what you put out into the Universe (not always obviously, but I’ve noticed a trend). 

If I’m in a super negative, everything sucks, life sucks, sort of mood, guess what I’m going to get? More negative things. This could be partially because when you’re in a bad mood you only notice the bad things, but I think there’s something else at play. 

So, something I’ve started doing is writing down a daily positive affirmation and putting it somewhere in my line of sight for the day. Every time I catch a glimpse of it out of the corner of my eye I stop what I’m doing and say it out loud to myself, letting it sink in. 

Recently, I have been focusing on positive money affirmations because it’s amazing how many subconscious beliefs I have about money (and I just read a book about this). Mostly surrounding the thought that money isn’t bad, or greedy. It’s a tool. If you have negative beliefs about money you might be saying no to opportunities without even recognizing them. 

Writing Down my Goals

I’m a big supporter of goal setting. 

Dr. Gail Matthews, psychology professor at the Dominican University in California found that people are 42% more likely to achieve their goals when they write them down. 

And my thoughts about it are this: 

If you take the time to sit down and write out your goals, first you have to actually decide what it is you’re striving for. You’d be amazed to realize that you don’t even know what it is that you want. And how are you supposed to achieve something you didn’t know you wanted in the first place? 

Goals help guide me in my day to day actions. I’ve learned to break bigger, long term goals down into small, tangible steps. 

Take money for example. Almost everyone wants to “make more money”, but how many have taken the time to sit down and write out what we individually need to survive, what we need to buy a house or a car, what we need to actually go on that dream vacation? 

We look at these things as far off, some day goals, when in reality we could start working towards them today. 

Setting My Intentions

If you’ve ever been to a yoga class there a chance the instructor has asked everyone to take a moment to set an intention for the class before beginning. 

This is kind of in the realm of “goal setting”, but it’s slightly different. 

For me an intention is more like a theme to guide me through the day rather than a task to complete. 

Common intentions are to “be more present in the moment”, “to find gratitude in the small stuff” and usually something to do with being “positive”. 

Reading

It’s something I’ve loved to do since the age of four when my mom first taught me how to. 

But actually making the time to sit down and read can be a bit tricky. We get sucked into doing other things like scrolling through social media, watching Netflix or waiting until right before bed to read, only to fall asleep after a few minutes. 

Travel is a time that I make it a clear goal for more time to read. I don’t like working on the plane and much prefer to curl into a good book. And when you’re traveling you have plenty of down time, or moments of waiting where a reading is a perfect activity. 

I’ve also allowed myself to read more on the weekends or after work. It’s something that brings me so much joy so I’ve been making more of conscious effort to create space for it. 

Running

If you’ve been following along for the past few months you may have noticed that I have started talking about running. 

And this is was not something I did. It was something I avoided. But it’s the perfect combination of achieving two goals: get outside more, and move my body each day. 

And as I’ve found my stride, conditioned my lungs and strengthened my legs I’ve been able to find a certain meditative quality to running. 

I don’t always want to go out and run, but I’ve never once regretted going for a run when it’s done. No matter how bad I hurt after. 

Gratitude Journal

It’s something I’ve been keeping up with for almost a year now.

Each month I dedicate two pages in my bullet journal to my “Sparkly Bits” and each day I will take the time to write out a few things, or just one thing, that I was grateful for that day. 

Keeping a gratitude journal, like most types of journals, help separate the days. Without journaling my days can seem to slip into each other, and when that happens it’s always a shame. It’s like I’m losing time, experiences and memories. 

And if you can get consistent with your gratitudes you’ll start to notice more moments in your days where something will catch your eye (or mind) and you’ll kind of step back and say “Wow, that could be my sparkly bit for the day.”

Limit Social Media

Finally, one of the hardest habits to break. 

There is a time and a place for social media, especially in my line of work being all online. 

But there is a big difference between constructive social media use and mindless scrolling. 

And it’s the mindless scrolling I’m working to cut back on. I’ve been trying to limit myself to only scrolling through social media during different times of the day. Like when I’m going to the bathroom. (Weird? Gross? Who cares. It’s a limited amount of time where I’m aware of the time rather than losing myself in it). 

I’ve tried to cut my social media before bed as well as when I wake up. We’ve all been guilty of scrolling till our eyes burn before bed, and reaching for our phone as soon as we wake up in the morning. 

I’ve also noticed that I use it as a social crutch when I’m out in public for uncomfortable situations. 

On the elevator with a stranger?

Pull out your phone. 

Waiting for someone at a restaurant?

Pull out your phone. 

The list could go on and on, but you get the point. 

In the end these are a few of the things I’ve been trying to add, or subtract, from my life in order to be the happiest, best version of myself. 

Now, I’m curious to hear, what are some daily habits you’ve found to be beneficial? 

Creating Routine In a New Place | Working In Bali

Everyone craves the lifestyle of the freedom to work from anywhere. I’ve traveled and work plenty of times before, but coming to Bali with the sole purpose of transplanting myself to a warmer climate and continue working was a bit of a challenge at first. 

I’m sure it all depends on who you’re traveling with, and where you’re going, but I really struggled during the first week with creating a new routine here. 

I had a pretty rock solid schedule back home. But I realized that I couldn’t keep up with the exact one I had in Iowa, obviously, and therefore needed to create a new one while I’m here. 

At first when it was just four of us, I found it hard to say no to activities and adventure to stay back and work. Because of this I found myself maybe working an hour at first each day. 

I’m sure if you were surrounded by a group of other online entreprenuers it would be a different story. But everyone I’m traveling with is in their “off season” of work so they don’t have to do anything work related while they’re here. Because of this they are much more in vacation mode than I want to be. Which is fine. We don’t always have to be doing the same thing as the person next to us. 

I just needed to learn to say no. It was a good lesson for me. And a good challenge to find the balance between work and fun. 

My first breakthrough came when the group wanted to go to Monkey Forest in Ubud, and I had zero interest in that activity. So, I looked up a cool little spot, Clear Cafe, mopeded my way over there, and fell in love. The atmosphere, the food, the juice, the coffee, the music….everything was perfect. I was finally able to sit for more than an hour and really focus on work without distractions. 

I only made it to Clear Cafe once more, but I’m really finding my groove now that we’re on the North coast. 

The pace is much slower up here. The setting is serene and calm — perfect for sitting down and pounding out some work. 

The first day here I decided to start my day with a cup of coffee on our balcony, my stack of journals and plenty of inspiration to surround myself with.

I sat there and wrote my morning pages, in my two other journals, and planned out my day in my bullet journal. I then continued to work until around 3:30 p.m. and do you know what? It felt great. 

I missed out on a pretty awesome looking waterfall, but everyone in our group is eager to get back again so I might get my chance to do some cliff jumping still! 

Today, was much the same. I started my day out on the balcony and realized that my simple habit of journaling in the morning really set me up to feel much better about my days. We went to the only Buddhist Temple in Bali, came back, jumped in the pool, started working, got a massage, continued working, and I’m feeling great about the pace of the days here. 

So, if you’re flailing a bit, outside of your normal routine, first you need to take a step back. Everything is going to be ok. The world is going to continue to spin. Realize that you may not be able to keep up with everything you were doing at home. Take the time to really look at those habits you miss and know make a difference in your day. Where can you fit those into your new schedule? Mornings work best for me. And learn to say no to activities you don’t want to do, even if the rest of the group is participating. 

While I don’t plan to be a digital nomad with FemmeHead, I do desire the ability to continue working while traveling at the same time, because if I can continue to master this skill I can say yes to spur of the moment trips. For example, Michael has a race in California right when we get back. Because I have the freedom to work from anywhere, not to mention the fact he has companion pass on Southwest, I was able to say, “Mind if I come with?” and now I get to skip out on Iowa’s winter for a few more days. 

Share your tips for working while traveling, creating a new routine and finding time for your favorite habits.