Back in July, I shared that I made a major change in my schedule. I went from staying up as late as 2 am and getting up as late as 9 or 10 am to going to sleep by 9:30 to get up at 4:30. Yes, 4:30 in the morning. Yes, that did sound crazy to me. And yes, the only reason that I can do that is because my husband is already up for work. I matched his schedule and it ended up being the thing I desperately needed.
I linked that podcast down in the show notes. That was after trying the routine for 10 weeks. I’ve now been on the routine for 10 months so I wanted to do another recap. I was curious if things would change when it got colder outside and stayed darker in the morning. It turns out, not at all. The routine is so ingrained in me that I’ve been consistent this whole time. I tweaked a lot of things that are all still going well. We will cover the changes and hopefully give you some ideas of things you can try adjusting to if you are in a tough spot.
Area 1: Mornings
We already covered that I get up almost absurdly early. My goal is not to convince you to also get up early. That will not work for everybody. But I do want to cover some of the things I do in the mornings that help start me on a good track for the day.
I am a morning person. Leaning into that has helped me have better overall days. Every morning, when I wake up, I do three things. I make my bed, brush my teeth, and wash my face, and I change from pajamas to either workout clothes or lounge clothes to walk Buster in. No matter what time I get up, I will continue to do these three steps. I don’t drink coffee in the mornings. Coffee is what “wakes” my husband up and helps him get ready for the day. My version is these three steps, and they help prevent me from falling back asleep.
I also have three activities I do every morning. I journal, I get movement in and I walk Buster. These are three things I want to get done every day. Morning is the best time for me because I’m a morning person. I find it better to use that energy early rather than try and get it in during the evenings when I’m tired. My movement is working out three days a week and doing yoga or stretching the other two days.
I used to split it up. I did journaling two days a week and movement three days a week. By reducing how much time I do each and doing both every day, it helps keep me on a better routine because it is predictable. I’ve been doing the daily 25-minute walk with Buster for over a year now. It’s the best start to his day and it’s a good time for me to get my audiobook in another better way to start my day.
Area 2: Nighttime
When I first left teaching I was working at the center during the day so I found it pretty easy to stay on a normal routine. It wasn’t until I became a BCBA that I started having a ton of flexibility. I passed the test in 2021 and I started working with school-age children. I never had to be at the center before two so there was no accountability as to when I had to get up in the morning.
I thought that was fantastic. Yes, let’s stay up late reading because I can. I can sleep in the morning. Who cares? The problem is I did not feel good doing that. What started out as staying up to read until midnight turned into reading until 3 AM. I would often snack or have another drink. I would finally get into bed and then I wouldn’t actually sleep the seven hours that I wanted. My body was still waking up at six or 7 AM and now I’m exhausted for absolutely no reason. I would just lay around the house and get a very slow start to the day. I wouldn’t be productive, I wouldn’t feel good about myself, and I would say I would do better but then that night I wouldn’t be tired so I would stay up late reading again, and the cycle would just continue.
It was honestly kind of a cold turkey situation. I went from not getting up early to getting up at 4:30 overnight. I needed it to be that strict. I needed accountability from my husband. Corey could make sure I got out of bed before he left for work. When you wake up at 4:30, it is pretty hard to go to bed late because you are tired. I started going to bed at the same time as him as well. And because I was getting up at the same time as him, and going to bed at the same time as him, we were actually able to create a “wind down routine” that we could follow together. It helps with accountability and we’re both getting much better sleep.
We try and do dinner on the earlier side. I prefer to eat between 530 and six but it does get pushed back when I work at the center. Either way, we always have dinner completely over by seven. We try and turn the TV off by eight and have a really quiet house after that. We put our phones away, we make tea and we read.. It’s like the house itself shuts down. It’s quiet, dark, and peaceful. My body now knows it’s time for bed. I fall asleep quickly and stay asleep through the time. That is HUGE and has led to me feeling so much better overall.
Area 3: Social Media Rules
I significantly limited the amount of social media I could consume, and that helped a lot as well. I I actually set time limits on my phone to reduce how much time is on TikTok and I just did really good at following that and closing the app when it told me to. I replaced a lot of social media time with reading and that has led to me feeling a lot calmer. There’s nothing wrong with using social media. I just noticed that again it would affect my sleep, it would impact my mood, and it just wasn’t always the best choice for me.
I’ll be honest, I actually have relaxed my TikTok rules since when I originally wrote this script but that’s only because I now post on TikTok. If you don’t know I have a completely separate brand card Reading Station. I actually create and sell book journal materials over on Etsy, I have a YouTube channel, an Instagram account, and a TikTok account all dedicated to reading. Now that I use TikTok in a professional manner, I do let myself use it more, but I am much more aware of how I am using the app.
If I want to give myself an hour to be on TikTok, I need to be commenting and engaging on other booktok accounts. If I notice that it’s been 10 minutes and I haven’t been doing anything to interact with the community I’m trying to become part of then I need to take a break.
Don’t give me wrong, I definitely still have free time on TikTok. How else would I find delicious recipes, adorable videos of dogs, and tiktoks that make me cry? But I always make sure my free time is early in the day and preferably on weekends just so it doesn’t creep into the evening routine.
Area 4: My Work Day
My teachers pay teachers store was originally started as a hobby, and I’ve always wanted to keep it more of a relaxed part of my life. Although I work hard to create materials that are helpful and I do produce a lot, I never want it to be as stressful as a traditional job because, at the end of the day, it is something I just enjoy doing. That being said, the relaxed approach I used did not work for me.
I thrive in a highly structured environment. That’s part of why I liked being a teacher. You go there at the same time every day for the same amount of time every day and you have certain things you have to get done every day. When I realized that I benefited from that approach, and not having it was stressing me out, I decided to restructure my day to have a similar feel.
Corey recommended I tried Google calendar and I ended up loving it. I actually plug in a schedule at the beginning of the week. For example, it’ll tell me on Tuesday from 10 to 11:30 AM I’m going to be working on the podcast script and maybe on Wednesday from 12 to 130 I’m working on making a new WH question seasonal game.
I felt so lost when I would sit down at my desk and I wasn’t sure of what to work on. I actually have another podcast I recently did all about my plans that I’ll link in the show notes but by giving myself structure I felt so much more ready to go into every day. I had a mission of what I wanted to get done, and I could measure my own productivity. It’s led to me putting out higher quality products, creating the separate Reading Station brand that I mentioned earlier and just being much happier overall. Highly structured days don’t work for everybody but they work for me and I’m glad I realized that.
Area 5: My hobbies
Another big thing that I switched was with my weekend looked like. I used to work a ton on the weekends because I didn’t know what to do with my free time. But I really wanted to be Nicole. Not just be BCBA Nicole. Not just Adaptation Station Nicole. But Nicole, Corey’s, wife, and Buster’s mom. Nicole, for herself. I do work at the center a lot of Saturdays but for the most part that’s the only work I do on the weekend. I spend a lot of time doing things I enjoy.
As we know, I love reading so that’s a big one. I make more time for cooking. We take our dog on hikes. We actually have had a pool in the garage during the summer for years and added a hot tub this past fall. We do movie night, we watch comedy shows. I spent so much more time now on myself and my family than I ever did five years ago. Buster seems as happy as he’s ever been. Corey and I have a stronger marriage now than our entire relationship. And I am in such a better place.
Not everything I said in this podcast is going to be relevant to you but I wanted to walk you through it so if you’re feeling like you need a change in your life you’ll have a ton of ideas to pick from. Maybe you need an established morning routine. I’ve got a podcast linked for that! Maybe you just need some social media rules. Maybe you would really need to find a hobby., I’ve got another podcast linked in the show notes to help you with the hobbies! That’s the whole goal of this podcast. Some of the episodes are meant to help you if you’re teaching or working in the center but a lot of them are meant to help you outside of that setting. I lost myself, but I found her again and I want you all to benefit from what I’ve learned.