THE INSPIRATION PLACE PODCAST
Today we are diving deep into morning routines. You’re going to discover three things that I do every day to maintain focus; then I’m going to give you a general overview of how I manage my days of my week so I can get as much done as possible (that is making art and producing these podcasts as well as creating my online classes). So for all that, stay tuned.
Before we get there, I just want to let you know that this episode is brought to you today by my free four-part video series about creating your goals using an art journal. Now I’m recording this in December 2018 and this free series is only available in the month of December. If you’re listening to this right after this went live, you can go to schulmanart.com/videos. All you have to do is enter your name and your email address, and I will send you those videos straight to your inbox. They will get you started on the benefits of art journaling; a blueprint of how to use your art journal in order to set goals; and also going to give you some really quick and easy ideas of what to put in an art journal like that; as well as a supply list to help get you started. So once again, you can go to the show notes which is schulmanart.com/18 or just go directly to schulmanart.com/videos and that will take you to an opt-in where you can enter your name and email and I’ll email you all that information right away.
Okay, now back to the show. By the way this is gonna be a very quick podcast because it’s just me. It’s just me. Nobody to chat with today. All right, so I’ve always been fascinated with routines and rituals of successful people, so I thought it’s only fitting that I share with you my morning routine. Here’s how it goes and it’s a little bit different and what I shared with you a few years ago when I still had kids living at home. My youngest went off to college this year, but in general my routine is pretty similar.
My husband who grew up on a farm gets up really early. I mean like “rooster early”. In fact, his name is Ron. Sometimes we call him Ron the rooster. Anyway, he gets up between 5:30 and 6:00 and usually I don’t wake up when he does and he goes downstairs. Now, a couple of times, I have woken up early as he has just because whatever, and I go down and he gets very mad at me. He says I’m not allowed to exist that early in the morning. Anyway, I have something to say about that, but most of the time I don’t get up that early. When I do get up, when he’s still downstairs maybe because he’s banging around or whatever, or maybe comes up to wake me up, I play with my cat for a little while in bed. Currently, the first thing I do is not roll over and check my phone because I tend not to charge my phone in my room anymore so that forces me out of bed. Of course, I brush my teeth and put on my slippers in a robe, and then I go downstairs to check my phone.
Now, I eat pretty much only two things for breakfast every day. Usually it’s oatmeal and nuts and then coffee with soy milk. That’s usually what I have. I’ve been trying to eat more of a vegan diet, but lately I’ve fallen off that bandwagon. I’ve downgraded myself to vegetarian. Occasionally, I will have eggs as well. Usually, it’s just the oatmeal and the coffee and it’s really nice because I will sit there with my husband while we talk about the news and we actually get physical papers. We don’t look at our iPads for that. We have physical papers that we look at in the morning as we have breakfast and our coffee. That’s the first thing I do really in the morning.
Then the next thing I will do, now remember I said sometimes I get up early when he does and when that happens and I don’t want to disturb him by making breakfast, he’s doing his morning routine as well, then I will meditate. But if I’m eating breakfast with him, then I will wait till after breakfast to meditate. I use an app right now, it’s the Calm app and I use that as my meditation prompt. It’s a 10 minute app. It takes you through a series of breathing and mindfulness reminders and then kind of ends with something motivational for mindfulness during the day as well as a quote. I like the way that it tracks my meditation so I can track how many days in a row I’ve been doing it motivates me to keep doing that. I will use that to meditate.
Breakfast first, then meditation, and then the other thing I like to do is I work in a journal. This is not an art journal, actually. This is just a regular journal. If you want to hear more about the journals, I actually did a whole episode about that. That’s episode number 16. If you’re right here on what your podcasting directory, you can scroll down and find episode number 16. It’s How I Use My Journals for Focusing. Then I’ll even give you props for that. So if you missed out on the video series, if you’re listening to this when that’s over, you can still get the props for journaling schulmanart.com/16. But if you’re listening to this in December, I hope that you do sign up for that free video series because you will get a lot of inspiration for journaling.
Okay, so those are the three main things: breakfast everyday with coffee, meditate, write in a journal, then number 4 is I check my calendar and I make sure that my Google Calendar and my paper calendar and whatever, the monthly calendar, the day view, everything is all synced up and I know everything I’m going to get done. Ideally, I will set my priorities for the day in my planner. So, I’ll figure out what it is that I want to be working on today and how I’m going to get that done.
Okay. So now, I find it really challenging to quiet my monkey mind, so I definitely find that I absolutely have to exercise. At one point, I was doing these stretches at home or doing the elliptical. That doesn’t really seem to work for me because what happens is, I’m just too seduced by whatever my phone is telling me is happening in my computer and then I will go off to my computer and get sucked into a rabbit hole of all that stuff that needs to be done for the day so, I much rather just exercise out of the house. Forces me to put clothes on.
I tend to sign up for an 8:30 exercise class. The reason I like to sign up for a class is because it holds me accountable and I know I have to pay for it whether I show up or not. The other thing is when I’m exercising at home, I will tend to get distracted by my phone beeping and buzzing. Again, I’ll be on the elliptical and suddenly something will pull me away so it’s better that my phone is either I leave it in the car during the exercise class or in the cubby wherever it happens to be.
Right now my exercise routine is either spinning, which I do that once a week, there’s a bar class I like to do once a week, and I started doing this thing called SLT, which is basically a version of Pilates, so I’m doing that three times a week. Does that add up to seven? Anyway, that’s pretty much what I do and if that doesn’t add up to seven, then the other two days I might walk or get on the elliptical. That’s my routine when it’s bad weather or the winter which is where we are now, in the summer I do exercise outside of the house and I will get myself out the door, but the main thing is I get out of the house.
Okay. Let’s review. We said breakfast, meditation, journal, checking my planner, and number five is exercise. If it’s at 8:30 class I’m usually done by 9:30. Sometimes, I will jump in the shower right away a lot of times I don’t and my assistant comes at 10:00 o’clock. So sometimes I will spend time with my assistant Anna going over all the stuff that we have to do. When I’m done with that, then I jump in the shower. That is my morning routine. I hope that that helps you. It really helps me get focused and it really helps with my self care that I’m taking care of the meditation, the journaling, and the exercise, and a good breakfast all first thing in the morning.
Now, by the time I shower, I may only have an hour or two, so this is now getting into my rest of the day, but just so you can understand then what happens. In the morning routine does take up quite a bit of the day if you think about. It’s anywhere from three to four hours depending on when I get up. I only have an hour or two of work. I do eat lunch every day. Then I have a couple of hours to do my work in the afternoon. The work can be either painting, which I film for my classes, or it’s working on emails, or it’s working on the podcast.
I tend to do my interviews and my live streams at the end of the day. I make sure everything else gets done that needs to get done first and also because the podcasts and the livestreams do tend to take a lot of energy. I like to do that at the end of the day. End of the day meaning 5:00 o’clock and then when that’s done, I’m done. I’m completely done with work for the day. I’m spent. So, I will either eat dinner by myself or I make dinner for myself and my husband and we do like to eat dinner together, and then after that I’m just done. Either I will knit, or watch TV, or listen to podcasts, or something else.
Anyway, thank you so much for joining me today. I promise that was going to be a short and sweet episode. Like I said, if you want to find out a little bit more about my journal routine, you can get that over on episode number 16. If you want more information at art journaling, I hope you will take advantage of my free series. Go to schulmanart.com/videos the month of December 2018 will be able to get those videos. If you’re listening to this podcast later in the year in 2019, it’s possible that that link will take you to a different video series.
I like to do these free videos, these free podcasts, these free blog posts, free livestreams, and give lots of value to my community because I know not everyone can sign up for my online classes. The online classes though do go into a lot more depth and that is where you’re going to get structured instruction on how to paint. Whether you are someone who has been painting for a while and are looking for more techniques, or like most of my students, you’ve always wanted to work on your creativity. You just never made the time for it, or you haven’t picked up a paint brush since college or maybe this is something you always want to try and just never got around to it. Either way, I would love to help you.
Next week, joining me is Caitlin Ascher, we’ll be talking about how to structure your week to get more done and to also spend more time with your family. I know you’re going to love that episode. After that, the following week is my special holiday episode. I’m really looking forward to answering your questions on the podcast. So, to do that, be sure you either send me an email with your question; you can leave a question on the blog post; or I would love it if you left me an audio message. To leave me an audio message, all you have to do is go to schulmanart.com/ask. There is a button there, you can do this on your phone, you click that button to start recording and that’s pretty much it. You can send that to me. I think it asks you also for your email. You can send me a voice message. I would love to play your question and answer it on the air or you can just leave a comment down below.
I can’t wait to connect with you again. That’s it for now. Have a wonderful week and I will see you next week at the same time, same place. Bye for now.
Thank you for listening to the Inspiration Place podcast. Connect with us on facebook.com/schulmanart, on Instagram @schulmanart and of course on schulmanart.com.
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