A Simple Morning and Evening Routine for Busy Professionals

Search for "morning routine" and you will find people who wake at 4.30am, journal for an hour, meditate, run and cook a perfect breakfast before most of us have found our slippers. That is lovely for them. It is not much use if you have a packed diary, a commute and maybe a family to get out of the door.

A good routine is not impressive. It is repeatable. Here is how to build a simple morning and evening routine that fits a busy professional life.

What a routine is actually for

A routine takes decisions out of your day. When you do the same few things in the same order, you do not have to think about them, which saves energy for the work and people that need it.

The best routines do three things:

1. Start and end your day with calm, not chaos.
2. Protect the basics, like movement, sleep, food and anything you take daily.
3. Set you up to win, by deciding priorities before the day decides them for you.

Start small: the fifteen minute rule

If you are starting from nothing, aim for fifteen minutes in the morning and fifteen at night. You can always extend later. You cannot easily rescue a routine that is too long to keep.

A fifteen minute morning routine

Pick four or five of these and put them in an order that suits you.

1. Water and daylight (2 minutes). Drink a glass of water and open the curtains or step outside.
2. Take your daily essentials (1 minute). Any medication or supplements go here, so they are tied to a fixed time.
3. Move (5 minutes). A short stretch, a few squats or a quick walk. It is about waking up, not working out.
4. Check the day (3 minutes). Look at your calendar and tasks. Notice meetings, deadlines and clashes.
5. Choose your top three (2 minutes). Write down the three things that would make today a success. Everything else is a bonus.
6. One small thing for you (2 minutes). Breathe, read a page, or just drink your coffee before checking messages.

Notice what is missing: email. Try to keep the first stretch of your morning free of other people's priorities.

A fifteen minute evening routine

The evening routine matters just as much, because it decides how tomorrow begins.

1. Reset your space (3 minutes). Clear your desk, put your bag by the door and tidy the one area that annoys you most.
2. Review tomorrow (3 minutes). Check the calendar and tasks for the next day, and move anything that did not get done.
3. Prepare (3 minutes). Lay out clothes, pack your bag, prep lunch or set out breakfast.
4. Brain dump (2 minutes). Write down anything still circling in your head. A loose thought on paper is easier to put down.
5. Take your evening essentials (1 minute). Anything you take at night goes here, ideally with the same trigger every day.
6. Wind down (3 minutes). Dim the lights, put your phone away from the bed and do something calming.

Make it stick

Anchor each step to something you already do. Take supplements right after brushing your teeth. Review tomorrow right after you close your laptop. Our guide to building habits that stick explains how to stack new habits onto old ones.

Keep a minimum version. On a bad day, your routine might be water, essentials and top three. That still counts. Having a smaller version stops one rough day turning into a broken routine.

Adjust for your life, not someone else's. If you are a night owl, your morning can be later and gentler. If you have children, your routine may need to happen in the gaps. Build around your reality.

Do not stack too much. Five or six steps is plenty. If you cannot finish it, it is too long.

Track it so you can see it working

It is easy to feel like a routine is not working when you cannot see the evidence. Tick off each step, even on paper. After a couple of weeks, look back at which steps you do consistently and which you skip. Skipped steps are information: they are probably too big, in the wrong place or not important to you.

When life gets in the way

Travel, illness, deadlines and school holidays will interrupt you. A few tips:

• Use the minimum version rather than skipping entirely.
• Restart the next day without guilt.
• Review monthly and tweak anything that has stopped fitting.

If you want to see where routines fit into your whole week, read our guide to planning your week.