Why Proactivity Matters: Shaping Your Day Instead of Reacting to It
I’ve had a morning routine for several years. I read from several sources, think about what I’ve read, and journal.
A recent quote completely reframed how I think about my morning routine. Tsh Oxenreider, in her book One Bite at a Time, wrote: “Instead of starting your day by responding to the stimulus around you, you’re proactively creating the day you want to have by having a morning routine.”
I’d never considered it in these terms. I used to think my morning routine was just about setting myself up with good ideas and a plan for the day ahead.
But I didn’t think about it as proactively creating the day I wanted to have. A morning routine transforms us from passive participants into active creators of our day.
Elements of My Morning Routine
My daily routine has several elements that help me to create my day.
• Setting Intentions: Reviewing the Calendar and Tasks. This gives me an overview of my day and my week. It reminds me of what is important for me to do and what events I have coming up in the week to plan for.
• Feeding My Mind: Reading Highlights from Readwise. As I read on my Kindle app, I highlight thoughts that resonate or strike me as significant. The Readwise app gathers those highlights and presents me with 15 random highlights every morning.
It primes my mind with meaningful thoughts to start the day. Sometimes, it provides me with an inspirational thought for the day. Other times, it gives me a blog post idea that I develop with a shortcut that saves in my “Blog ideas” folder a topic and my initial thoughts about it.
• Staying Informed and Inspired: Using the Readwise Reader RSS Reader. Reader keeps me informed about things I care about. I subscribe to blog posts about productivity, Apple gear, intentional living, simplicity, and hobbies. It gets me thinking about things that I consider important and keeps me up to date with the latest news.
• Starting with Gratitude and Optimism: Journaling in Day One. The first item on my journaling template is, “What am I grateful for?” Following that, there’s a statement I repeat every morning—“It’s going to be a great day.” It ends with a smiley face emoji, a reminder to start the day smiling.
To me, this isn’t some New Age “send my desire out into the universe” type of wishfulness. Instead, I see it as a statement of intention and desire. It doesn’t guarantee it will be a great day, but it sets a positive tone for the day.
How I start the day mentally dramatically affects how the day goes. If I start with a negative mood and attitude, I’ll probably have a negative day. When I expect a great day, it often becomes one—a self-fulfilling prophecy.
• Reflect and Plan: Using Whisper Memos and Day One for Reflection. I use Whisper Memos to dictate and transcribe my reflections, which I transfer into Day One. I reflect on yesterday, consider the day ahead, and capture any thoughts that come to mind. I think about possible situations I might be in during the day and how I intend to act.
• Planning the Day: Organizing in NotePlan. I use a daily template in NotePlan that includes several planning categories: possible tasks for the day, the tasks I’ve decided to do that day, and my priority task that day.
It gives me my marching orders for the day. I know what I want to do, what my priority is, and what options I have. As I go through the day, I record what I’ve worked on with time blocking and check off tasks as I complete them. It’s my road map for the day.
For more information about my use of NotePlan to plan and organize my day, see my post “My NotePlan Workflow — Everything I Need to Plan and Execute my Day in One App and One View.”
Build a Routine That Works for You
If you don’t already have a morning routine, I urge you to try one. Or, if it works better for you, do a more extensive routine in the evening and a lighter routine in the morning to start the new day.
Last year, I wrote a blog post describing my morning routine. See if there’s something you can borrow or adapt to fit your routine.
Experiment and find what fits you best. Just because it works for me doesn’t mean it will necessarily resonate with you. What works for me will likely not work for you because we are different people.
Consider starting small, with just one or two elements, and then gradually expand as you go. I have a lot of things that I do in my morning routine, but it didn’t start that way. I started with just a few items, and as I went along, I found other things I wanted to make part of that routine.
One warning: in your morning routine, avoid email, text, news, and social media. They can reactively set your agenda and mood. Remember, this is about proactively creating the day you want to have.