Greetings,

I think for this blog I will side-step the ‘daily schedule’ bit and talk about my early morning routine.   I often ask my students on Cafetalk about their morning routine, especially if that person gets up early.  Sometimes they say they do not have a ‘routine’ but this is never really the case.  In fact, as I have mentioned in other blogs, there is a wonderful best seller by the writer James Clear called ‘Atomic Habits’ which points out that by nature we do things habitually so that, if I one stops and checks it,  one is probably doing exactly the same things, in the same order, in the same way from the moment we get up.   This reality is very hard to escape from!   Therefore,  it is actually a really good idea to just sit down and write out ‘exactly’ what you do during a given moment of your day, for example, when you come home from work. Once one has this kind of objective list of actions it is then possible to see what you are doing that is productive and what you are doing which is non-productive. In this way we can make small but powerful changes in the quality of our lives.

I have spend a lot of time checking the recommendations of doctors about an early routine and have found that a huge number recommend something called the MMM routine.  These three letters stand for:

Movement

Mindfulness

Mastery

Movement means do some exercise, even if it only a few minutes. I personally do exactly 11 minutes of yoga.  It makes a huge difference to my day.

Mindfulness means ‘spiritual practice.’ This is the most neglected part of our daily lives and is one of the main reasons people in general are not very happy.  I write a short diary expressing my gratitude for small things and making a decision about how I am going to behave during the day. things like ‘I will focus on being kind to everyone I meet on the bus and train.’

Mastery means we should learn something new even if it just reviewing 10 flashcards of English words.

Unless we prime our mind, body and soul for the day in this way we really cannot live our lives with maximum enjoyment everyday 365 days a year.

Warmest regards,

Buri