I need a routine, please help

[RainbowRaine]

A routine for everything, dog walking, exercise, meals, mindfulness, Pilates or Yoga, bedtime.

7am my alarm goes off and I doze until 7.10 but perhaps I should get straight up at 7 instead of hitting the snooze button.

I eat breakfast around 7.20am, then leave for school run at 7.30am.

I work part time 5 days a week 10am - 2pm

Afternoon school run is 4pm

Other than the above nothing is really in a routine and I want that to change but where do I start?

Well you have all the information you need (activities, how long you want to take to do them, how long you have to fit them in -no one here knows this information) so you just need to put pen to paper and put them in order of when you want to do them.

I would draw up a timetable similar to what you may have at school

Factor in a bit of variation each day - I find that helps at the moment

I don’t have the whole day scheduled
But I have a to do list
So for example Monday Wednesday Friday I am trying to do some exercise,
And then tick off 3-5 things from my to do list (that may be food shop, sort my taxes, sort family budget/bills, diy etc whatever is on my list, I pick a couple of things off ahead of time)
Then Tuesday and Thursday I dedicate the whole day to job hunting as I was made redundant due to Covid

And then I factor in the usual housework, walking the dog whatever other things you have to get done in your day.
And breaks too, so if I have a break booked at 10.30 for a cup of tea for example, so I know I need to have walked the dog and done something off my list by then. I’m very much carrot on stick motivation led!

Then I finish around 5pm and have a normal evening at home like I would if I had a job.

I find that breaks up my day, I write down the plan so I can tick it off and feel like I’ve achieved something, and then I can sit and watch tv or do some fun relaxing things and not feel bad about it.
Before doing this I was finding myself just snoozing my alarm, sitting on the couch, feeling anxious about the things I hadn’t done but needed to do but there were days of nothingness stretching out in front of my to do them and getting a bit depressed.
This has really helped

Good luck!

@YouBoughtMeAWall I don't know when I want to do, I know I need to do them, when I write it down, it does not look possible to do everything.

Ok.

Start by deciding how long you want to spend doing each activity.

Eg:

Dog walking: 30 minutes (twice a day?)
Yoga: 20 mins
Mindfulness: 10 minutes twice a day
Meals: breakfast 20 mins? Lunch 30 mins? Dinner 60 mins (to include prep/cooking time? Or just eating?)

Get a calendar with the day broken down into 15/30/60 minute blocks. Fill in the stuff you already know (work between 10-2) (school run 7:30-? (4-?)

Then start putting the other stuff in the other time slots

Wake up at 7, bed at 10? Mindfulness and yoga when you wake up? Mindfulness before you go to sleep?

What is it that makes you feel in need of a routine, OP?

For me, it is that I need to regulate my mood and energy levels. So for the next month or so, I have drawn up a weekly schedule, where each day is divided into am/pm/evening. Then I made a separate list of all the things I need and want and like to do. I colour coded all these things according to whether they were energy drains or energy restorers. Then it became easier to distribute tasks and commitments across the week in a way that won't leave me exhausted or so wired that I can't relax come bedtime. The interesting thing was noticing that energy restoring activities (going for a walk, yoga online with a friend, taught yoga class, meditation, going to choir etc) take a bit of oomph to get into but I always feel better afterwards...so these are activities I need to plan for, so that I have the energy to at least get there in the first place, IYSWIM.

Hope that helps.

What is it that makes you feel in need of a routine, OP?

Laziness, lack of sleep, feeling like I have wasted the days/hours away doing nothing.

Currently I'm going to bed at 1am, not sleeping very well, waking up between 7-9am, feeling rubbish then have no energy for the rest of the day.

@YouBoughtMeAWall have bought the diary with time slots as suggested and have written down a rough daily plan.

Sounds like you have more than enough structure in your day to me. I really wouldn't worry too much. If you want to change things up a bit, you're in a good starting place. It would be more difficult for you if you were someone like me who gets up at least 3, sometimes 5 or 6 hours later on a non-working day!