Time for a self-care routine? The advantages of a work-life blend

Are you tired of feeling exhausted after a long morning routine? Do you struggle to find the time and energy to implement self-care practices into your daily routine? The concept of a "Miracle Morning" as outlined in the book by Hal Elrod, has helped many individuals to improve their overall wellbeing, but it may not be the right fit for everyone. In this blog post, we will explore the idea of a "Life Work Blend" as an alternative approach to achieving a balance between work and personal responsibilities.

What are Miracle mornings?

"The Miracle Morning" by Hal Elrod is a self-help book that aims to teach readers how to transform their lives by starting the day with a structured routine that includes practices such as meditation, affirmations, exercise, and journaling. The book is based on the idea that waking up early and starting the day with a positive mindset can help people achieve their goals and improve their overall wellbeing.

The book provides detailed instructions on how to create a structured morning routine and offers tips on how to overcome common obstacles to change and improve overall wellbeing.

What if Miracle mornings are not for you?

One reason that you might find it difficult to wake up early and establish a consistent morning routine is due to poor sleep habits, shift work, or a general preference for staying up late.

Additionally, you might find that you lack the discipline or time to consistently implement the Miracle Morning routine, as it requires a significant commitment of time and energy. You may see this as too demanding, or even overwhelming.

You might have a different lifestyle: you may be a night-shift worker or have young children, which may happily wake up at 5.30 with you if you do (and not let you get anything done, then be tired by the time you need to take them to daycare). Thus waking up early to implement 2-3 hours of a routine might really not be for you!

So how can you make sure you introduce all those goodie self-development things into your routine, without having to wake up early in the morning? Enter, the life work blend!
 

What about a life work blend?

In recent years, there has been a shift towards a more flexible approach to work-life balance. With the advent of technology and the increasing prevalence of remote work, people are now able to be more flexible in accommodating work and life obligations. The transition from work to life and vice versa is becoming more seamless, allowing individuals to achieve a more harmonious balance.

And people feel a greater sense of autonomy and control over one's time, when they manage a better balance.

So instead of trying to “front-load” your day with a routine that includes all those things that you would like to do for yourself, yoga, fitness, meditation, journaling, etc - how about just “sprinkling” some of these things into your day? After all, we know that taking a break is good for us, and sometimes it is hard to imagine what to do in a break other than drink a tea or coffee, or find things to do in the household that might distract you from work.

So how about planning to do one and a half to two hours of work, then sprinkling in some of that routine? Depending on how long you would like your work sessions to be, and how many you would like to accommodate in your day, and what self-care routine you might want to make room for, you could do something like

• Work session 1
• 10 minutes Meditation
• Work session 2
• 15 minutes Journaling
• Work session 3
• 30’ Exercise (or 10 minutes stretching if you’re having a really crowded day)
• Work session 4
• 20’ reading your favorite magazine or a chapter of a book in a foreign language you are learning
• etc….

You could, of course, sprinkle in whatever you like! There is no reason to always have the same routine.

Advantages of a work-life blend

You might find that, instead of being almost tired after a very long morning routine, the change provided by the work-life blend alternations actually refreshes you. Change is, after all, as good as a rest sometimes!

Also, there is only so much of a boost each of your morning routine steps can give you. If you do them all at the same time, you might get the short term relaxation and clarity effects all at once. In a work-life blend, you may be able to use going back to a piece of your self-care routine as a way to re-energize yourself for the rest of the way, thus making sure you have energy for tasks later in the day too!

Not waking up super early in the morning (or not earlier than you already do if you have small children), and being able to have sources of energy that get replenished throughout the day is a definitely sale point for many of us!

So a work-life blend might be the solution for you! The change provided by alternating work and self-care routine elements refreshes you, providing a boost throughout the day. It also allows for not waking up super early in the morning and having sources of energy that are replenished throughout the day, making it an attractive alternative for many people.

Of course, blending could make things messy, and you might find it harder to keep track as to when you have done the various parts of your routine, and how you are progressing. This is why tracking your blend with TimeRichMe is a great solution! Simply set as challenges the various elements you would like to include in your routine - exercise, journaling, creative time, meditation, etc - then mark whenever you are accomplishing a step in these. You can then track to see how often you are achieving each of the elements every week, and tweak your next steps to include more of what is missing, or exclude things you are already doing a lot of.

You can schedule the various blend elements with TimeRichMe, and have reminders show you when it’s time to exit work mode and do something for yourself. Or you can simply go with the flow and do one of your desired nourishing activities every couple of hours.

Whichever way you choose, here is to a healthier work-life blend for you!