Today's Musing: My Morning Ritual

My little haven, also known as "My office."

So once in awhile I get asked what my morning ritual is. For those that work at home, one of the biggest lessons I learned is that daily rituals are a rite of passage because the distractions are plenty (tv….online surfing with nobody watching…refrigerator around the corning…yikes). Below are a few useful tidbits of tips I have gathered along the way. Would LOVE to hear what you do to stay on track during the day!

1. My 30 minute rule: I am not a morning person (can I get an Amen??). I used to think I could get up an hour before my kids get up to get myself together, but it would never last. So I get up when I get my boys get up and get them off to school. Afterwards is when my 30 minutes starts. For 30 minutes I take a moment after the morning-boys-to-school hustle to sit down, watch the news, make myself a cup of coffee, have breakfast and think about the day ahead. It’s nice. Those thirty minutes, to just breathe and really…wake up. 

2. House duties: So yes, because I work from home, there are some daily house straightening that I do. I don’t go crazy, and I don’t let it distract me from my work. After I get dressed I give myself one whole hour to get any light, house duties completed like cleaning up the kitchen, laundry…and then I stop. Turn off the lights all around the house and sit down at my desk. I won’t do any other major house stuff until I get my work done. This is important–you have to be able to disconnect on that end. 

3. Getting dressed: My brother likes to poke some fun at me and loves to ask me “So are you still in your jammies today? Must be nice!” And yes, he is my brother so he can annoyingly ask me these types of questions. But honestly, I love to get dressed every morning. I don’t go crazy. Usually jeans and my stack of favorite tees, but I do make sure I look presentable to nobody but myself. May sound weird but I’m an advocate for if you look good, and feel good, you will be on your A-game more. 

Proof: The non-jammies look. Looking pulled together from home is not too bad.

4. Contact with the outside world: Depending on your job type, you may have minimal face to face contact with coworkers or heck…people, on a day to day basis. And sadly, sometimes I find myself having mental conversations with myself which is something I want to avoid. At least twice a day I make sure I have a friendly phone chat with a friend, family member or my husband. Nothing is wrong with taking a time out to talk to somebody other than yourself. I also, when I can, schedule a coffee date or lunch with a friend. Working from home can feel lonely at times, so it’s nice to have contact with the outside world and keep those connections going. 

5. Set your office hours and stick with them: My office hours end when I have to pick up my boys from school (around 4:00PM). Sometimes I wish it were longer but I use it as a motivation to stay on track and keep up my productivity during the day. I don’t let my office hours deviate much. I even put them down in my office signature (email) so others know my hours as well. 

Okay, so those are a few tips I have for getting my days started. Of course the beauty of working from home is that you can adjust when something comes up but I try really hard to keep my schedule going. The routine makes me feel on track and I get more done. 

For those that work from home (or not), what do you do in the mornings or during the day to keep up your motivation and productivity? Would love to hear from you!

My Story.

Thank you so much for stopping by! If there is at all, anybody out there in the internet world. I guess everyone has their own bag of reasons for why they want to start their own blog. Mine, mainly was just wanting to get a lot of thoughts out there…thoughts about my work, marriage, raising boys. This blog will be a separate entity from my work and for any business inquiries please go to my business site at www.chicsweets.com. This blog is personal and really meant to be a little window in my everyday world. 

But I figured before I get into the actual musings part I should at least introduce myself and give some background story. I live out in Land O Lakes, Florida, just north of good ole’ Tampa. For 8 years, I worked in the non profit field, working with residents to create empowering programs in their communities. Somewhere in there and up late at night I thought it would be a great idea to start my own business, creating dessert tables for brides.

For three years I juggled both full time job and a growing business–it was messy, it was exhausting and to this day I still look back at those sleepless nights and think…”Did I really do that?” 

After the birth of my third son, I took an honest look at my life and decided to make the scary jump into running my business full time. Leaving an industry that I had worked hard to make a difference in was unbelievably hard. I had moved up steadily at that point, was making good money, fantastic benefits but as cliche as it sounds, none of it mattered because I was unhappy. My husband barely knew me, my children would see me in passing when I came home late at night, annoyed they were even bothering me. But I did it. And never looked back. 

Flash forward to almost 8 years later, and I have continued to run my business. I’m not nearly (not even close) to making what I was when I was working my full time job, and some may question why I would even make such a careless decision in the first place, but one of the hardest (if not toughest) lessons I have come to learn is that the work you do takes a big chunk of who you are. I could not be the wife or mom my family deserved if I was not doing what I love. Again, I realize that statements may come off as selfish, but I am a believer that sometimes it’s okay to jump without really knowing what comes next….

So that, my virtual friends, is my story in a nutshell.

Happy Easter!