I’m sure I don’t need to preach the benefits of a morning routine. Other people have said it better and louder than I could. If you do need convincing, check out Hal Elrod’s Miracle Morning. He suggests, like many other successful people out there, to spend time each morning reading, writing, exercising, mediating, visualizing your ideal day, and saying affirmations.

I’ve read all the books and blog posts on getting motivated, waking up early, and overcoming procrastination. (See my post, Let’s Talk About Procrastination for thoughts on overcoming that last one) But how do you create a routine that really works for you? And how do you keep up with it when you’re travelling?

We just completed a three month road trip. We spent most of our time in Boise ID and the White Mountains of New Hampshire with shorter stays in Seattle, Salt Lake City, Colorado Springs, and Charleston, plus a business trip to New Orleans for me and one to Atlanta for Will. That’s a lot of change and movement for a morning routine. It doesn’t matter if you’re travelling for vacation, or jetting around the country for work, or like us, going places for a month at a time and living a fairly normal life while we’re there; staying on track with your routines and goals is hard when you’re away from home. So how do you stay on track?

That was my question at the start of this trip. What is a reasonable morning routine that I can keep up even while travelling?

First, let’s talk about a reasonable routine. Hal Elrod suggests starting with an hour in the morning and doing each category (reading, writing, exercising, meditating, visualizing, and affirmations) for 10 minutes. That’s pretty doable. But what if you’re trying to write a book (me), or training for a triathalon, or need to study before work, or even just trying to get 30 minutes of quiet time in before the baby wakes up? All that other stuff is great, but if you’ve really only got a couple hours before work or school or being on mommy duty all day, you might feel like you need to make more progress in at least one category than just 10 minutes.

I tried out a lot of different morning routines on our trip and I spent a lot of mornings sleeping until 7:30 because travel is hard on your body and if you’re trying to make the most of a limited amount of time in a new place, you may not go to bed at 9:30 every night. Being kind to yourself is so important. If you’re like me, you need more discipline to hold steady even when the motivation is lacking, but I don’t think anybody needs an internal drill seargant demanding perfection.

Here’s what I learned about myself:

• I do best rolling out of bed, making tea, and settling into the couch to read and have quiet time with the Lord first thing.
• 20-30 minutes of yoga (often led by Yoga with Adriene on YouTube) warms up my muscles and I’ve found that I feel so much better throughout the day after yoga in the morning. I put it here in my routine because it gets my creative juices flowing and gets me into the right mindset to write.
• I try to write 3 pages each day. Usually this will be for the novel I’m working on, but occasionally I’ll hournal or write an essay. The idea of writing 3 pages each morning, called “Morning Pages” was originally introduced in Julia Cameron’s The Artist’s Way. I actually haven’t read that book yet, but I’ve heard so many other writers talk about Morning Pages that I adopted the practice and it’s been a real game changer.
• After this, I shower and dress for the day and then try to walk 2 miles with the dog. This was very easy in New Hampshire as we lived on a rural road. I could let the Clark run around off leash and the next intersection was exactly 1 mile from our house which made for a great turn around point. This feels harder now that we’re back at home because we live on a busy street. Our “block” is one mile so I often just do that. I find that after a long walk, my brain is turned on and I’m ready to be productive.

I encourage you to play around with your morning as well. Definitely read what the experts say. They really know what they’re talking about and the science behind our behaviors is really interesting. But everyone is different and if you move to a different rythmn, then go with it!

Here are a few questions to ask yourself to help you find your best morning routine:

• On days when I don’t have anything to do, what do I want to do first thing when I wake up?
• What makes me feel productive and ready to tackle the day?
• What grounds me?
• What am I trying to pursue (studying/learning something, exercise, writing?)
• If I don’t do that in the morning, what other time in the day am I going to do it?

From there, try out a couple of routines and see what you most look forward to. Also, set yourself up for success. You may feel super great and productive after a 30 minute run in the morning but that doesn’t mean you’re excited about it when the alarm goes of at 5:45. Do things the night before that will help you fall into your routine as soon as you wake up; go to bed earlier so you aren’t sacrificing sleep, set out your exercise clothes, put the coffee maker on a timer, go ahead and pick your yoga or workout video and have it pulled up and ready to start.

Once you have those answers, you can create a routine that you’ll actually want to keep up with even on the road. Every day won’t be perfect. There will be days when your flight lands at 10pm and the conference starts at 7am the next morning, or you wake up in a new airbnb and find out the internet sucks so your morning devolves into finding a co-working space that will have you for the week. But that’s the beauty of a routine that gives you life; an off morning only encourages you to get back on track the next day.

And don’t forget that things are different when you’re away from home. Your morning may not look exactly the same in a cabin in the Mountains or at a conference hotel in the big city. Embrace that. Find out what makes where you are special and adapt your routine to take advantage of that.

That might look like walking earlier so you can catch a beachfront sunrise, or using the hotel’s Peloton instead of your normal yoga routine. For that matter, many hotels have group excercise classes or sunrise yoga. When you’re booking a hotel or airbnb look for nearby parks and greenways so you can easily keep up with your normal morning walks or runs. My parents live in a highrise condo and whenever we stay with them, I switch it up to do my yoga routine in their gym and then do my quiet time reading in the hot tub. Now, that’s living my best life!

If you can create a base routine that makes you feel great and sets you up love those who God has brought into your life and acheive your goals on a daily basis and then learn to adapt that routine to give yourself grace when you need it and embrace the opportunities for experiences that new locations can provide, you will be well on your way to finding a daily joy that can’t be shaken.