Daily Routine: How To Create It with a Bullet Journal

Today you’re going to find out the ultimate secret to making your day more productive, joyful, and generally happier by using a daily routine bullet journal free printable.

The key to productive, fulfilling days is establishing a daily routine.

So if you want to know:

• what daily routine is

• what is the best daily routine is

• how to start a morning routine

• what a good evening routine is

• how my daily routine looks like

• how to stick with a daily routine

Then keep reading.

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What Is The Daily Routine

First and foremost, if you’re wondering what a daily routine is, it’s a group of small habits following one after another, quite like the well-trodden path. 

Basically, it’s a small daily to-do list you check off step by step. 

Although it sounds like another list of things to do within your day, creating a daily routine makes you feel happy and excited for the day ahead, even if you have to wake up early.

Definitely, having a fully personalized morning and evening routine is an act of self-love and a huge part of a self-care practice.

Undoubtedly, there’s something powerful in making yourself a priority, even for a couple of minutes as the very first thing you do after waking up.

Also, daily routines increase your overall productivity.

If you don’t believe me, try to start your day without any kind of plan and see how much time you waste wondering what to do next.

Not only a morning routine is a fresh start, even if the previous day was a disaster, but also following the well-known repetitive steps makes you feel safe. 

Moreover, routines create a structure in your life.

As a result, you feel you control the situation. Indeed, the reality seems to be a little bit more predictable.

On the other hand, the evening routine helps you calm racing thoughts aka monkey minds, reflect on a day, and plan the next one so you’re continuously working towards your goals.

What Is The Best Daily Routine

As a rule, the best daily routine is the one that suits your current lifestyle and, in general, life situations. 

Let’s think for a moment about these popular “morning routine” YouTube videos. 

It’s so easy to feel discouraged after seeing some beauty guru’s morning yoga session, perfect green smoothie, and 15-minute meditation while your husband’s incredible snoring, your baby’s whining about another Ninjago season, and you’re most likely going to miss the bus to work.

At least, it was my huge problem when I became a mom.

Last update on 2024-05-18 / Affiliate links / Images from Amazon Product Advertising API

Suddenly my perfect miracle morning routine stopped working.

And I was miserable.

Definitely, it’s hard to accept the fact that your life is constantly changing. 

But the very first feature of the best daily routine is its flexibility according to changing circumstances.

Also, you don’t need such big life-changing events to tweak your daily routine. 

The best daily routine is 100% tailored to your priorities, lifestyle, and even your daily energy level. 

Definitely, it’s not a one-routine-fits-all kind of thing. 

Stop wasting time scrolling through a gazillion of blog posts and YouTube videos, looking for the perfect daily routine schedule for you.

Instead of blindly copying others’ daily routines, build your own with the following steps.

How to Create a Daily Routine

Firstly, let’s talk about goals.

Because everything happens for a reason, you need to know why you want to improve your current daily routine.

Your true motivation will help you stick with your refined daily routine for a long time.

Btw, if you’re wondering how to set goals, check out my Level 10 Life exercise blog post.

How To Start A Morning Routine

Do a Brain Dump

As usual, the best way to start anything new is to brainstorm all ideas that come to mind.

It’s no different in this case.

First and foremost, grab a bullet journal and write down your dream morning rituals. 

Basically, create your perfect morning on paper.

In case you’re running out of ideal morning routine ideas (brushing your teeth is so obvious), here’re some other creative inspiration:

• visualization with a vision board

• daily affirmation

• gratitude journal

• reading one article on Medium

• journaling

• drinking a cup of tea in silence

Last update on 2024-05-18 / Affiliate links / Images from Amazon Product Advertising API

• bible journaling

• breathing exercise

• learn a foreign language (5 new words)

• plank challenge

Time New Morning Habits

Now you need to estimate how long each of these new habits will take.

Don’t forget to add buffer time. 

Because sometimes we all like to hit the snooze button.

Set Priorities

Now it’s time to choose which habits you’d like to develop in the first place. 

Definitely, you won’t have time for everything from your list.

And yes, while implementing all new habits at the same time is tempting, it’s a straightforward way to fail.

If you can’t choose, think of a reason why you want to start them in the first place and choose ones that reflects your main goals.

For example, if your main goal is to become flexible enough to do the splits, implementing daily stretching habits seems to be reasonable. 

So rewrite your habits and put them in priority order.

Assess Your Current Morning Routine

The next step is to write down what your current mornings look like. 

What time do you get up? 

What time do you have to leave to be at work on time? 

How about your family – what time do they get up?

How long can your baby play alone? 

This exercise allows you to see how much time realistically you have available for a dream morning routine.

Along with this, evaluate your current morning routine (I found this advice in an amazing book “Atomic habits”).

Maybe you wake up late or spend too much time on the screen.

As a result, you can see clearly which of your morning rituals are good or bad for you and your goals.

This step will make scheduling your new routine so much easier.

After removing these bad habits, you create time for implementing new good ones.

Schedule a Morning Routine

As a matter of fact, it usually turns out that your perfect morning routine takes about 2 hours while in reality, you can spend maybe 20 minutes on morning activities.

Welcome to the real world – you aren’t alone.

So what’s up now? Focus on the solution, not the problem.

For instance, you can:

• wake up earlier

• schedule some activities later in the day

• lower your expectations (instead of reading 10 pages, choose to read only 2)

• accept reality and let something go

One of my favorite quotes says that it’s not about one day you’re doing everything, it’s about every day you’re doing something.

And it’s so true. A little goes a long way.

Organize Your Morning Routine

Last but not least, it’s time to sort (on paper) all of these new morning habits in a logical order to keep the morning flowing efficiently and intentionally. 

So instead of chaotically checking off morning habits, try to put similar morning activities together. 

For example, after doing some yoga on a mat, immediately start your meditation or breathing exercise. 

Undoubtedly, knowing exactly your first, second, third, etc step is crucial to developing your great morning routine.

Test It Out

Because you won’t know if it works unless you actually try it out.

How To Create a Good Evening Routine 

After organizing your morning routine, it’s time to find out what a good evening routine is.

Actually, as a 100% morning person, building a good evening routine is really challenging for me.

I’m just unmotivated and lazy in the evening.

I only want to wrap myself in a cozy blanket and watch my favorite YouTube channels until it’s bedtime.

However, an evening routine is undeniably very important to have a great start the next morning.

With this in mind, now you have to list all of the evening habits you need to develop.

Basically, creating a good evening routine requires almost the same steps just as a morning routine.

Start From Remaining Morning Habits

Obviously, if you have some morning habits you weren’t able to fit into your morning routine just put them on the evening routine list.

For example, meditation or practicing gratitude is a great way to finish your day intentionally.

Do a Brain Dump (Again)

Without a doubt, a successful morning starts the night before. 

For this reason, first and foremost you need to think about which evening habits will prepare you to start the next day productively. This could be literally everything, from writing a to-do list, and meal prepping to putting tomorrow’s outfit together.

Time New Evening Habits

Similar to the morning habits estimate how long specific activities take.

Assess Your Current Evening Routine

First, think about what time you (should) go to bed. 

It’s simple math. 

Assuming you want to wake up at 6 am (for your morning routine), you need to go to bed something between 10 – 11 pm.

As a rule, it will turn out that your major problem is the lack of time to follow a dream evening routine.

Again, evaluate this time your evening routine.

Maybe you discover your screen time needs to be limited due to starting your bedtime yoga practice.

So in the same way, focus on priorities, lower expectations, and just do something.

Doing something is always better than doing nothing.

Organize Your Evening Routine

Similar to the morning routine flow, having an evening routine broken into a structured sequence of activities will help you to actually keep it done daily.

Even if your favorite YouTuber just published a new video.

Test It Out

Again, test your new evening routine to see if it works for you. 

How Does My Daily Routine Look Like

Before you learn what my daily routine looks like, I have to mention that I tend to change it pretty often. 

Because I always strive to grow and improve myself, from time to time I like to add something new to my morning and evening routine.

In my opinion, setting the best daily routine once and for all is impossible.

In fact, you’re constantly evolving, the circumstances are changing, and as a result, you change your priorities as well.

Nevertheless, this is my daily routine (at least, for now).

My Morning Habits

• wake-up

• hygiene

• getting dressed

• daily affirmation

• yoga

• meditation

• making bed

• breakfast

• reading at least 10 pages

• coffee

• journaling

• screen time

• washing dishes

• bullet journaling (to-do list)

My Evening Habits

• simple cleaning routine

• reading aloud books to my son

• bullet journaling (completing trackers, gratitude log, and a day review plus planning the next day)

• yoga

• visualization

• hygiene

• screen time

• bedtime

How To Stick To a Daily Routine Long-Term

Unquestionably, if you’re struggling with sticking to a daily routine, you need some tools that will help you to keep yourself accountable.

Definitely, my number one tool is a habit tracker.

Not only you can put down all of your morning and evening habits, but also you’re able to track if you actually take an action.

Besides, something is satisfying in putting a dot in a box. 

Along with this, I feel extra motivated if I know at the end of the day I need to review my day and settle in.

Now you can: 

• create a bullet journal habit tracker

• use a free daily routine tracker printable

Get your daily routine free template here!

Last update on 2024-05-18 / Affiliate links / Images from Amazon Product Advertising API

• order erasable habit tracker

Also, if you notice you constantly let some activities go, consider removing them without feeling guilty. 

Apparently, these habits aren’t as important as you thought they were. 

How To Create a Daily Routine [with a Bullet Journal] – Final Thoughts

Undoubtedly, keeping a simple daily routine helps you practice self-care daily.

Healthy morning habits allow you to kickstart your mornings from a good place and set a positive tone for the rest of the day.

Besides, the evening routine lets you calm your mind, review the entire day, and prepare the next day for success.

Definitely, it takes a while to perfect your daily routine but it’s so worth it.

What’s Next? Discover Other Productivity Articles:

Work At Home Mom Schedule with Time Blocking Tips

Bullet Journal Daily Log w A Free Printable

Best Daily Journals For 2023

Daily Routine Bullet Journal Collection Pages