One of the benefits of this temporary assignment at another agency is that I've been able to develop a different morning routine.

When I'm working at my regular job, I work from home three days per week. On those days my morning routine is pretty consistent. I wake up, make myself some tea, and settle in with my to-do list and morning reading before diving in to productive work.


Sunrise over the Capitol

The only real variable is whether or not I get up a little earlier to do a run. Otherwise my days start fairly consistently with little stress.

The two days that I'm in the office at my regular job, my morning routine is pretty much nonexistent. Basically I'm sleeping for as long as possible and then rushing out the door to the Metro. All morning reading and to-do list organizing happen when I get to my office.

But with this temporary assignment at another agency my hours have been different. The team doesn't get in to the office until 8:30, which means I have an hour in the morning at home to make a cup of tea and do some quiet focused work. This lets me kind of mirror what I'm doing on the days I work from home, and by the time I actually get in to the office, I'm caught up on everything, my to-do list is organized and I'm ready to hit the ground running.

Today's my last day at this temporary assignment, and I'll be heading back to my normal job next week. But I'm trying to see what bits of my new morning routine I can carry over to help me be more productive. There's definitely something to be said for a less harried start to the day, and I've enjoyed sitting down and doing an hour of quiet, focused work before heading in to the office.

I've also been thinking about starting a Morning Pages practice. I've been reading a lot about how this helps people clear clutter from their minds first thing in the morning. As a person that constantly keeps a running to-do list in my mind, I feel like brain dumping on paper first thing in the morning might be super helpful for me. But I kind of hate the thought of waking up earlier to make time for this.

Does anyone else do Morning Pages? Have you found it helpful, interesting, some other adjective? I'd be curious to know.