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2 min read

How to Have a Routine When You Have No Routine

For the last 14 months, I haven’t lived in the same place for over three weeks.

I moved between 23 different cities: Los Cabos, Lisbon, Porto, Lagos, New York, Austin, San Francisco, Oakland, Los Altos, Palo Alto, Vancouver,  San Diego, Seattle, Denver, Santa Barbara, Buenos Aires, Bariloche, Salvador, Rio de Janeiro, São Paulo, Balneário Camboriú, Navegantes, and Florianópolis.

This nomadic lifestyle comes to an end in ten days when I fly back to Lisbon, which will be my home for the next few years.

The wildest thing about this year is that I've felt relatively calm amongst the chaos. The reason is simple — I try to do the same thing before and after I sleep every day. Good days start with good mornings, and good mornings start with a good bedtime routine. I'm documenting this for future me so when I enter other chaotic periods of my life, I have a blueprint for something that worked great this time around.

Evening

  • Stop using phone 30-60 minutes before bed
  • Brush teeth, take out contacts, etc.
  • Stretch for 5-10 minutes
  • Reflect on day and what I’m going to do tomorrow
  • Sleep

Morning

  • Wake up 8 hours after I go to sleep
  • Don’t look at phone for 30-60 minutes
  • Go outside for a walk or run
  • If I don’t run, do HIIT workout or some pushups
  • Shower and eat breakfast
  • Start the day

There are many days when I do none of these things. Especially if I start looking at my phone during the morning, it throws off the whole thing and I'll end up eating breakfast and showering at 1pm. When I do manage to go through it before 10am, I feel amazing.

One of the first things I did when I quit my job in August was set a goal to do four things every day: exercise, practice Portuguese, work on Dozen, and write. In this goal, I failed. I was consistent with some of them at different times, but managing to do all four every single day was exhausting. As I set up my life in Lisbon, I'll have to think about how I can build on my routine to fit these important activities — my guess is having exercise as the base every day and spreading out the rest amongst a few different days could work well. If you're reading this, hi! I don't plan on sharing this writing with too many people so you must be special. Let me know what routines have been the most impactful for you.