Kimberlee K.

I have been thinking a lot about my morning routine—but not in the way you think.

In the past, I’ve tried to optimize it, add to it, perfect it, etc., but eventually I always toss any additions to the wayside, allowing me to run on autopilot.

Recently however, I’ve gotten curious about the structure. Because with a repetitive number of steps, I realized that at any given part of the morning I am a certain percent “done” with my routine. If I were a computer restarting, or a restaurant preparing a to-go order, a loading bar may track my progress, filling in slowly but surely.

Where was the halfway point? I wondered.

What point on my timeline would be equivalent to that in which a customer tracking a pizza on a Friday night would clap their hands and say, “it’s almost here!!”

How would my morning routine be broken down into interactive sections that encourage both patience and anticipation?

How often have I watched my Domino’s pizza bar fill up to make this be a consistent thought throughout my morning?

All valid questions.

So I wrote out my morning routine step by step, even going so far as listing steps in my skincare and makeup routines individually. All in the name of science.

In doing so, I found I have (give or take) 25 steps in my morning routine, starting with “check my email”—which I usually do lying down, with one eye closed, pretending like it’s waking me up when it’s really just letting me stay in bed for a few more minutes—to turn up/down (depending on the season) the thermostat, which I do as I walk out the door.

The halfway point is making my lunch.

Which makes sense, honestly, because it’s usually about that time when I’m standing in the kitchen, zipping up my lunch box, when I suddenly feel like I have more time than I do. I’ll think, it’s only 7:20, I’ve got time to empty the dishwasher, or make a smoothie, or sweep the floor. And then, without warning, I’ll be running late.

Thanks to my spreadsheet science however, I now realize that I should only be checking for this extra time after I finish my makeup, as that puts me at 90% finished with my routine, and thus available for extraneous activities.

If I wake up late and am brushing my teeth (step 5) and it is already after 7:15am, I need to move. Maybe I don’t have time to make an at home breakfast (step 16) and should instead tuck a protein bar into my purse. This also might be a day I’ll rush through making my lunch (step 13) and forget to take my vitamins (step 14) because I’m hustling to get dressed (step 17).

All that to say, I know a lot more about my morning routine than I ever thought I would.

And I will likely think of the proverbial progress bar above my head often, imagining my morning like the making of a delivery pizza, which honestly makes the whole process sound a little more fun.