My new work week routine

Working from home has its perks which includes my new work week routine which I have polished over the last 2 years and absolutely love. I am naturally an early riser and prefer to get things done in the morning because around midday I start to feel fatigue which means unless I have meetings I am less productive. When I started my new work week routine, I was still going into the office at least once a week but then a year later covid happened and this became my new way of life. Being an early riser and an insomniac has benefits but it means the rest of the day is often my enemy. If I didn’t get a good 4-5 hours of sleep, it means I will be struggling after lunch and need work to keep me awake.

As things start to open up slowly and people start going back to their old lives, many will struggle because for the last 12 months, they developed a new routine that they can no longer sustain. I am grateful that now with my work I am 100% home-based and will only go into the office for ‘social events’ and important in-person meetings otherwise nothing is changing for me. As much as I want to get back my social life, I think I enjoy being a hermit more now than ever before especially when I am not travelling. But in any case, I am excited to share with you all my new work week routine that night inspire someone to find ways to make most of their mornings.

My New Work Week Routine

Working in the corporate world doing a 9-5 is something that I had always wanted to do and glad to have been doing it for 8+ years. I have had incredible managers in these 8+ years and they have all taught me something in their own way. I have worked for managers who are very detail orientated, some who just want the bottom line and the in between. Thankfully my experience is managers who micromanage people has been limited and I grateful for that because it can be a stressful environment and micromanagement can make it even worse. My new work week routine (I know I keep calling it new when I have been practicing for over 12 months) is only possible because my work allows for this kind of flexibility provided you are doing your job.

This new schedule many or may not work for you but it has been working well for me over the last 24 months and can not wait to continue with it. But one thing to remember is that as much as I love mu new work week routine, if and when I need to, I will make adjustments as necessary to align with my personal goals and the stage at which my life is at. So, enough of the mumbling, below is my new work week routine and notice I say ‘work-week’ because on weekends I still wake up early but instead of working, I either nap, watch TV or run errands as necessary for that weekend. Although errands are only run on Saturday because I practice self care Sunday and that is when I like to unwind.

5.30am: Get up at and pray

Whether I like it or not, my natural body clock is 5.30am on the dot I wake up and many years ago I made the decision to make this time mu ‘prayer time’ as well. Often I would start playing on my phone until I either slept again or got bored and started working. I hated that whenever I got bored I chose to use my personal free time to do work meaning I would work overtime every single day of the week but we don’t get paid for overtime. Now, I use the time to say a little prayer and start my day.

5.45am: Make the bed and brush teeth

After praying and stretching, I make my bed and brush my teeth not in any particular order but I actually have this rule that I should make my bed before I open the curtains. I know it is weird but that is just something I love doing and enjoying doing every single day.

6am: Read a book at and enjoy cup of coffee

I have a confession to make, until lockdown started back in Mar-2020, I absolutely hated coffee, I enjoyed the smell of it for some reason but couldn’t stand the taste unless it was loaded with sugar and milk. But over the last 12 months, I have found instant coffee to be something I can handle black without any sugar (not even sweetener) and still enjoy it. After I make my bed and leave my room, I make my way downstairs to my living room where I pick up whatever book I am reading that month, make a cuppa and sit down on the floor on my plush carpet. I open the curtains and let the light shine where I sit down and read my book for an entire hour.

7am: Review my to-do list

As a to-do list orientated person, I often write my list the night before and the majority of it over the weekend because I love planning my week in advance. Every morning, I review my to-do list both for work and my personal life and see what I need to do that day and what deadlines I need to achieve that day or in coming days. This is something I don’t spend too much time on unless there are certain items (mostly personal lists) that I need to action in advance of starting the rest of my day.

7.30: Do Blog/YT work and schedule post social media

As a blogger, I make sure to allocate time to some blogging admin work, i.e. replying to e-mails, following up with sponsorships, sending out invoices, or even reviewing my editorial calendar. Sometimes it also means I need to write a blog post last minute or finish up one that I did not finish over the weekend. Now that I have. YouTube channel, I am learning to also allocate some time to review my channel, plan content and decide when I want to film some videos. One thing I don’t have time to do in the morning for YouTube videos is editing as that takes a lot of time and that activity is for Saturdays.

8 – 9.30am: Re:Focus time for work

Re:focus is something I have done more of in the last 2 years than any other time in my working career, most times I would block out some time during the day to catch-up on Fridays and during my worst times, I used to push everything till Friday as it was much more quite and meeting-free. Nowadays, I block between 8am and 9.30 ( mostly until 10am) to focus on the work that needs to be accomplished that day or that week.

Working in corporate, I find that we spend a lot of times in meetings (even meetings that should have been e-mails) and it is all time consuming because you need to prepare for the meetings, need to take notes in the meeting so you can review later and raise concerns if you have any and often I never have time for that which means for important meetings I am tempted to work on the weekend which is not ideal. So, my work calendar is blocked between these hours and I catch up on important e-mails, action things that are urgent and have tighter deadlines then start my day.

9.30am – 12pm: Work

During this time its all work and no play and majority of the time its sitting in meetings and trying to remain respectful by not multitasking and giving the presenter 100% of my attention even though I am super tempted to reply to other e-mails as I listen.

12pm-1pm: workout and lunch

Now that gyms are back open again, I dedicate 3-days a week to going to the gym during my lunch break for about 30-minutes. I try not to have lunch at my desk and force myself to downstairs in my kitchen but other times its just not possible and I end up eating at my desk. On days I don’t go to the gym I either go for a walk around my block or use my Peloton bike for a quick session.

1pm-5: Work

After working out its back to the grind, same-o-same-o, meetings that could have been e-mails and catching up on emails I didn’t get to in the morning.

6pm-7pm: Free time to Re:Focus and Re:Connect

After work, it’s time to Re:Focus and Re:Connect time, during this time I make a point of checking my to-do list for work and see what I need to work on the next day. Then Re:Connect time is time for catching up with friends, family, social media and calling my family. Other times it means, check to-do list and then watch TV for the rest of the night, hey! we all have different ways of relaxing.

And there you have it, my new work week routine and how I manage my day. Do you have a weekly work routine?