Creating Routines around Irregular Work Hours

Routines are essential for achieving maximum productivity and unlocking bits of freedom in your day-to-day life.

This means finally being able to work on your long-term goals with more consistency.

Routines help you to know what to do and when to do it.

But producing routines and maintaining them is not easy. Anyone who has any kind of routine will tell you that it takes time and practice to find what works for you.

And having irregular work hours makes having any kind of routine so much harder.

For the past year, I have been working irregular hours.

I work from 8 am to 3 pm Monday to Wednesday, 3 pm to 10 pm Thursday to Saturday, and 9 am to 7 pm on Sundays. I get one Sunday off every 14 days. If my work colleague has any appointment that happens to fall in their work time, we exchange days, or someone will show up for an hour just to take over until the other person gets back.

Yes, my work life is overly complicated.

At first, I thought, “hmm…shouldn’t be hard working 7 hours per day. At least it is better than my old shift which was from 9 am to 8 pm with the weekends off.

No. it’s not better. I know that now. But none of it was ever easy.

Most times, it all comes down to how you spend your time. If you spend time doing at least one thing you love each day, you will feel energized and motivated to get through your day.

But if all you do is work, home, cook, clean, take care of the kids, sleep, and repeat, you will feel tired. You will feel burnt out. Taking care of your home and the family is great. But everyone needs time for themselves. It’s just the way it is.

And that is where having some sort of routine comes in.

Also, be sure not to be tempted into doing the entire week’s work in a day. Unless you are heading on vacation.

The remainder of your time will be yours to play with.

Use it to focus on achieving your goals.

If your goal is to lose weight, use your free time to do some meal- plan and prep, go to the gym or do a home workout.

If your goal is to grow your hair, use the time to give yourself a hair treatment.

Whatever your goal is, use your free time each day to work on those goals -guilt-free because you know that all that you needed to do for that day is either done or has its available time slot to be completed later.

For me, my morning routine is simple.

• Wake up by 6:30 pm
• Freshen up and get dressed
• Feed pets (while my car warms up if it’s a workday)
• Bag my meals for that working day or have a cup of tea/ coffee if I am staying home
• Leave for work by 7:45 am. Or start dinner and work out if I am home.

My evening routine is just as simple.

• Feed my pets and homeless community cats
• Take a shower
• Get in bed by 10:45 pm

While in bed, I plan my tomorrow in my journal and have a conversation with GOD. Then try to sleep.

When I work in the morning hours, I make dinner and exercise first thing after work. And if I work the night shift, I make dinner and exercise first thing after my morning routine is completed.

I have a cleaning routine to complete 1 to 2 tasks each day. For example, Vacuum and wipe the floors, wash, and fold laundry plus put clean sheets on the bed, purchase and put away groceries, etc.

When it comes to maintaining a clean kitchen, my rule is to always wash up dishes after each use and put it away as soon as it drains.

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