How I Used Automation to Build Consistent Morning & Evening Routines

The gist: Discover how automation helped me overcome executive function challenges and stick to my morning and evening routines.

I didn’t start a morning or evening routine because it was something I felt like I “should” do to optimize my life, or because I saw a morning routine on YouTube that looked nice.

I started building my morning and evening routines out of pure practicality.

There was a big problem in my life that I knew having these routines would solve.

At that point, I was so busy, burnt out, and just generally a mess, that I had accidentally stopped taking all my medications and couldn’t figure out how to get back into it.

I was also dealing with new diagnoses that required trying new meds long enough and consistently enough to know if they worked for me, so I knew it was really important to get back into.

While they’ve expanded over the years, these routines started simple and solution-focused.

I just needed to take 5 minutes to eat something and take my meds as soon as I woke up and shortly before I wanted to go to bed.

And while the routines might have been simple, that doesn’t mean building them was easy.

It took about a year from when I first started taking my meds again to when I was taking them more days than not, and several years until I could go a full month without forgetting a dose.

Along the way, I tried a lot of things, from getting a dedicated alarm clock to keep next to my meds, to keeping snacks and my meds on my nightstand to serve as a reminder the second I woke up in the morning.

But what’s helped the most is using technology as much as possible, automating the remembering and decision-making processes for these routines.

The system I’ve landed on has two main parts: the Routinery routine-building app, and iOS Shortcuts, and I want to tell you more about it and how it helps.

What I mean by automation in this post

First of all, let me get clear on what I mean by automate:

While several parts of these routines are completely automated in the traditional sense (for example, automatically turning the lights off through my smart home hub when my phone goes into Sleep mode), other parts still have manual action involved, with automation as a helper.

For example, unfortunately I can’t automate collecting all the trash from the day and other chores I do during my “evening tidy.”

But I can automate the reminder to get up and do it, setting a timer in case I get pulled into decluttering and organizing a random drawer at 11pm (something I’ve been doing since childhood 🤣), and bringing up my “chore chart” in Notion to see what need to be done.

Basically, all the mental barriers and decisions that stand between me sitting on the couch and me up and tidying are automated, making it way easier to get myself to actually do it.

Why I automate my morning & evening routines

So, why does automation help with these routines so much? Well, at least for me, it’s a few things:

• It ensures I take my meds at around the same time of day every day, which is important for one or two of them.
• The sequence of the routine ensures I remember to eat before I take my meds, instead of forgetting until I start to feel nauseous.
• They’re important routines to me, and making them as easy/frictionless as possible to start and complete makes it more likely I’ll do them.
• The screen time management elements of the automation puts strict boundaries around my phone use when I’m most likely to mindlessly scroll on it.

Now, let's look at how this routine automation setup works...

The routine automation system

For both my morning and evening routine, there are two different elements working together:

• Routinery: this app lets you build, time, and track in-app routines by listing out the steps/actions involved with attached timers for how long you want each step to take. It also sends you a reminder when it’s time to start the routine, change steps, etc. I’ve tried a bunch of similar apps, but this was the only one that “stuck” for me.
• Shortcuts: for pretty much every step/action in my Routinery routines, there’s an iOS Shortcut that either actually automates things involved in the action, or automates a prompt that makes it easier for me to start the task manually.

But since Shortcuts can control almost any app on my phone, there are a few other apps involved, even if I don’t really interact with them:

• Home Assistant: a smart home app
• Spotify: you know
• Autosleep: my sleep tracking app
• Jomo: a screen time management app
• Carrot: an adorable weather forecast app

And now for the fun part (at least for a certain kind of nerd)…the details of my routines.

My automated morning routine

When I turn off my alarm in the morning, the only visible notification is the Routinery one, so I usually open it and start the routine timers before I even get out of bed.

And turning off my alarm activates my Morning focus mode, which activates a Jomo app blocking session and changes the home and lock screens to ones focused on Routinery and Shortcuts.

Here are the most important Routinery steps, and the automations that go with them:

• Spend 5 minutes waking up: since I don’t get out of bed right away, this step serves as a timer for when I should physically get up, and automates turning on the bedroom lights with Home Assistant (to keep me awake), opening my Morning Mood Boost playlist in Spotify (also to keep me awake), and checking my sleep from the previous night and the weather forecast for that day. Once I’ve done that, I try to make myself get out of bed, but sometimes I play Sudoku instead. 🤷‍♀️
• Eat breakfast: starting this step and running its automation, first of all, reminds me to eat. But it also turns the kitchen lights on if they’re not already, and asks me what I’m eating for breakfast to automatically log it in my health tracker (which helps with managing stomach flare-ups).
• Take meds: again, the most important part of this step is the reminder, but it also runs an automation to update my health tracker.
• Journal morning pages: this switches Spotify to a playlist that’s less distracting so I can focus on stream of consciousness journaling, and logs the habit in my habit tracker.
• Journal daily brainstorm: I’m trying to build a daily creativity practice around brainstorming, so this automation tracks the days I do it in my habit tracker and opens up a note I’ve made with a list of different brainstorming prompts to help spark my creativity.
• Plan for the day: this opens up my daily planning dashboard in Notion so I can update my to-do list for the day.

And it’s taken a really long time…like multiple years…but I’m finally at the point where my morning routine is so established that I could probably remember to do most of it without the app and timers.

I just don’t want to risk testing it to find out for sure lol.

My automated evening routine

On the other hand, my evening routine is nowhere near as established as my morning routine.

I’m good with at least starting the routine and getting through eating and taking my meds, because I know that’s non-negotiable for my health, but several days a week I skip the other stuff for one reason or another.

But here are some steps from the ideal version:

• Eat a snack: the automation for this also updates the food section of my health tracker, and the sequence and reminders of the routine makes sure I don’t take meds on an empty stomach.
• Take meds: the automation for this also updates my health tracker again.
• Evening tidy: the automation for this updates my habit tracker and opens my Notion chore chart so I can quickly see what chores need to be done and if I’m going to do any of them in addition to a quick tidy.
• Wash up: this automation turns on the night light in my bathroom for everything I need to do to get ready for bed in there, and sets a timer to turn it off in 15 minutes (I’m usually in there for 10, so that leaves room for some buffer).
• Evening reflection: this opens my Notion daily log for the current day, along with any apps I’ll need to check to fill out the daily log (like opening the Fitness app to log how long I walked) and write a few sentences about how the day went.
• Go to bed: the automation for this turns off any smart devices like lamps in the apartment that aren’t already off, switches my phone’s focus to Sleep mode, lowers the volume on my phone until the morning, and opens the Spotify playlist I fall asleep to.

While I'm still working on making my evening routine as consistent as my morning one, these automations have already helped me go from “basically never doing these things” to “at least doing them a few times a week,” so I have hope. 🙃

Your turn

Now think about how you can add automation to some of the routines you currently have or are trying to build. How can the tech around you help make the routine easier or simpler for you?

Try automating just one thing to start with.

Remember, both of these now-long routines started with just a 5-minute “snack and meds” step. It was only once that was an established routine for me that I could add in other things and actually stick with them.

And if you liked this post, you'll also love:

• 4 Ways Automation Helps Reduce Executive Dysfunction
• 13 Automation Apps to Save Time, Energy, and Executive Functioning
• 9 Ways to Use Notion to Track Your Self-Care