Since sticking to a schedule can feel strict and sometimes inconvenient, a 'minimum' schedule can be used as a way to keep the comfort of freedom of time while balancing the basics. There are often a few things we make sure we do in our day that can guarantee a minimum level of health, handling responsibilities, and progress.
One of the changes in adulthood that can be very helpful is getting on a consistent sleep schedule. There are usually two problems with this: not having the freedom to stay up late for special occasions and not allowing for sleeping in when extra rest is needed. A 'rough minimum' could be setting the latest time for sleep and earliest time for waking up (barring logical things like staying up for New Years or waking up early for a flight). This way, it's encouraged to at least aim for a range of times. For example, instead of a typical time of going to sleep ranging from eleven at night to 3 in the morning, it might be eleven at night to one in the morning. In the case of waking up within certain time ranges, instead of it ranging between seven for some mornings all the way to twelve in the afternoon for others, having it range from eight to ten would be a gentle enough waking time. For example, if the latest bedtime is one in the morning, then waking at ten would mean allowing for up to nine hours of sleep, but even getting up at eight would be at least seven hours of sleep. It can be easier to keep a sleep time range than a sleep schedule, and therefore more likely for your body to get stable sleep. Naps can also be incorporated. Instead of sleeping in for five hours on the weekend, a minimum schedule could allow for two hours of sleeping in, with a three-hour nap in the early afternoon.
Morning routines are often pushed to be complicated and thorough, but on our less disciplined days, having a few minimums can help us practice habits that are important to us and help ourselves feel more pulled together on messy days. We all have our basic things we tend to skip over that can be good for us and beneficial for the rest of the day. For example, breakfast. If there's a habit of skipping breakfast, a good minimum could be keeping small bites to eat, leftovers, or snacks to take one to two bites of before leaving. If there's a goal set to meditate every day, shrinking the time down to one to two minutes can help at least make it a habit. If necessary, keeping to the basics such as showering and brushing teeth can take priority over everything else.
Having pre-work or school practices can be a way to gently keep habits that help set the day. Getting organized, preparing, or thinking about the most important tasks for the day can help remove a lot of stress over the hours to come.
Balances of comfort of structure and provide the need for stability without the drool of discipline and the rebelling against discipline to lead to no schedule at all. Whether at home, resting on the weekend, or on vacation, having a consistent minimum schedule can help make stability an easier goal. Celebrating the repeats of even the smallest practices can assist our likelihood to do the same in the future. So can doing whatever we can to make those minimum steps easier. The health of our sleep schedules and body clocks can be helped along with gentleness. For example. using a sunrise alarm clock and allowing adequate time for each day to start off stable before all else hits. For the weekends, maybe allowing for an extra ten minutes to just get out of bed. For work schedule changes/time zone changes, trying to stay around the same time range makes these adjustments less to think about. These are ways to compensate for the times we don't feel like taking care of ourselves. Exercise dropping down to stretching. Hand cooked breakfast turning into a granola bar. It promotes healthier practices than nothing at all. Taking steps to take care of ourselves makes us feel more pt together and organized setting a better tone for each day.