Week 8: Designing your ordinary life

What if your ordinary Tuesday could be as thoughtfully designed as a special occasion? This week explores how to bring beauty, intention, and artfulness to the simple rhythm of daily life.

The Art of Ordinary Design

Design isn’t just for special spaces or special occasions. Your ordinary life, the way you make morning coffee, arrange your living space, structure your daily rhythm, is equally deserving of thoughtful attention.

Designing your ordinary life doesn’t require expensive items or dramatic changes. It’s about bringing consciousness and care to the environments, routines, and moments that make up the majority of your existence.

When you design your ordinary life, you create a supportive environment for your authentic self to flourish. Your external environment begins to reflect and nurture your internal landscape.

Elements of Ordinary Life Design

Sensory Experiences: What you see, hear, smell, taste, and touch regularly

Rhythm and Flow: The pace and structure of your daily activities

Physical Environment: The spaces where you spend most of your time

Rituals and Routines: The small ceremonies that mark transitions in your day

Aesthetic Choices: The colors, textures, and visual elements that surround you

Exercise 1: The Ordinary Audit

Choose one ordinary activity you do daily (making coffee, getting dressed, eating lunch, going to bed). Spend one full week paying attention to this activity with design consciousness:

What does this experience look like, sound like, feel like?

How could you make this experience more beautiful or meaningful?

What small changes would make this activity more aligned with your authentic self?

Exercise 2: The Five Senses Design Challenge

For each sense, identify one small way to enhance your ordinary daily experience:

Sight: Add one beautiful visual element to a space you use daily

Sound: Create or remove sounds that support your desired daily atmosphere

Smell: Introduce a scent that makes your space feel more like home

Touch: Add one texture that feels good (soft blanket, smooth stone, etc.)

Taste: Elevate one regular eating or drinking experience

Exercise 3: The Rhythm Design

Map out your ideal daily rhythm:

When do you feel most energetic? Most contemplative?

What transitions in your day could use more intention or beauty?

How could you honor your natural energy patterns in your daily design?

What would make your ordinary Tuesday feel more aligned with your authentic self?

Exercise 4: The Sacred Ordinary Practice

Choose three ordinary activities to treat as sacred this week:

Create a small ritual around each activity

Add one element of beauty or intention

Practice full presence during each activity

Notice how treating ordinary activities as sacred changes your experience

Weekly Practice

Each day, add one small element of beauty or intention to your ordinary routine. This might be:

Lighting a candle during dinner

Arranging flowers from your yard

Playing music that matches your desired mood

Setting your clothes out with care the night before

Creating a small beautiful moment during a routine task

What does beautiful mean to me, and how can I incorporate this into ordinary moments?

Which of my daily routines feel most and least aligned with my authentic self?

How does my physical environment support or hinder my wellbeing?

What would change if I treated my ordinary life as worthy of design attention?

Describe your ideal ordinary day as if it were a work of art. What would make it beautiful? What would make it feel aligned with your authentic self? What small elements could you implement to move toward this vision?