What is a morning routine and how to create the perfect one.

This entry is part 5 of 10 in the series Self Development Tools

Self Development Tools

“If you win the morning, you win the day.”
So you want to find the perfect morning routine, but you’re not sure where to start.
Maybe you’re not a “morning person” (yet), but want to explore what that may look like for you. Or perhaps you feel like your morning routine is chaotic and disorganized, and want to seek ways to regain order at the start of your day. Whatever your reason for wanting to set a morning routine, creating one that fits your lifestyle will be the key to finding and maintaining a solid morning routine—and one you actually enjoy having! Wouldn’t it be nice to start your days feeling refreshed and energized to take on the challenges ahead?
Have you ever set out with great intentions to do something – a new diet, exercise regimen or morning routine, only to fall flat on your face a few days or weeks later? Then what? You beat yourself up that you didn’t do it ‘right’, that you failed. Here’s the thing, you haven’t failed, you have just found something that doesn’t work for you. And now, it’s time to find something that does. What works for a friend, colleague or spouse will not necessarily work for you. There is a perfect morning routine that will make YOU happy and productive all day – you just have to find yours.
Which is why, rather than give you a specific, one-size-fits-all morning routine, I’m going to give you some options. Think of it like a menu. You get to choose what makes sense for your life, with your personality, motivations, goals, desires and circumstances. Focused, productive, successful mornings generate focused, productive, successful days – which inevitably create a successful life.
A morning routine is said to boost happiness, increase productivity, reduce stress levels and get you grounded and settled for the day. It’s about getting started on the ‘right foot’. A morning routine also allows you to start your morning with intention, rather than letting the day run away from you. You control the day; the day doesn’t control you. This positive feeling of being on top of things has results in a positive feeling and effect on your entire day. As with many things in life, small changes lead to big results. It’s the compounding effect.

Strategy for morning routine
The first step is to pick out a few smaller routines that can become habits. Begin with three to five smaller routines in the morning that you can easily implement. Stick with this for a few weeks until they turn into a habit, then you can add additional activities. Think about what makes you feel happy and energised.

Another way to work out what should make up your morning routine is simply to think about what needs to be done each day before you leave the house. However, it’s crucial not to let these tasks consume you – you don’t have to achieve everything before you walk out your front door. Write down a to-do list and list them by importance. Don’t get stressed if you haven’t managed to do the things that are listed as less urgent. A clear to-do list will indicate the direction of the day and reduce stress levels, and will make the day run more smoothly.

Once you’ve considered what your morning routine should look like, the next step is to make a firm plan. You don’t want to leave too many decisions for the morning itself when you might be groggy and not necessarily in the best shape to make the right choices for your day. If a plan is in place, you’ll be more likely to follow it and enjoy the benefits. Write down how you’d like your mornings to look and then plan out how long this will take you. This can help protect you from mental fatigue, and allows you to focus on the things that are more important during the day and in life.

Remember that your morning routine has to work for you, and if you’re suddenly finding yourself more stressed about missing parts of it than you were before you even had the routine, then it isn’t working for you. So be adaptable and go with the flow – if you miss out sections of your routine then that’s fine.

The idea of implementing a lengthy morning routine or getting up an hour early to do a variety of things can make you want to go right back to bed. We only have so much ‘bandwidth’ and willpower in a day, and personally, I don’t want to use it all up by 7am.
This is the thing about most advice on morning routines. It’s not that it doesn’t work, it’s that it doesn’t work for everybody. Any habit you are trying to change or create needs to take into account your unique personality, lifestyle and challenges.

First off, which type of morning person are you?
A.) The Early (and Super Happy) Riser
B.) The “Always Late” Person
C.) The “Coffee First” Person
D.) The Night Owl (who tends to oversleep)
E.) The Snoozer
F.) The “Not a Morning Person at All” Person

Hopefully, that helped you identify what kind of morning person you are. The more aware you are of your current morning habits, the more you’ll understand what areas of your morning need attention. You can make the necessary adjustments to use your morning hours more effectively! Know that everyone is different and no one’s morning routines are the same. You for example might need more positive affirmations whereas someone else might need more time to meditate. It all depends on what exactly you need that morning and how much time you have. Morning routines are about consistency, showing up but most importantly, taking what you need for the day ahead and what suits your time schedule.

Benefits of a Solid Morning Routine
Having a daily morning routine isn’t about adding more to your to-do list for the day.
It’s about filling your mornings with activities (or stillness) that make you feel happy, doing things to fill up your own cup first and prepare you for the day ahead. Here are some of the top benefits of a morning ritual:

A solid morning routine will brighten your mood and give you more energy during the day, reduce anxiety, boost your productivity levels, and make you feel better overall! And when you take time to fill up your cup before the demands of the day get in the way, you’re more likely to have the mental, emotional, and physical capacity to tackle those challenges.

Calming your Morning Anxiety
Morning anxiety is not uncommon. In fact, many of us experience morning anxiety because of stress from work, school, relationships issues, and so on. Sometimes, anxiety can be caused by having too many obligations during the day, and other times it may be due to having poor planning and time management or lack of boundaries. While anxiety can occur at any time of the day, most people tend to feel it the most in the morning and there’s scientific reasoning as to why that is. For most people, cortisol, which is the stress hormone in our body, is at its highest level during the early morning hours. Because our cortisol levels are higher in the morning, we’re more likely to feel anxious, which in turn causes us to feel less focused and productive throughout the day. This is where a morning routine that fits your lifestyle can help alleviate morning anxiety!
Designing a healthy morning routine can help reduce morning anxiety by:

Tips for Creating a Solid Morning Routine ☀️
Now, let’s get you into some of the activities you can start implementing in your morning to help you become your most productive, creative, and take control of your days!

Get a good night’s sleep

Try and target 8 hours of sleep. Yes you may think you don’t need the full 8 hours sleep and might be able to function fine without it, but the importance of sleep is to destress your nervous system and allow it to rest up. If you have had a busy and stressful day, you want to take your body from sympathetic (fight or flight) to parasympathetic (rest and digest). Put your ego to the side and give some respect to your body by giving it time to fully rest and recharge after all it has done for you throughout your day.
There are a few tips when it comes to getting quality rest. These include:

Remember, your nighttime routine sets you up for your morning routine!

Set up a wake-up time and don’t hit snooze! 

Yeah, we’ve all been guilty of snoozing our alarms in the morning just to get five more minutes of sleep (so we think). The next thing you know, you’ve slept through all your alarms and you’re late and in a major rush…again. While we think sleeping in just a little longer is helping us get more rest, it’s actually doing the exact opposite. Sleep experts explain that snoozing your alarm messes with your sleep cycles and causes you to feel more tired and foggy because it disrupts your REM sleep—the stage of sleep when your brain is stimulated to help learning and memory. The secret to starting your morning off right is to get upright when the first alarm goes off. A little trick you can try is by counting down from five after being woken up by the first alarm. Simply countdown 5, 4, 3, 2, 1… then roll out of bed! This five-second rule, a countdown method, can help train your brain to break any bad habit and push you to take action that can change your life. Another tip is keeping slippers or an oversized jumper near your bed. These can make getting out of bed slightly easier on cold mornings.

Eat according to your needs 
Everyone’s bodies are different and so are their needs. Understanding how your unique body works, what types of food it needs, and how much food (energy) you need to power you through your daily activities is key! A good day starts with a good breakfast. It is true that the way we fuel our body in the morning can have a powerful influence on our physical health, our energy levels, and our mental attitude throughout the day. If we feed ourselves food with little to no nutritional value, we don’t feel our best, can find our energy levels peaking and crashing through the day, and feel unregulated. A healthy breakfast allows us to fuel our bodies properly and can lead to more consistent energy levels, enhances our mood and mental clarity as well as feeling more alert and focused.

Drink a full glass of water
Hydration is key to your health and well being. Drinking water is a crucial component of a great morning routine because when you feel good, you’re more focused and, as a result, more productive. Create a routine of staying hydrated in the morning by drinking a full glass of water when you first wake up. It’s a good idea to do this before your morning cup of coffee or tea to avoid forgetting. This also combats any dehydration that occurs from caffeinated drinks. I always ensure I have a pint of water next to my bed before I go to sleep at night. Once my alarm goes off I drink the water and instantly feel more awake.

Get a sweat sesh in or practise breathwork 
Implementing movement in your morning routine can help you gain mental clarity and improve attention span, feel a sense of accomplishment, feel rejuvenated and recharged after exercising and boost your metabolism and energy levels. There are several types of exercises that you can do, but the key is, once again, is learning how your body works, what it needs, and knowing what kind of activities you enjoy. Whether it be running, yoga, gym or walking your dogs, the goal is to incorporate movement and breathwork into your mornings to feel good, reduce stress and anxiety, boost energy levels, and improve your productivity. However you want to move, make sure that it’s enjoyable for you to help increase your adherence and elicit positive changes in your health and well-being

Practice Stillness
As much as body movement is important in the morning, so is practising stillness. Stillness can be key in helping us begin the day on the right foot. Activities like meditation, breathing, and prayer are all great examples of what this might look like as part of your morning routine. Practising stillness can help us feel grounded, focused, and ready to effectively prioritise tasks. Skipping this step can lead us to continue feeling rushed and less effective in our day, which defeats the point of developing a good morning routine! Practising stillness also allows us to reset and be fully present in the moment. We aren’t fully present when we are looking at emails, scrolling through Instagram, and multitasking—and this can cause increased stress and anxiety. Practising stillness, or even doing meditation and breathing exercises, helps set the tone of the day to help you feel calm, relaxed, and in control.

Journal, write down your thoughts or create a checklist for the day 
While you can journal any time of the day, doing it in the morning can have several benefits to your mental health. It helps declutter your brain when you write your thoughts out and allows you to free up space for what’s truly important. Aside from improved mental clarity, journaling in the morning can also help you connect with yourself and align with your intentions. When you write your intentions down, you become more aware of what matters to you, which helps bring your focus to those goals. This doesn’t have to be a “Dear Diary” entry at all. Quite the contrary. Our brain often works on a stream of consciousness rhythm and writing like this can be extremely beneficial. Being able to put your thoughts on paper (no matter how scattered) can help release stress, tension and frustration. If you’re more of a list person, do what works best for you. Try to focus on what you want to accomplish today by focusing on your daily schedule. How can you win today?

Gratitude
The morning is the best time to practise gratitude. This will set you up for the day with an optimistic outlook. It also helps you to feel more present, grounded and connected. A large part of my personal life is focused on the idea of mindfulness — of living in the present. Journal three things you are grateful for daily. This puts you from a scarcity to abundance mindset. If you look at what you have in life, you’ll always have more. If you look at what you don’t have in life, you’ll never have enough.

Say positive affirmations

Affirmations help combat limiting beliefs about yourself and support a confident mindset. When said in the morning, positive affirmations can motivate you to do your best and believe in yourself throughout the day.
Examples of common affirmations that you can try include:

Say these positive affirmations to yourself out loud or write them in a journal each morning to cultivate a more positive outlook.

Write a to do list and set intentions

Now it’s time to transition your mind from a relaxing routine to a productive workday. You can do this with a to-do list. Write down your most important tasks and goals for the day. By ranking each task by importance and listing them in sequential order, you can set up a more manageable schedule.

Invest time for learning and take in some content 
I really value the importance of learning and growing 1% every day. In fact, it’s one of the core values that keeps me grounded, focused, and motivated to learn something new and get better every day. Starting the day with learning can help bring a new perspective to many different aspects of your life and inspire you to think more creatively, especially at work.
Read a book, listen to a podcast, watch a YouTube video. No matter how busy you are, I guarantee you that investing even ten minutes for learning every day will help improve your personal growth. Level up your life by reading on subjects that directly correlate to your goals. Focus on reading material that directly correlates to your wants/needs in your personal life. What would you like to improve on? What would you like to learn more about?
It is part of my personal philosophy to learn something new every day. This time reading isn’t about speed. It is meant to be a learning process. If you have learned something about yourself or life, you have succeeded.

Spend time with loved ones 
Humans have the biological need for connection, meaning our brains and bodies are wired to connect with others. Not only is connection one of our biological needs, but it also has the power to create positive changes in the brain. Take a few moments of your time in the morning to connect with your family, friends, loved ones, and so on. Whether it’s over the phone or in person, the connection will help you feel supported, which in turn will help you feel empowered, determined, inspired, and ready to tackle the day ahead.

Disconnect With the World
For example you could go on a walk. This is a no technology walk. Set aside time to disconnect with the world and reconnect with nature. That’s my goal for my walks: to enjoy nature, enjoy the morning and enjoy the day ahead. This really helps with my constant goal of being mindful. My daily walk is my time to meditate and collect my thoughts before allowing any stress to enter my brain. If yoga or sitting silently for a few minutes works for you, do that. Create a routine around your time, schedule and comfort level. Make sure to take some time out of your morning to focus on the present.

Prepare the night before 
Now here’s a tip that’s technically not part of a morning routine, but it is key to ensuring your morning routine sticks. Planning your days the night before can help increase your morning productivity and reduce the amount of thinking power that you’ll need when your day begins. When you plan the night before, you’ll know exactly what you’ll be doing the next day, what you need, how much time you need for each activity, and so on! What you do the night before will have a domino effect on how your morning will unfold. So if you want to be your most productive self when the day comes, then write three to five of the most important things you want to get done the night before and block off the time you’ll need to knock those out.

Putting it all into practice
Be Flexible: Let go of any expectations to develop the perfect routine and perform it perfectly every morning. You are not looking for perfection at all in this new habit, just intentional energy being put toward creating a morning routine that works best for you. Being flexible means that you can allow yourself to adapt and adjust, finding what works well and being willing to let go of what doesn’t work well. Remember that you are developing a morning routine to live more productively and peacefully, not so you can live with even more stress!

Be Consistent: The most helpful habits are the ones that we can keep up with consistently. If the idea of a morning routine is new to you, don’t worry. Practising consistency will help your routine feel more and more natural over time. As you feel and see the positive impact a good morning routine has on your day, you will find it motivating to continue practising that habit. It will feel less like something you “should” do and become something you look forward to doing. If you skip a day, jump right back to it the next. Again, this is not about performing perfectly but about you giving yourself the opportunity to live your best.

Take Charge of Technology: Despite some of our best efforts to not let technology take over, we often find it getting in the way or being unavoidable. In developing your morning routine, don’t focus on giving up technology because—let’s be honest—that will not work. You may likely use your phone as your alarm! What you’re looking to do instead is take back authority over your technology. Allow the technology to work for you and use it accordingly. You decide how your devices, or technology in general, will play a role in your morning routine.
If you find yourself letting aimless screen time invade the morning routine, allow yourself to put those boundaries back in place so that you can refocus on the purpose of developing a healthy morning routine.

Plan at Night: Although we are talking about developing a good morning routine, it can be helpful to start this process the night before. If there are things you can set in place to make your morning easier, go ahead and do that before bed. Simple ideas could include laying out your clothes for the next day, prepping the food you will have for breakfast, or packing your lunch ahead of time. Your morning self will thank you!

Conclusion – Ready To Design Your Morning Routine? 
Whether you’re looking to maximise the start of your days, organise your mornings, make time for what’s important, or simply feel more in control of your schedule, creating a solid morning routine that’s designed for your lifestyle will help you get there. Wake up early (and on time), nourish and move your body, invest time to learn something new or practice to get better at something, spend time with people that matter to you, and plan ahead. The more you take care of yourself and stay consistent every morning, the better you’ll feel all around and will help you feel your most productive and creative self at work. And remember: Your time is valuable—be intentional with it!

Journal prompts for creating a morning routine

Books 
The Miracle Morning by Hal Elrod, Atomic Habits: by James Clear, Own Your Morning by Liz Baker Plosser, Make Your Bed by william H McRaven, The 5am Club by Robin Sharma
Meditation Miracle Morning ✨ Guided Meditation

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