Creating a morning routine and sticking to it can be truly beneficial for your health and well-being. With that being said, I have to be honest with you:
I’m not a morning person 🙂 and I don’t believe I’ll ever become one of those cheerful people who get out of bed with a ton of energy and embrace the new day with a smile on their face.
In fact, I like staying late, I like writing in the evening, and in
If you’re in a hurry, here’s the audio version of this blog post:
Here are 5 positive ways to start the day:
1. Have Your First Quick Win
There’s a saying that goes like this: ‘Win the morning and you will win the day.’ Of course, not every morning goes well, but you can definitely do your best to enjoy the rest of the day.
How I do that—and how you can do that, too—is by going for a small win; a first achievement for the day, right after you wake up.
That small win can be meditating, making your bed, taking care of your skin, exercising, or something else that would make you feel like you’ve taken on the day right from the start.
2. No Phone in the Morning
This one is extremely important. Stop checking on your phone the moment you wake up. Reading emails first thing in the morning or scrolling through social media will completely flood your mind with unnecessary information before you’ve even fully woken up.
So, what can you do instead? Put your phone on ‘Airplane’ mode at night, or at least ‘Do Not Disturb’ mode if you’re expecting an urgent call.
3. Take Care of Yourself
Every morning routine needs a little twist. If you’re not a morning person like me, think of it as a great way to take care of yourself.
Personally, I like to have proper breakfast. Try it out for yourself. Even if you’re not a breakfast person, drink lots of water and have a bite of food that makes you feel full of energy.
What I also consider taking care of myself, is doing my skincare routine. No matter how busy I am, I always find time to shower and take care of my skin.
Find out what makes you feel good about yourself in the morning and implement it into your daily routine. Life is too busy as it is, so taking a few minutes to yourself could feel quite refreshing.
4. Declutter Your Mind
Let’s say you’ve already showered, had your breakfast and coffee, now you want to see what’s going on with the world. Nope, not yet!
First, let me tell you about a concept I learned from ‘The Artist’s Way’ by Julia Cameron, a book that’s been recommended by Tim Ferriss for years. So, I finally bit the bullet, and I’m really happy that I did.
There’s an exercise in ‘The Artist’s Way’ that will help you declutter your mind: it’s called ‘Morning pages’. Here’s how it goes:
You write down whatever is on your mind on 3 pages. It’s important to write down more than 3-4 sentences because the second and the third page will help you move yourself into action.
There’s no right or wrong way to do morning pages, but if you do them daily, you will notice having more clarity in your day.
And if you don’t know what to write about on your morning pages or you feel like you need some help to spark your creativity, try the free Write Light app.
The whole idea behind it is to help you get inspired to write by asking you interesting questions. Once you’ve gotten past writing the first few sentences, you’ll find the whole process quite enjoyable.
5. Be Consistent
What’s the hardest part about creating a morning routine? Being consistent and actually sticking to your morning routine in the long term. To make sure that happens, I recommend that you incorporate one thing at a time.
Say that you’ve been taking care of yourself by having a morning shower for a week or two. Good. You’ve been consistent! Maybe you can add a second action to your morning routine, like a quick win, by making your bed or meditating. After two weeks of showers and meditation, you could think about doing morning pages.
Whatever you’d like to have as part of your routine, the trick is to stay consistent and take up one new thing at a time.
Every person’s morning routine is different. What works for me may not work for you. So, please, don’t be too harsh on yourself if you end up not liking meditation or feel too disconnected to the world if you don’t check your phone in the morning. The goal is to find what works for you.
Also, don’t criticize yourself if you fall into your old habits here and there. It’s okay to not do your morning pages daily, or not have time to meditate every day, or answer an email sometimes first thing in the morning. The important thing is to be aware of your actions.
And if you find out a morning routine that makes you pumped, energized, and ready to conquer the day, try to stick with it. In time, you’ll notice that if you forget or don’t feel like doing some of these steps, there will be a difference in the way your day turns out.
Wishing you a productive day,
