What is a morning routine, and why should you have one?

Introduction

According to bestselling author Hal Elrod, ‘Focused, productive successful mornings generate focused, productive, successful days – which inevitably create a successful life.’

While I agree with the above statement, how do we get to have focused, productive, successful mornings? Simple answer is to have a morning routine.

In the article below, I will explain what a morning routine is, elaborate why it’s important to have one and give you practical tips on implementing one.

What is a morning routine?

According to Game Quitters, a website helping people beat their video game addiction, a morning routine is a set of habits that you complete when you get up in the morning:

A morning routine is quite simply what it says. It’s a set of habits or motions that you go through when you wake up. It helps to set your day up in the right way and can have some drastic effects on your focus and productivity.

But again, there is more to it. While most people have some kind of routine of what they do after hearing their alarm go off, for most people, this routine is not intentional or designed to make them ease into the day and set them up for success.

On hearing their alarm, many people press snooze and snooze again until the last feasible time they can drag themselves out of bed without being late for work. Those people then run around their house or flat like a headless chicken trying to get dressed, showered and out of the door. They gulp down some coffee or get takeout on their way to work. They start their day being tired and flustered rather than calm and collected. This can have an impact on the rest of their day.

On the other hand, a good morning routine is a set of activities intentionally created to ease you gently into the day.

Hal Elrod – The Miracle Morning

The above-quoted author and motivational speaker, Hal Elrod wrote a book called The Miracle Morning. 6 habits that will transform your life before 8 am. In the book, he explains how getting up at 5 am and following the six steps below have changed his life:

• Silence.
• Affirmations.
• Visualization.
• Exercise.
• Reading.
• Scribing.

Elrod is an interesting guy who invented the above to get his life on track because of personal problems and health issues. (More on him some other time). Some people, however, find him divisive and annoying and have no desire to get up at 5 am and follow six different activities before starting a day’s work. The good news is you don’t have to.

Whether you are an early bird or a night owl, having 2 hours each morning or 20 minutes for your morning routine doesn’t matter. We can create our own rituals that suit our lifestyles with some experimentation.

Now that we have established a morning routine let me use the following section to explain how you could implement one and some activities you can carry out.

How to implement a successful Morning routine – The Importance of Sleep

Tracy Kennedy, in an article for Life Hack entitled The Ultimate Morning Routine to Make You Happy And Productive All Day explains that a good morning routine starts the night before by making sure you get enough sleep:

1. A healthy morning routine starts the night before.

Getting quality sleep is essential to starting your mornings off right. Make sure you get the recommended 7-9 hours (or whatever works for you). If you’re going to get up earlier for your morning routine, you need to go to bed earlier.

Here are some basic ways to get a good night’s sleep:

• Get off your electronics at least an hour before bed (and set them to DND or leave them outside of your bedroom).
• Make sure you have a comfortable pillow and mattress.
• Set a consistent sleep routine, reduce outside noise and sleep in a well-darkened room or wear an eye mask.

Sleep is often underrated; unless you have insomnia, as I do, you take it for granted. But sleep is not a waste of time; it is vital to set you up for success. So, figure out when you must be at work, how much time you need before work and how long you need to sleep.

While I enjoy being up early in the morning and having a couple of hours where no one messages me or comments on my Facebook, I am known as an early bird. (More on that another time) you don’t have to be. You might be a night owl, the counterpart to an early bird where you are at your most productive late at night. Work with your body clock and not against it: ‘The most important thing isn’t when you get out of bed. It’s getting in tune with your body’s clock for a good routine.’ (Mike Vardy)

How to implement a successful Morning routine – Keep it Simple

Once you hear your alarm clock, do not press the snooze button, but get up straight away. Hal Elrod suggests having your alarm clock on the other side of the room. Drink some water to get the hydration going.

If you haven’t ever implemented any morning routine, start simple, don’t attempt to do too much and then fail after only a few trials

Tracy Kennedy, in the above-mentioned article, believes that starting with one or two simple activities is a good starting point and allows you to build a foundation on:

Keep it simple

Find one or two things (three max) that you feel will work for YOU to get you on a roll. Start with a quick win and work your way up from there.

I don’t recommend choosing eight things and then giving up – or beating yourself up because you couldn’t make it work. If you put too much on your plate, you won’t do anything. Eventually, you’ll want to have at least one activity from each of the four categories, but you can start small and work your way up.

One of the things I do every morning, and I think it would work with minimal effort, is to have a leisurely cuppa of my favourite drink while sitting in silence. This practice allows me to wake up and reflect on the day ahead slowly.

Appreciating an aromatic cup of coffee or tea can make starting your day more enjoyable. Combine your morning beverage with an opportunity to spend time with your housemates, family, or pets. 

Likewise, you can take this time to breathe deeply and give yourself a few minutes of mindfulness before you begin the rest of your morning routine. (Best morning routine: 21 steps for a more productive day)

How to implement a successful Morning routine – The two things that tell

I do two things every morning that are easy to implement. They give my brain the signal that the day has started. One is making my bed; I do this without fail every morning. It says to my brain that it’s time to wake up and start the day. Without fail, I shower and get dressed in the morning, even when I don’t have to go out and see clients. The above set me in a working mood and tells my brain it’s time to do business and stop lounging around. It works.

The above three things set you off a sound footing to start your day, but there are other things you can do, and I do too.

Journal

‘Journaling when you first wake up can help improve your mental health and can be a great part of a morning routine’ (Sanjana Gupta – 10 steps to building a great morning routine to improve your productivity and happiness)

I journal daily to get things out of my head and onto paper. This helps with processing stuff that is going on in your head. I use an app called Diarium, in which I answer a set of 12 predetermined questions set by me. Some of the questions I include are :

What happened yesterday?

What am I thankful for right now?

My dreams

What did I read or hear?

What can I do next to move forward on my goals?

Of course, you could journal with pen and paper. I’ve done this for many years, and you could also free flow or complete morning pages. I think that’s a discussion for another blog post.

Meditation or Prayers

I meditate every morning through an app called Headspace that I downloaded onto my phone. Headspace has a whole host of guided meditations for you to work through. Some are long; others are short. ‘Meditation can support relaxation and can go hand in hand with positive affirmations.’ (Team Asana)

One can use other meditation apps, online meditation on YouTube or meditation books.

An alternative to meditation might be praying if you are religious.

Reading

Reading is another excellent activity to do in the morning. When I was younger, I read the newspaper, but I found it too stressful with all the daily horror. So I have started reading poetry. One poem every morning, Adrianne Rich, Hermann Hesse, and William Morris, to name just a few of the poets.

Exercise

Maybe the thought of sweating heavily or running on a treadmill does not appeal to you. Perhaps you have mobility issues and can’t run around. Exercise doesn’t have to be sweaty or straining. I walk around the local park every morning for as little as 5 minutes. You could do the same. Fresh air and moving your body does you a world of good.

Elrod stresses the importance in engaging in exercise daily. Regardless of how long, moving your body encourages blood flow, mental clarity and will boost energy levels, health and will increase your productivity. Despite what some people think, exercising will help you maintain energy levels throughout the entire day. (Best Book Bits)

Check Your Calendar and To-do List

Lastly, it could be a good idea to review your appointments and to-do’s to ensure you know exactly what the day ahead has in store for you.

Benefits of a morning routine

Morning routines improve your mental health.

A solid morning routine has long been the backbone of my self-care practice. As someone who deals with depression and anxiety, it makes a noticeable difference in my mental health (and I definitely feel an even bigger difference when I skip it). (Anna Borges)

Morning routines make you more productive.

Morning routines help you focus for the day: ‘Set your mind on what you want to focus on for the day, and set your heart and mind with the right attitude.’ (Brit Joiner)

I hope the above has given you some understanding of why having a solid morning routine is essential, how to implement one, and the fact that you don’t need to follow some predetermined formula. Invent your own to suit your needs.

Please get in touch if you want to find out more about the above or anything else