The Power Of Morning Routines
Do you want to set up your day up to be the best and most productive they can be? Morning routines help make your days more productive, positive and fulfilling.
Here are 10 of the best morning routines (or some people call them morning rituals) to set up your day.
1. Wake Up Early
Before thinking about getting up early and when to set your alarm, start by getting a good night’s sleep. Waking up early shouldn’t come at the cost of needed rest. It’s recommended to get between 7-9 hours of sleep a night, depending on your age and how much exercise you usually do.
You can improve your sleep by shutting off your electronic devices an hour before bedtime. According to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), the blue light emitted from electronic screens decreases the natural levels of melatonin in your body. Melatonin is a hormone that your body releases at nighttime to help you fall asleep. Blue light also can make it hard to stay asleep because it affects your sleep quality.
Waking up early takes advantage of the highest cortisol levels you have all day. Cortisol, often known as the stress hormone, is also responsible for making you awake and alert. Your cortisol levels drop throughout the day and into the night but rise again in the morning.
Waking up early lets you get a head start on your day to make it one of the best. A study conducted by DePaul University showed that people who wake up early procrastinate less than those that sleep late. Procrastination keeps you from being productive and won’t give you your best days.
2. Wake Up At The Same Time Each Day
Along with waking up early, your morning routine should start at the same time every day. While you may occasionally need to wake up earlier than usual or chose to sleep in later, having a routine time to wake up has benefits for your day.
A study in the Journal of Public Health found that having a regular wake-up time is part of a healthy lifestyle. Keeping to a routine sleep schedule improves your day from the very start.
Hitting the snooze button harms your sleep and won’t give you the best day, so don’t do it! Sleep happens in cycles, with Rapid Eye Movement (REM) sleep happening right at the end of a cycle. REM sleep is the most restorative part of sleeping, so disrupting that part of the cycle leaves you feeling groggy and tired.
If your snooze alarm is long enough to allow you to fall into REM sleep, waking up repeatedly during that part of the cycle will make you feel even more tired. And if you don’t fall into REM sleep between snooze alarms, the light sleep you get for a few extra minutes won’t help you feel awake and alert.
3. Make Your Bed
Now that you’re awake get up and make your bed. Making your bed each morning offers helps you start the day on the right foot. By making your bed it signifies the completion of the sleep part of your 24 hour period and the beginning of the day. Leaving a tidy bedroom behind you can help you feel calmer, more organised and less stressed.
4. Eat Breakfast
It’s important to eat breakfast to give yourself energy for the rest of the day. Skipping breakfast can result in lowered blood sugar levels which in turn can result in low energy, lack of concentration and cravings for unhealthy foods.
Give yourself enough time to eat so you feel relaxed and not rushed. Your digestive system will be happier and you’ll feel less stressed.
5. Exercise Routine
According to a study by the University of California, the morning is the most productive time of day to exercise.
Exercise in the morning can help:
- Get more oxygen into the body
- Have a rejuvenating effect
- Stimulate metabolism
- Improve your mood
Having a morning exercise routine helps to jumpstart your metabolism and keep it working efficiently throughout the day. Many people report feeling more rejuvenated when they exercise in the morning, giving every day the potential to be one of the best days.
Exercise increases the levels of norepinephrine and endorphins, which help regulate mood and decrease stress.
Regular exercise can also improve your sleep by regulating your circadian rhythm. Your circadian rhythm is your body’s internal clock for the wake and sleep cycles.
Getting your exercise done in the morning means it won’t get forgotten or put off until “later” – which never comes.
6. Hot and Cold Therapy
Some of the world’s most successful people use hot and cold therapy rituals to start their day. Hot and cold therapy can be done by simply changing the temperature of a shower or by more elaborate methods like swimming and sauna use. A study in PlosONE showed that hot and cold therapy resulted in a 29% reduction in days absent from work for illness.
Participants also reported an increase in energy levels. Researchers caution not to use excessive heat or cold levels, which could damage the skin with burns or frostbite.
Hot and cold therapies are also routinely used to loosen tight muscles, reduce soreness, and promote the healing of sprains and strains. If your body is sore after your exercise ritual, hot and cold therapy may help you to feel more relaxed with less pain to start your day.
7. Affirmations
Affirmations are a powerful morning routine to practice and can provide motivation that helps people move toward success.
Affirmations are a combination of positive self-talk and belief in present and future success. What better way is there to make your days the best than by starting out believing they will be the best?
While you can tailor your affirmations to your goals, some everyday affirmations include:
- I am in the here and now, my past is in the past
- I choose peace
- I will succeed today
- I’m good at what I do
- I have the power to create change
- I am worthy of respect
- My life is good
Affirmations are best said out loud. To remind yourself of your affirmations as a morning routine and throughout the day, post the list of your affirmations where you will see them every morning. Try speaking your affirmations to yourself in the mirror to tell yourself this is who you are and what you will accomplish.
8. Visualization
Visualization is another powerful way to make your days be what you want them to be. While there are many visualization techniques, generally, visualization involves seeing your successes in your mind before you accomplish them.
The more complete your visualization, the more likely you will achieve your goals.
Visualization takes practice. You can start with this basic technique:
- Start by visualizing yourself achieving your goal.
- Fill in the details by visualizing the details:
- What do you see around you?
- What do you hear?
- How does the environment feel?
- How do you feel?
- Practice by repeating your visualization and adding as much detail as you can.
For example, imagine your goal is to get a new job. Visualize getting the phone call that says are hired. Now fill in the details.
Are you at home when you get the call or at your current job? Who do you tell first, and what do they say to you?
Visualize the room you are in when you get the news. Is it hot or cold?
Can you hear sounds from outside or sounds like the copy machine and your coworkers talking? At that moment, how does getting a new job make you feel?
Are you happy, excited, nervous, or do you want to shout it to the world?
Once you’ve built a complete visualization in your mind, practice your visualization as part of your morning routine.
9. Answer Emails
For a productive day get through your emails early in the day. According to Lifewire, a top-ten technology site, the average business person gets 121 emails a day. That’s a lot of distractions throughout the day!
When you begin your day answer any emails that can be answered immediately.
Flag any email you may need to come back to later in the day once you’re researched and answer or talked with other people involved.
10. Plan Your Day
Once you have managed your incoming emails, it’s time to plan your day. Having a plan for your workday and home life can give you another one of your best days. A well-planned day reduces stress, keeps you from missing appointments and deadlines, and helps ensure you have enough time to do what you need to do.
You can use a written planner or a computer version, whichever works best for you. Write down a list of things to do. Group items together that are similar or put the items that won’t take long to do first and then list the actions that will take time. That way you can get through the quick things first and feel like you’ve accomplished something.
When planning, use time blocking, especially if you work from home or have an irregular work schedule. Time blocking schedules time for a type of task but not necessarily the tasks themselves. For example, you may time block your mornings for work activities, your afternoons for personal projects, and your evenings for family time.
To maximize your performance throughout the day, schedule time for breaks and meals. Short breaks can help improve performance so don’t be afraid to schedule in some breaks. Take a lunch break so you can re-fuel and have plenty of energy for the afternoon.
Leave some time open during the day to manage last-minute or sudden issues. This way, if your attention is diverted, you will still accomplish what you need to do.
As you go through the day tick off what you’ve done (or put a line through) and at the end of the day, check how your plan worked. If you still find yourself short of time or stressed to finish things, revise your plan until your days are the best.
Summary
So, there you have it! Try some of these morning routines and see how that improves your day. If you have some success or have other routines to suggest please comment below.
If you like a little challenge here’s a 7 Day Morning Makeover Challenge. This will take you through 7 days of ways to makeover your morning to help relieve stress and make your days very productive!
