First thing in the morning, do you reach for the snooze button or a cup of coffee? Do you want to become an early riser who wakes up at dawn feeling refreshed instead of waking up later in the morning feeling groggy? A morning routine is what you need!
Morning routines aren’t only for hyperproductive entrepreneurs or millionaires. Anyone who wants to rise early, improve their productivity, and give their days direction or more meaning, can implement a morning routine.
Build your morning routine today with the best morning routine ideas for success.
How To Create a Morning Routine for You
Decide What You’re Lacking
Why start a morning routine? A morning routine is a chance to prioritize your life before the day’s stress piles on top of you.
So choose some part of your life that you’d like to focus on or improve. Then, find a way to work on it in your morning.
Pick Three Things and Put Them in Order
A great morning routine can be as long as you like but first, pick three things.
Give them an order, so you know which you’ll do first, second and third. Clarity is the key to a good morning routine, you want to make only a few decisions in the morning, or your morning routine habit will fall apart.
Commit To Doing It
Once you have created your morning routine and put it in order, it’s time to commit. It could be for 30 days or six weeks but commit to your new morning routine long enough to see some effect.
It may be difficult at first, and you might miss a day or two when you wake up late. Just restart the next day and keep going.
Once your period is up, decide if you want to add or remove anything.
Sleep Well
Your evening routine the night before will dictate how your morning goes. Maintaining a consistent sleep cycle will improve the quality of your sleep and help wake you up on time in the morning. Here are the steps to get a good night’s sleep.
- Don’t be a night owl. Ensure you get enough sleep by going to bed at least 8 hours before you want to wake up
- Avoid screens. Give yourself a break from blue light for at least an hour before bed to get quality sleep.
- Don’t sleep on a full stomach. Avoid eating or drinking an hour before bed.
- Go to bed at the same time every day.
Wake Up Early and Run Your Morning Routine
There’s no such thing as too early! You don’t need to be a morning person to get out of bed early and start your morning routine, but you need to be motivated.
If you want to be an early riser and not get stuck in the cycle of hitting snooze and going back to bed, you need a solid reason to get up. Your routine is that reason.
8 Morning Routine Ideas To Start Your Day Right
Great days rarely just happen. You must make them happen. A healthy morning routine is the best opportunity to take your day in your desired direction.
We’ve all had terrible mornings which ruin the rest of the day. Don’t let that happen to you! Creating a perfect morning routine and practicing it gives you the best chance for a happy, productive day.
Here are the eight best morning routine ideas. Find a way to fit them into your mornings.
1. Walk Barefoot on Grass
Many studies have shown the healing effect of nature, both on our physicality and our mental lives. So getting a dose of nature when you first wake up is just what the doctor ordered.
When you walk barefoot on grass, you come in direct contact with nature, breathe fresh air, and get a dose of vitamin D from the sun on your skin.
So even if you don’t wake up early every morning or jump out of bed, you can still spend 5 minutes on this short morning ritual.
2. Pray or Meditate
Spending time early in your day in quiet prayer or meditation will set the tone for the rest of your day. In worship, we express gratitude for our things and focus on how we might improve our lives and the lives of others around us.
In meditation, we quiet the mind, release our stresses and prepare ourselves for the coming storm (isn’t every day like a storm we need to survive?) Try this:
- Sit somewhere comfortable, close your eyes, and count down your breaths, starting at 100. Then, visualize the numbers in your mind’s eye.
3. Work Out
Everyone knows the benefits of exercise, so why don’t we exercise as much as we should?
According to exercise.com, the number one reason people don’t exercise is that they don’t have the time. Number two is that they lack motivation.
The misconception is that if you want to work out, you must spend an hour or more at the gym. But you can work out effectively in 10 minutes at home if you wish.
The key is to make it enjoyable, which will keep motivation high.
- Instead of running on a treadmill, learn 10 minutes of tai chi
- Instead of aerobics, play some one-on-one in the backyard
- Instead of the stationary bike, hit a heavy bag or shadow box
You get the point. If you choose something you enjoy, you’ll do it more often and set yourself up for a better day.
4. Practice a Hobby
By incorporating one of your hobbies into your morning routine, you enjoy doing something you love every morning and ensure that you consistently progress.
If you don’t have a pastime you can do at home, find an indoor hobby you can practice for a lifetime. It could be a skill you want to perfect, a gentle exercise, an intellectual pursuit, or something artistic. Here are examples of each:
- Magic with cards
- Tai Chi or Yoga
- Speed reading
- Photography
5. Talk to Someone You Love
It’s early. You must get ready and go to work; you’ve got things to do! But, don’t forget for whom you’re doing it.
You might need to work to support your family, but could you spend 15 minutes each morning reading to your children or talking with your spouse? How much better would your relationship be if you made that time every day for the next decade?
6. Network
You might think that only businesspeople need to network or that only slimy salespeople do. But, on the contrary, networking is one of the most valuable things you can do because every extra person you meet is someone who may solve your life’s problems.
How do you network and meet new people without coming across as trying to sell them something? Well, don’t send emails or messages to strangers online (would you respond to one?)
Instead, try this: When you’re waiting for your morning coffee, pay for the person next to you too. It will open up a natural conversation and only cost you a few bucks.
Even if nothing comes of it, you start your morning being generous, making yourself feel good all day.
7. Read
Oprah, Bill Gates, and Warren Buffet all have one thing in common apart from their success, they all make time to read every day.
Reading gives us fresh ideas, new ways to live and think, and challenges what we think we already know. Without further input, we will become stale in our businesses and lives.
Jim Rohn said, “If you do what you’ve always done, you’ll get what you’ve always gotten.”
Reading can be something other than a snooze. Use speed reading techniques to read faster and retain more. To double your reading speed instantly, download an RSVP app such as:
8. Plan Your Day
The best self-development tip you can receive is to write things down. Productivity guru and author of Getting Things Done, David Allen, says, “Your mind is for having ideas, not for holding them.”
So if you’re trying to plan your day in your mind, you’re making a big mistake. It’s not just that you’re likely to forget your plans, but how you interact with them will be different too. You’ll see connections and problems quickly when everything is before you.
Where should you make your plans?
- Bullet Journal
- Task management app
- Second Brain like Obsidian
Here’s an easy three-step method to plan the perfect day:
- Can’t Miss – Write down any scheduled events
- Must Do – Write the most important task you want to do
- Can Do – Write down other tasks you’d like to complete
Celebrity Morning Routine Examples
Bruce Lee
Bruce Lee was the epitome of success as a world-class athlete and the first Asian lead in an American movie. However, his morning routine tells of what was important to him – martial arts and family.
Bruce Lee’s Morning Routine, according to brucelee.com.
- Stretch
- Jog
- Family breakfast
- Play with kids
Arnold Schwarzenegger
Arnold Schwarzenegger made his dream of leaving Austria to make it in America come true and dominated three different industries. He was Mr. Olympia seven times, the highest-paid actor in Hollywood, and the governor of California.
When we look at his morning routine, we see what is important to him, politics and exercise.
- Coffee
- Read the newspaper
- Cycle to the gym
- Workout
- Cycle home
- Breakfast
If there’s something to take away from the morning routines of successful people, it’s that they put the things most important to them first. No one knows how their day will unfold, but by creating meaning in your life early in the morning, you won’t have regrets later on.
Make Your Mornings Meaningful
Whatever you put into your morning routine, take the advice of the most successful people who have lived and include the things that mean the most.
This article originally appeared on Savoteur and has been republished with permission by Mama Say What?!
Featured Image Credit: Shutterstock /Nenad Aksic
