Ready to ditch the 10-step, overly-complex wake-up schedule and start using a simple morning routine that actually works? Let’s set our morning alarms and get started.
If you’re anything like me, you’re obsessed with finding the key to productivity. After years of procrastinating while a student at university, I started to look for ways to eliminate this procrastination bug. I became mildly obsessed with productivity books, trying every morning routine out there. I mean, seriously, I’ve tried it all – cold showers, green vegetable drinks, ocean swims, 5am wake-ups. Unfortunately, at times my morning routine was the most tiring part of the day! Please let me save you this effort.
There’s a lot of advice out there – especially surrounding the hype of morning routines. I hope this article will sift through all the information, and help you curate a simple morning routine that actually works for you! We are going to identify what morning routines can do for your productivity and mindset, what to include and how to curate them so that your morning routines work to bring you success in your life.
After reading these tips and tricks, you’ll be inspired, efficient, and ready to whip yourself into productivity mode to achieve anything!!
This post is all about how to create a simple morning routine that works.
{READ – How To Create A Routine And Stick To It – 11 Essential Tips}
How To Create A Simple Morning Routine That Works
Why is having a simple morning routine important?
There are many reasons why people enjoy a good old morning routine. For Tim Ferris, achieving those few simple things in the morning makes him feel like he has already “won the day”. Tony Robbins suggests morning routines help adjust our “mental and emotional filters” in how we view our own lives, putting us in a positive and empowering state. I think we can all relate to this. Remember that time you snoozed your alarm, missed your workout class, and then were late to work? Naturally, your mind is going to be more disgruntled than your neighbour Ned, who’s arrived an hour early, has already exercised and even read the newspaper for an hour while sipping his coffee. Ned is calm, feeling positive about his day, and is likely to be more adaptable than someone who’s already scrambling to set up his day.
Your mornings, whether you know it or not, can set the tone for how you approach the rest of the day. Mel Robbins states “having a solid and intentional morning routine is the key to being happy, successful, and confident”.
So let’s get you in a good mood and find you a simple morning routine that works for you.
Top Tips for a successful and consistent simple morning routine:
1. Identify your priority
The perfect morning routine is going to look different for everyone. It’s such an individualized and personal thing because it needs to include what best suits your character, your goals and be in alignment with whatever season of life you’re in. For example, a mother with kids and a full-time job may well feel exhausted and looking to use their morning routines to benefit their mental health, starting their day with some ‘me-time’. For this reason, they might include things that bring them joy. Their morning might look like reading a book in a quiet space while having a coffee. Doing this set’s them into a positive mind frame. For others, the morning might be about achieving certain goals. Perhaps someone is wanting to get fit physically – their morning routine might include a workout and some yoga. Perhaps you’re a student and you find yourself consistently procrastinating. Your morning routine will be a way of curating some motivation and discipline in order to take on your studies.
This is why a morning routine is not a one size fits all approach. Figure out your why and then you’ll be able to pick and choose the activities that will serve best for you.
2. Choose the same wake-up time
In my opinion, in order to build discipline and curate your morning routine as a strong habit, waking up at the same time is a game changer. I want to preface that this technically goes against the advice of some productivity gurus. Famously, James Clear, author of Atomic Habits, rarely uses an alarm. He likes to wake up when he feels rested to ensure his body has had enough sleep. Oprah Winfrey also doesn’t set an alarm. For Oprah, her joy is being woken by her dogs and firstly spending time with them. Personally, I think the notion of ‘not setting an alarm’ has a certain amount of privilege. Personally, I have to be physically at work at a certain time and would live in fear of sleeping in past this time. I also don’t have a dog to wake me up (dang).
I personally enjoy setting an alarm because then I have consistency with my wake-up time and this has some incredible health benefits. According to Russel Foster, a Professeur of Circadian Neuroscience, fostering a consistent sleep rhythm is actually going to help us get better and more restful sleep. The body loves consistency, especially with our sleep schedule! Your body will benefit most from you waking up and going to bed at a daily consistent time – yes, that means even on weekends! Once your body has established a consistent sleep routine, you’ll likely feel more alert, productive, happier, and calmer – the benefits are endless! So set that alarm, get to bed on time and after a week or two enjoy jumping out of bed with energy (I mean we hope!).
3. Prioritise consistency by being realistic
There is no point in creating a morning routine that you cannot do consistently. You will experience the greatest benefits when your morning ritual actually becomes a habit, and in order for it to become an unconscious habit, it needs to be consistently and routinely acted upon every morning. If you cannot wake up at 5am every day because you play sport late at night sundays, then likely that is not going to be a realistic routine to set. If you don’t always have time in the morning to go for a beach swim, perhaps that’s something you can do a couple of times throughout the week but does not take a habitual place in your core morning routine. Ideally your habits are simple, small and need little equipment or environmental factors. For example, stretching is something you can integrate no matter where you wake up. Best way to ensure your routine is realistic and consistent is simplify, simplify, simplify!
4. Focus on eliminating rather than adding
I am someone who is always trying to do too many things at once, so I love this advice. I heard about this concept of eliminating over adding from the business guru Alex Hormozi. I will include his youtube video below – it’s well worth a watch. Essentially. Hormozi talks about the common problem of people adding too many activities to their morning routine which results in them spending less time on their actual goals. I think many can relate to this. You’re feeling motivated one night, you google ‘successful morning routines’ and watch some youtube channels, and boom, you’ve planned the perfect morning routine – except that it’s 4 hours long (uh oh). It’s easy to get caught up in productivity trends, hence the title of this article focusing on simple morning routines.
For example, let’s say you’re a student and your goal is to stop procrastinating your study. For this student, it’s not going to be worthwhile spending 2 hours in the morning reading books, journalling, meditating, etc. The best morning routine might be to simply wake up, have a glass of water and then complete 30 to 60 minutes of study. Imagine that, already kicked out a study sesh before breakfast. How good would you feel? Ready to kick some more goals throughout the day? I bet you are. Statistically, the morning is when we are most likely to make the best decisions. Plus if you were to create this a habit or routine, getting started with study suddenly becomes easier.
So similar to tip number 1, identify what are your goals in life. What are you wanting to achieve with your morning routine, and are the activities chosen in alignment with those goals?
5. Start With An Easy Task
James Clear has this great concept of a “pre-game routine” that helps build motivation and get you into the zone for whatever you need to do next. He explains the concept as the routine that would hype himself up before every baseball game. In our case, we are going to use it to hype ourselves up before every day (Weew!). His ‘step 1’ suggests the first habit needs to be so easy that there will be no resistance. If you say to yourself the first thing you will do each morning is to have a cold shower, you are more likely to push snooze as you cling to your warm bed. However, let’s say you start by sitting up in bed and do some stretching. With an easier task, you’re more likely to ease into your routine, building up your discipline and momentum as you go, and make it more likely to achieve those more difficult activities to come. This way you’re already outside of your bed, a bit more alert from stretching, which means your brain will give less resistance for your next task of the dreaded cold shower.
Simple Morning Routine suggestions:
Morning Habit #1: Drink a glass of water
I think the perfect way to start your day is simply by drinking a glass of water. I personally make sure I have a water bottle on my nightstand the night before so that its ready to sip as soon as I wake up. As our bodies have been asleep for a series of hours, naturally we are dehydrated when we wake up. Dehydration can affect our brains, health and alertness. Rather than snoozing your alarm, sit up and drink a few gulps of water. I promise this magically will wake you up and even better, it’s an easy way to roll into your morning routine (#tip 6 tick!).
Morning Habit #2 Make your bed
This might be obvious for some, but hopefully groundbreaking for others (hehe). Making your bed is a simple way to win the day. Firstly, it’s an easy quick task that gives you that ‘accomplished‘ feeling once completed, and secondly, it’s an even better feeling jumping into a neat bed at night! If you’re not convinced, here’s a whole book on the concept – ‘Make your bed‘ by Admiral William H. McRaven (**not an affiliate link).
Morning Habit #3: State your daily intention
This idea is inspired by Steve Jobs, who famously asked himself every morning “If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to today?”. If the answer was “No” too many days in a row, he knew something would need to change. Morning routines are aimed to keep your mind calm and clear for the day, and what is clearer than being in alignment with your life desires and goals? Sometimes we can go into ‘autopilot mode’. Creating a habit in the morning to identify the day’s purpose, or our daily intention will help keep the motivation, remind yourself daily of your dreams and likely lead to more success.
Other suggestions:
As I said earlier in this article, the best morning routine is going to be one that is personalized to you. While the above three suggestions are more general in nature and beneficial for all, the following actions should be ones that align with your goals and values. If you’re a student, you might integrate some study time. If you’re trying to develop your own business, perhaps you get straight into it and smash out an hour of work. Feeling a bit stressed? Try adding meditation for 10 minutes every day. Wanting to be inspired? Read 10 pages of a book in the mornings. Working on your self-development? Try journaling.
There are plenty of options out there. Just remember, the simpler the morning routine, often the better.
This post was all about how to create a simple morning routine that works.
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