It might not seem like such a big deal but having a morning routine can change your life; your day could turn out very productive simply by how you start it.
I can personally attest to the fact that before I understood the significance of a morning routine and started one myself, I had some of the worst mornings which ended up negatively affecting my productivity and state of mind for the rest of the day.
It is important you have a morning routine because it can put you on track for the rest of the day. A good morning routine gives us control over our day by getting us quickly situated with what we have to do throughout the day.
There exist several benefits to having a morning routine that can change life as you know it. It is also important to add that some qualities differentiate a good and effective morning routine from just any routine. Continue reading to learn why should you have a morning routine.Â
What Is A Morning Routine?
To all intents and purposes, a morning routine is a bunch of activities, usually mundane, that a person does after they awake in the morning and before they go about the main occupation of the day, be it work or school.
Mind you, a morning routine is intentional and fixed, that is to say, it involves consciously repeating a set of activities every morning after you wake up.
A morning routine does not have to be elaborate nor does it require much; it could be as simple as making your bed or stretching for a few minutes after you get up from bed.
It is important to note that morning routine are self-care activities that are meant to ensure you stay physically, mentally, and otherwise healthy.
Morning routines have been known to have a particularly positive effect on the mental health of individuals who practice them, so much so it comes highly recommended by professionals in clinical psychology and psychotherapy who have noted its immense benefits.
What constitutes a person’s morning routine should be based on what works for them. That is to say, morning routines should be based on principles more than anything else.
A morning routine is likely to be more effective when the person doing it has crafted the routine based on their likes, dislikes, habits, abilities, and what have you. For example, a late riser will not do very well with a morning routine that requires them to get up at 4 a.m.
Like I mentioned earlier, a morning routine has to be set, deliberate, and planned. What this means is that the activities a person with a morning routine does every day is predictable and consciously so.
Starting your day with a predictable set of activities has a lot of benefits, and stems from the idea that a predictable start begets a predictable end.
Why Is A Morning Routine Important?
The goal of a morning routine is to get you ready for the day from the get-go. It is aimed at keeping you confidently in charge of your day and all that you are required to do in it.
It is not merely about being able to commit to something; it also helps you to stay conscious of your physical and mental health throughout the day. Here are ten reasons why a morning routine is important:
1.  It Prepares You For The Day
A morning routine can prepare you for the day. The way you start your day will greatly affect how the rest of the day goes. A new day with a lot of tasks ahead can seem daunting, even to the best of us, but with the predictability of a morning routine, it is a lot easier. What a morning routine does is set the tone for how the day will go.
For example, if you start your day with a morning routine consisting of a breathing exercise or some other relaxing exercise, you will find that it will be easier for you to remain calm and collected throughout the day because your brain will prioritize your health and your body will follow suit.
The brain learns from our conscious choices and is, therefore, able to develop habits that will reduce the need for it to deplete its willpower on otherwise automatable actions during the day.
The brain’s willpower is very necessary for decision-making which is a natural part of daily living. Morning routines can teach your brain to keep you relaxed.Â
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2. It Puts You In Control
By starting the day with activities that we have deliberately chosen and which we are in control of, we build up our ability to control the various elements that constitute the day.
A morning routine also gives us time to think and strategize – both on a conscious and sub-conscious level – about how we can take charge of our day and handle things adeptly.
A morning routine can be used to correct an anomaly in our schedules in a way that will seem more natural and that would certainly yield better results.
If, for example, you have to be at work by 7:30 A.M. and have been waking up by 7 on the dot, a morning routine could be crafted in such a way that requires you to wake up much earlier and perform some task that would naturally lead you to arrive at work on time and without stress.
Moreover, the decision to have and successfully enforce a morning routine tells our brain that we are in charge and have full control of our lives. We, therefore, begin to function with that mentality and can take the steering wheel as soon as we wake up from sleep.
3. It Improves Your Productivity
A morning routine increases your ability to be productive. The meditative quality of a morning routine often puts the performer in the right state of mind to go out and do what has to be done.
Many have attested to the fact that they had a more progressive day when they performed a morning routine than when they did not.
Morning routines also help you keep your daily goals and tasks insight, so you are less likely to waste time on useless or irrelevant things.
After your morning routine, you will find that you are more focused and less distracted and so, able to do quality work and complete your tasks at the set time, saving you the worries and fretting that accompanies unfinished tasks.
4. It Increases Your Energy
There is something almost magical about a morning routine; when done right, it can give you more physical and mental energy to work with during the day.
Many people wake up with a low energy level. This explains why you may feel tired, stressed, or even overwhelmed immediately you wake.
A good morning routine, especially one involving a combination of some physical exercise and passive activity, can rejuvenate not only our physical bodies but also our minds which has to be sharp for us to have a successful day.
Adding a workout session to your morning routine, for example, can make all the difference energy-wise.
By completing all the tasks in our morning routines, we start our day winning and that has great implications on our mental and physical state for the day. We will find that we have extra energy to do what has to be done and reach nothing short of our daily goals.
5. It Helps You To Cultivate A Healthy Lifestyle
You are more likely to make decisions that support your physical and mental health when you work with a morning routine than when you do not.
It is not just that a morning routine makes you more conscious of your well-being; it is also an avenue to infuse self-care into your daily activities.
Mornings are an important time for your health. For example, what you eat for breakfast and the activities you do once you get up have great health implications.
This is why it is advisable to add healthy exercises to your routine and also ensure that breakfast is healthy and balanced.
6. It Reduces Stress
Stress is not only detrimental to our health but also our productivity and so, must be avoided at all cost. A morning routine has been found to loosen the pull and tension stress creates.
Stress often occurs as a result of our inability to meet up with what is required of us. Starting your day relaxed and in control helps you to focus and get a handle on everything that is required of you.
A morning routine, by reducing stress, also helps us avoid such mental health conditions as anxiety and depression. It can also help prevent diabetes, asthma, gastrointestinal problems, heart disease, and Alzheimer’s disease.
Stress is also known to cause accelerated aging and premature death. All these can be checked by a morning routine which is a good stress management technique.
7. It Helps You Fight Forgetfulness
If you find yourself forgetting important things only to remember when you can no longer do anything about it, you should try creating a morning routine; it will help you a lot.
The monotonousness of a morning routine helps you keep track of all you need to do. Because it involves doing exactly what you do every other day, you are less likely to forget anything as you prepare for work, school, or whatever your main activity is.
8. It Helps You Have Better Relationships
The way we start our day has a serious effect on our mood throughout the day. Morning routines are a calming influence on individuals who practice them.
What this means is that you are less likely to get into a spat with family, friends, and acquaintances because you are experiencing a foul mood or having an emotional breakdown.
Even when you are confronted, you can calmly diffuse the situation by tapping into that calmness and meditative clarity a morning routine affords you.
A morning routine also means you get to spend more time with your family or the people you live with as you are more accessible to them in the mornings.
You also avoid the morning squabbles people who live together have when there are in a hurry, like who gets to use the bathroom first.
9. It Boosts Your Self-Confidence
Given how much morning routines improve your life, it is not surprising that it also improves your self-confidence.
The early gains you get from having a morning routine like being more focused and achieving a lot more can further boost your confidence in your abilities.
Morning routines are all about self-improvement and self-care, and these are ingredients necessary for building self-confidence.
Your morning routine gives you more time to groom yourself and prepare for what is coming; knowing that you look your best and are prepared for the day can greatly improve your confidence in number one.
10. It Gives You A Better Worldview
A morning routine helps you wake up to a better world. It can be saddening, not to mention bleak, to wake up on a workday and be reminded of the job ahead of you or that in thirty or so minutes, you have to be at work.
When you have a morning routine that is fun and exciting, waking up, even on a weekday, can be something to look forward to.
Imagine playing a game as part of your morning routine. Such activities, which you will otherwise not do on weekdays, can become such a treat that you look forward to it. Do not however get too indulgent in it that it breaks your routine and makes you unable to complete it.
A morning routine has the added benefit of ensuring we have peace of mind and a good night’s rest which in turn makes us healthier and happier.
The happier we are, the more love we share with those around us and the greater gratification we receive for doing the right thing.
What Is A Good Morning Routine?
There is no point in having a morning routine if it does not serve any of the purposes stated above. A good morning routine should leave you feeling relaxed, ready, and in control of your day. It is all aimed at letting you start the day with calmness, confidence, and positivity.
A good morning routine should be tailor-made for you based on your schedule and what you can do regularly. It should be made taking your capabilities and health into consideration.
For example, there is no point in making 100 push-ups and 200 pull-ups your morning routine if you cannot do them.
The order of tasks in your routine is also very important. The same set of activities placed in a different order could have radically different effects on how your day turns out and what you can achieve in it.
For example, starting the routine with a breathing exercise, then a little painting, and ending with a cold bath could produce a different result from if you started with the painting activity and ended with the breathing one.
A good morning routine should also be active instead of reactive or passive. What this means is that you should try out activities that involve you carrying out an action as opposed to just sitting and taking it in.
Instead of scrolling through social media; replying to emails and messages, or watching TV, you should try running, writing, stretching, and so on.
This is because a reactive or passive morning routine has been found to leave the performer less motivated to start the day.
To ensure that your morning routine is best for you, you should test it for a few days and record the results. You can change the order of the tasks you have selected and see which order produces the best and most effective results for you.
Ensure you continue working with the morning routine until it no longer works or produces the results you desire, in which case you should try another morning routine.
After the first, the process of starting another morning routine should be much easier as you know what kind of results you are looking for.
How To Create A Good Morning Routine
First of all, if you are looking to have a successful day, it is advisable to plan for the new day the night before – set out all that you will need for the day and make arrangements for the nitty-gritty of that day.
You should also start your morning routine with easy tasks like making the bed, washing your face, or stretching and place the more difficult task at the time you know you work the hardest.
Understand that creating the perfect morning routine is not the goal, so do not hesitate to adapt and adjust your goals. As long as it works for you, you should consider it and if it does not, do away with it.
Here are a few steps you can take in ensuring you create a good and effective morning routine:
1. Write Down All the Activities You Wish to Do Everyday
Make a list of all the tasks you wish to add to your morning routine. Do not write off any activity at this point. Just let all the ideas flow onto the list, however absurd they might seem. There may be some hidden gems that will turn out very useful.
2. Put Them In Order Of Personal Interest And Usefulness
Rearrange this list and place tasks that you find interesting and useful above those you do not. Think carefully while doing this. It is all part of the process of prioritizing what works over what does not.
3. Place Each Task In A Table Or Picture Form
It is important that you can picture your task at this stage. You can use a table or some other diagrammatic aid. Some experts recommend using an Eisenhower matrix which is particularly useful in time management.
4. Decide The Duration Of Each Task
Every task in your morning routine must have a set time it is to run. This will help you fit everything into the morning routine which starts from when you get up and ends when you leave the house for work or school.
5. Put It On A Calendar
By doing so, you cement your morning routine. You are free to use traditional calendars but virtual calendars like Google Calendar may be more effective in reminding you. Ensure you check it often so that you are constantly reminded of what you are to do.
6. Be Very Committed To Your Morning Routine
In the end, the success of your morning routine falls squarely on your shoulders. Do not come so far only to quit. Being committed to your routine is very important in its effectiveness.
Try not to miss a single day. Do not press the snooze button of your alarm simply because you do not feel like getting up and starting the morning routine. Morning routines are all about consistency.
A Sample Of A Morning Routine
Conclusion
You must not rigidly stick to this sample morning routine, while the above sample morning routine is for my weekdays when I have to be at work by 8 a.m. you can structure yours to fit into the order of your day.
I leave for work by 7:30 a.m. So all my tasks stop at that time. Every activity for each day remains the same throughout the week.
Follow this sample to create a great morning routine for yourself. Not just that, enjoy you adhere to your routine consistently. With time, you will reap rich rewards and experience a vastly improved personal lifestyle.
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