Educational success needs a great deal of organization. I have committed myself to finding more realistic ways to achieve my goals both on the academic and personal sides of my life. Through the use of a well-thought morning routine, I have found a concrete way to stay on top of things this year. There is a ton of videos on YouTube about morning routines and to be honest, they can kind of be overwhelming for someone who has never attempted one. However, all of these routines, whether they are long, short, simple or complex, share one thing in common: they are made to help you start your day positively. I have a strong belief that the way we begin our day has an influence on the course of the remaining daily activities. For example, if you wake up later than expected and have to skip washing your face and picking an outfit you like, you might spend the day feeling uncomfortable, insecure and disoriented.
The first time I realized I wanted to have a morning routine, I binge-watched all the morning routine videos available on YouTube at the time. Some people woke up at five in the morning, walked their dog and crafted themselves a low fat mocha every morning. On the other spectrum, some people woke up forty minutes before their class to shower and do their makeup. After a while, I became discouraged because I could not find a morning routine to imitate. I wanted something easy, yet adaptable to my lifestyle. I was looking for something I could easily repeat every morning. Discouraged, I gave up on finding the perfect morning routine and spent my mornings trying different things: waking up at different hours, doing yoga one morning, running another one, homemade coffee one morning and smoothies the next. I drove myself insane!
The second time around, I sat down and opened my journal and something sparked. All these different YouTubers had tailor-made their morning routine to fit their own schedule and lifestyle; that is why no matter how similar my routines were to theirs, nothing was ever the perfect fit. I wrote down what mattered to me, what I wanted to accomplish in the morning and why I wanted to do those things in the morning. I wrote: making bed (to avoid snoozing and going back to bed), homemade coffee (because I wanted to save costs on always buying coffee outside), bible study (because I kept neglecting that part of religion), gym (to avoid the repetitive “I am too tired to workout” attitude after class and work that led me to never work out) and breakfast (because it was something I struggled with a lot). I realistically gave myself a timeframe for the different moments of my personalized morning routine and ta-da, I had one and it fit like a glove. The first mornings were tough because I committed to waking up earlier than I usually would, but the feeling afterwards was rewarding. Accomplishing everything on your morning “to-do” lists set the tone for the rest of the day. Understanding that I had already checked off three to four items gave me the motivation to continue on the right track. No one wants to spoil a good start.
If you ask me why I believe morning routines are amazing, I will simply say to try one for yourself. It can be as simple as waking up twenty minutes earlier every morning to drink tea, meditate or read five pages of your new book every morning. Only you know your priorities. I also find that by doing the important, yet often forgotten things first thing in the morning gives you peace of mind. If there is something you always wanted to do but never seem to have time for (working out, listening to more TED talks, knitting, yoga, etc.), incorporating it in your morning routine may be the solution! Personally, I am more confident, happy and productive since I have started having a continuous morning routine. My advice to sticking with a routine is to give yourself a reasonable amount of time for each task and to decide on how recurrent you want the routine to be.