For a majority of college students, our morning routines are as follows:
- Wake up fifteen minutes before class
- Throw on a sweatshirt over your pajamas
- Grab your bag and leave the house with an iced coffee in hand.
Sounds familiar, right?
For college students, the importance of a good morning routine isn’t stressed enough. Most of the time, there’s the common excuse that you stayed up too late to wake up early enough to have a morning routine. Ironically, this is a form of self-sabotage. We stay up late, either working on homework or on our phones getting our “me time,” and then wake up too late and start our mornings on the wrong foot, which sets our whole day off-kilter. By getting a good routine for your morning, even if it means you’ll be a little more tired, you’re setting yourself up for a better and more organized day!
When building your morning routine, it’s essential to not over-complicate it. It doesn’t have to be perfect or elaborate, but having these simple tasks to do each morning that allow you to “wind yourself up” for the day can work wonders for your mental health.
To build your routine, I’m sharing my five must-have steps in my morning to be used as a template that you can use to start building yours.
8:00 am – Wake up and give yourself time
Unpopular opinion: I don’t agree with springing out of bed right away. Though you may benefit from an abrupt start to your morning, I think that a chill morning is better for the mind and body. Take this time to stay in bed, check your to-do list for the day, daily horoscope, a bible app, whatever it may be to get your mind ready for the day.
8:10 am – Make your bed
Next on the list right after getting out of bed is making it. It makes your room tidy for when you get back, and, my all-time favorite quote is, “even if everything during your day goes wrong, you at least finished that task!”
8:15 am – Go make your coffee
I don’t have much of an appetite in the morning, but if this applies to making your breakfast then go for it! For me, I start my coffee in my Keurig so that by the time it is made, I’m ready to leave and I have something to look forward to when I’m getting ready.
8:20 am – Podcast and the essentials
My #1 recommendation that changes my mornings is listening to Julia Merica’s “Make Your Damn Bed” podcast while I get ready. The podcasts are six minutes and totally free on the Podcast app or Spotify, and Julia gives one piece of advice per episode to guide your day, giving you the motivation to get moving! This is when I do the essentials like brushing my teeth, skincare, making myself look (a little more) alive and getting dressed.
Note: Obviously, these times can be adjusted if it takes you more or less time to get ready, the most important part is keeping to these five tasks.
8:40 am – Wear something you feel good in
Whether this is leggings and a sweatshirt, or jeans and a cute top, wearing something you are comfortable in and feel good in will make the rest of your day better, and you’ll spend less time worrying about what you look like.
Pro tip: Set out your outfit the night before––this will save you so much time in the morning!
9:00 am – Start your day
It’s important to note that this is just a basic template of the essential things to include in your morning, to have a starting point to begin building your IDEAL routine! My advice is to take these five things, and make these your starting point, and do this for a week! Once you can get the routine down, begin to add or adjust based on your needs and what you would like to accomplish during your morning. The most important part is keeping it simple, and sticking to it because the first part of your day is by far the most important.
So I challenge you this week to give it a try, because believe it or not, that 15 minutes before your 9 am class is enough to make your day so much better.