After waking up early, it can be helpful to build a sustainable morning routine. There are so many resources, but many of them prescribe a specific routine rather than discussing how to build your own. But because everyone is an individual, these prescribed routines oftentimes either don’t work or don’t fit the lifestyle each person wants.
After trying different morning routines, I discovered some core elements that help make a routine successful. Let’s take a look:
Making Your Bed:
This item was maybe only in one or two morning routines I looked at and tried, but I felt it was important to include it here. When I was a kid, my parents wanted me to make my bed every day. I didn’t. It seemed like a waste of time. After all, I was just going to mess it up again when I went to sleep. As I got older, I realized that making my bed was more than just a menial task – it was a signal that the day had started. There was no going back to sleep. Plus, making my bed looked nice! My room feels more put-together with a made bed. Then, Zoom classes started happening. Having a tidy bed then made my room look neater. It made me look like I care. Making my bed has become a transitional activity right after I wake up. I make my bed and am ready to go. A great speech by U.S. Navy Admiral William McRaven talks about why this psychology works, and I highly recommend you give it a quick watch to help better understand why I believe this task is important for a fresh start in the mornings.
Reflection/Planning:
A great way to start the day is to plan. Sometimes, this comes in the form of reflection, but other times, it’s a very literal look at the day. Some ways of planning might include journaling, checking a calendar, making a to-do list, or even just thinking about the day. Reflection falls mostly under journaling and thinking. When doing either of these two activities, the goal is to think about the future and how you’re readying yourself for it. Try asking yourself some questions. Am I on the right path? How do I feel about myself and what I’m doing? What am I grateful for today?
Hygiene:
Brush your teeth before you eat anything for the day. This may sound counterintuitive, but I promise there’s a good reason! When you wake up, your mouth is very acidic. Saliva is designed to break down complex foods, like meat and some fibers, but it also can break down things like your mouth (meat) and the enamel of your teeth. This enamel is extremely important for your tooth health! For those unfamiliar with how teeth work, I like to think of them as chocolates: a soft, creamy center of nerves, a plain chocolate truffle that represents dentin (the bulk of our tooth), and a hard chocolate coating of enamel. This enamel prevents the dentin from wearing away, which is what causes those expensive and sometimes painful cavities. When waking up, the enamel is softened by the acidity of your saliva. If you start the day by eating, you run the risk of damaging your enamel and causing cavities in the future. A great way to combat this is to just brush your teeth! While you’re in the bathroom, it’s also a good idea to wash your face, not necessarily because you need a squeaky clean visage, but also because cool water can help you feel refreshed. One more hygiene task includes taking a cold shower. Why cold? Cold water helps your body wake up and spurs your cells to repair themselves. This is especially effective after working out, as you’ll bounce back quicker!
Exercise/Movement:
Waking up in the morning can be tough, so giving your body a jumpstart can help you get ready for the busyness of the day. Even something simple like doing jumping jacks for a few minutes can help your body generate serotonin and wake up those sleepy blood vessels! I personally enjoy yoga or weightlifting in the morning. These are low-impact exercises that help get the blood flowing. Low-impact exercises are physical activities that put little to no pressure on our joints. Especially if you’re new to regular workouts, low-impact is a great place to start until you develop a sense of your body’s capabilities. Some low-impact exercises to start the day also include walking, swimming, cycling, gardening, tai chi, and kayaking. There are a ton more, so I recommend looking up low-impact exercise routines to get you started at home, or just go for a good old-fashioned walk!
A Good Breakfast:
It’s hard to run a tight ship if that ship is out of fuel. I’m sure you’ve likely heard the saying “breakfast is the most important meal of the day.” This isn’t just a saying parents tell their kids to get them to eat before school but an actual piece of good advice. When you wake up, your body is running on reserve energy. While this can sound good for those trying to lose weight or try a fasting diet for a slimmer figure, it’s not as peachy as it might seem. Reserve energy does burn fat cells, but these cells don’t give you the same kind of energy (or fuel, to keep up with the metaphor) as an actual meal. One big difference is that reserve energy doesn’t fuel your brain as much, and you don’t feel as awake. This is why eating something – even if it’s just a piece of toast or an egg – can be super beneficial. Some breakfasts that I eat include foods higher in healthy fats, like peanut butter or olives. These healthy fats can give your brain a big boost in the morning and prepare you for the day!
Getting Ready:
Get dressed. Especially during quarantine, getting dressed is a trigger in the brain that signals productivity. By putting on work clothes, it signals to your brain that it’s time to start kicking into gear. But here’s the thing: Work clothes don’t have to be dress pants and a blouse. They just have to be separate from your leisure clothes. For example, I have fluffy pajama pants I wear when I’m not working and soft, plain joggers for when I’m working. The important part is that you don’t wear your work clothes for leisure activities. This helps keep them separate in your mind, allowing you to trick yourself into being more productive. The same goes for your shirts. I have work t-shirts and leisure t-shirts. For some, bras signal a complete “getting ready,” while for others, a bra is optional. I don’t believe in wearing a bra if you don’t have to. Why? It’s a long explanation, but to sum it up, bras really aren’t the best for your breast and back health! If you do wear a bra, it’s usually recommended to try and stick with sports bras and not underwire ones. Regardless of my opinion of them, if you feel more productive and empowered while wearing one, do it!
Meditation:
This was an element that appeared in some of the morning routines I studied but not all of them. I found meditation to be extremely beneficial, especially during quarantine. Full disclosure: I struggle with ADHD, depression, and anxiety. The quarantine has made my mental health extremely difficult to manage, and I’ve been fighting to find anything that helps regulate it. I used to hate meditation. I couldn’t sit still and listen to nothing. It felt like my brain was melting or that I was somehow defective for being unable to meditate properly. So you might be asking something like this: Why are you recommending meditation if you hate it so much? And that’s a great question! The answer is that I learned more about meditating. There are many kinds of meditation. It’s not just sitting cross-legged on the floor with your hands palm-up on your knees and saying “ohm” for an hour. Meditation is the act of being present and aware. While I personally enjoy using a guided meditation app like Atom or Medito, there are various other ways of meditating. For example, drinking a cup of tea and thinking about that tea. How does it taste? How does it feel in your mouth? How do you feel while drinking the tea? Be aware of your body and how it reacts to the world. Take deep, slow breaths and only focus on the present. That’s meditating. Meditation can help us slow our thoughts and calm our bodies. It’s also great after exercising and stretching to balance out the chemical in the brain and prepare us for a productive day.
After going through all the work to design and practice your morning routine, how do you know if it’s effective?
Looking at the benefits is always helpful. A successful morning routine should help you feel more prepared for the day, more energized, calmer, and more in control. One of the best ways to assess your morning routine is to do a self-check-in where you take a few notes on how you feel. You can also try charting your daily activities to see if your morning routine is boosting productivity or morale. However, I do want to stress that productivity isn’t always the best measure of success. Our society today puts a lot of pressure on young people to be extremely productive, which can cause burnout. What I mean here by tracking productivity is measuring if you achieved your goals for the day. These goals don’t have to be work goals either. One of my goals for each day is to wash dishes for a few minutes. While I don’t always do that, I saw that with a successful morning routine, I was more consistently washing dishes daily. Consistency is key, especially consistency in how you feel!
Okay. So you know what elements go into a successful morning routine, but how do you organize it?
It really depends on each person. The way I’ve ordered my morning routine might be completely different from someone else. Maybe they prioritize exercising over eating breakfast. Or perhaps they make their bed last. Any order is fine, as long as it fits your needs. For those who still want a definitive order, here’s my morning routine:
- Get up and make the bed
- Check my planner and journal (a physical book)
- Brush teeth and wash face
- Get dressed/ready for exercising
- Eat breakfast and fuel my body
- Exercise and stretch
- Optional/If Needed: change clothes and/or shower because I got sweaty
- Meditate
- Begin work (I’m a writer, so that’s writing!)