How to Plan Your Morning Routine

A solid morning routine serves as the backbone of a healthy and productive life. Not only does having a morning routine keep you physically active, but it also offers mental and emotional peace. In fact, many psychologists suggest that having a good morning routine helps lower stress and sets the tone for the whole day.

As soon as you wake up, every decision you make influences your brain’s willpower reserves. Despite how strong the brain is as an organ, it also has its limits. At a certain point, your willpower reserves may potentially run dry, causing you to seek instant gratification, which can topple your overall productivity. Therefore, having a good morning routine can be quite effective in avoiding that.

It’s important to note that everyone has a different ideal morning routine. So, the suggestions I am going to make are more starting points rather than a step-by-step guide to establishing a morning routine.

Tidy Up

As soon as you open your eyes, make sure to stretch for a little energy and push to get you out of bed. Once you’re up, the first thing you need to do is tidy up. Make your bed by fluffing your pillows, tucking in your messed sheets, and folding your comforter.

Even though this may seem like a tedious chore, it sure is a simple way to make your space and mind feel less cluttered. Making your bed every morning will also give you a sense of accomplishment as to having completed the first task of the day, which will push you to do another task and another and another.

Nail a “Getting Ready” Order

Once you’ve tidied up your bed, it’s time to tidy up yourself! Getting ready in the morning can make you feel more active rather than lounging around in your pajamas all day.

You need to make sure that you get ready in an exact order i.e. you can start by brushing your teeth, taking a shower, putting on a fresh set of clothes, and then proceeding to make your hair.

This is important because some days you might jump straight from the shower to doing your hair, while other times you lay around in your towel scrolling through Instagram. Solidifying your “getting ready order” can help you operate more efficiently on auto-pilot mode.

Stretch Your Body

There are probably very few people who love morning workouts. Getting out of bed often seems like such a monotonous task, let alone starting a full-blown cardio workout.

However, it’s always great to squeeze in a good stretch in your morning routine. The best time to do this is once you’ve washed your face and brushed your teeth. You don’t need to start a full-blown yoga or exercise routine – all you need is a way to get your blood flowing.

Write or Review Your Daily To-Do List

Waking up early in the morning not only allows you to be all fresh and get more things done, but it also helps you strategize and plan your day to remain productive. Usually, many people don’t like to jump into strategizing about work until the clock strikes 9.

However, taking out time to write down or review your game plan for the day can help you get a lot more done before you fall into the inevitable deluge of emails and meetings.

Squeeze in Something Fun and Creative

A morning routine isn’t meant to be boring; it is meant to motivate you to get through an otherwise tedious day. It always gets to squeeze in something fun into your morning schedule that can get your blood flowing.

Whether it’s watching an episode of your favorite show or playing a few video games or taking your dog for a stroll – you should find a creative or fun activity that gets you excited.

Establishing a morning routine may be hard at first, but once you get the hang of it – you’ll be unstoppable! It will set you in an auto-pilot mode where you’ll accomplish a myriad of tasks throughout the day, and sit comfortably on your couch at night, convinced that you had a super-productive day!

Ashley Yeo

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