How to Create a Productive Morning Routine: Unlock Potential
This is a complete step-by-step guide to creating a highly productive morning routine to unlock your full potential.
Imagine waking up every morning, feeling super energized and ready to kick butt. Your productivity is off the charts and it seems like success chases you. Sounds amazing right?
That was the type of life I wanted, but I was a huge night owl. I’d always oversleep and let my mornings run me. My first cup of coffee felt like a miracle drug that would finally de-zombify me by noon. I never thought I would be an early bird until I learned how to establish a highly productive morning routine.
After lots of trial and error, I finally got my perfect morning routine down. Now I’m here to share that with you! In this post, you’ll learn about all the best tips for creating the most productive morning routine to help you crush your goals. By designing the best fit morning routine for you, you’ll be absolutely unstoppable in achieving success!
This blog post is all about how to create a productive morning routine.
WHY YOU NEED A MORNING ROUTINE FOR PRODUCTIVITY
Having a consistent structure for your morning will set the rest of the day up for success. An effective morning routine can greatly improve your productivity and offers so many benefits.
They help you…
#1. Start your day intentionally.
By starting off on the right foot, you get to set the tone for the day rather than letting the first thing that comes your way dictate it.
#2. Prioritize healthy habits and goals.
As willpower is highest when you wake up, you’ll increase your chances of completing high-priority habits and difficult tasks to achieve your goals consistently.
#3. Improve performance throughout the day.
A good morning routine should incorporate habits that will help you harness a positive mindset and set a plan of action for a successful day.
#4. Be fully prepared for the day.
You’ll have more time to plan important tasks, get dressed, and nourish your body before starting your day’s agenda.
#5. Reduce your stress levels.
Consistent, predictable routines decrease the number of decisions you have to make, bringing you calm and lower anxiety in the mornings.
#6. Give you a happiness boost.
Completing your morning habits can provide you with a sense of accomplishment, boost your self-esteem, and put you in a good mood.
HOW TO CREATE THE PERFECT MORNING ROUTINE
Step 1: Decide what you want out of your morning routine.
The perfect morning routine is subjective and should be customized to fit your goals. Maybe your goal is to improve your mental health, so you make it part of your daily routine to write positive affirmations. Maybe your goal is weight loss, so one of your new habits is doing a morning workout. Whatever it may be, identify what you’d like from your morning routine. If you have a bunch of goals, decide on priority and how you’d like to incorporate each one into your routine. The section below on a productive morning routine ideas will give you a comprehensive list of habits you can incorporate to create a great morning routine.
Step 2: Plan to prepare the night before.
A successful morning ritual starts before you wake up. Once you’ve decided on what you want from your morning routine, establish evening routines that will help prepare you for the next day. If you’re planning on exercising, lay your workout clothes out. If you have a particular project you want to spend time on, decide what you’re going to complete the next morning. Reduce any resistance to doing your morning habits so there will be no excuse to not.
Step 3: Optimize your sleep schedule.
Successful people know the importance of a good night’s sleep and its impacts on productivity for the next day. Sleep quality affects almost every single tissue in our bodies, so maintaining sleep hygiene is crucial to your overall health and well-being.
The best way to ensure you get quality sleep is to decide on bedtime and wake-up time. This will regulate your circadian rhythms (aka sleep/wake cycle). Aim to get at least 7-9 hours of sleep for optimal functioning the next day.
Step 4: Try to wake up early and don’t hit snooze.
Studies have shown that 90% of executives wake up before 6 am, and 50% of self-made millionaires wake up at least 3 hours before their workday begins. Now I’m not saying you need to get up at 3:45 am like Apple CEO Tim Cook, but being up in the early morning has its merits. By waking up before most people, early birds get personal time before distractions and obligations arise. Even if you aren’t a morning person, you’ll have way more willpower in the morning to accomplish a difficult task compared to the end of the day.
Try to get up early and exactly when your alarm clock rings. Don’t hit the snooze button. You’ll likely feel more groggy compared to just waking up because any additional sleep will be low-quality. The extra 20 minutes you’re getting isn’t enough time to get deep sleep.
PRODUCTIVE MORNING ROUTINE IDEAS
A great way to start organizing your morning routine is to pick one or two things from each category to incorporate. This will allow for a well-rounded routine and is a perfect way to create balance in your life.
Post You Might Like: 5 Powerful Daily Habits to Improve Your Life Today
Productivity and Organization Habits
- Tackle your most challenging task: The start of the day is the best time to address any complex tasks. Your willpower is at its highest, there are few distractions, and getting it out of the way will start your day on a positive note.
- Set daily and weekly goals: Establishing goals for a day or a week will help you identify where to focus and prioritize your time.
- Create a to-do list: The first step to achieving your goals is to break them down into tasks to complete. It’s a good idea to identify what tasks are most important to complete by the end of the day with a to-do list.
- Plan your day with time blocks: Allocating a set time frame for specific activities increases focus and efficiency, creates better work-life balance, and enhances your time management skills.
- Review and reflect on progress: Taking a few minutes at the beginning of the day to assess your progress can help identify areas of improvement.
- Stay off social media: Limiting your social media screen time in the mornings will put you back in control of what type of content you’re consuming. It also frees up mental space and time to work on the things that matter.
Mental Well-Being Habits
- Practice positive affirmations: Affirming good things to ourselves has a positive impact on our morale and contributes to our success. Productivity experts like Hal Elrod incorporate affirmations to help replace negative hindering thoughts with positive ones that propel you towards success.
- Practice gratitude: Appreciating all the little things that bring you joy can be an effective way to put you in a good mood.
- Meditate: Even a few minutes of meditation can help clear your mind and set a positive tone for the day.
- Make your bed: Making your bed can lead to a sense of accomplishment and encourages you to tackle more tasks throughout the day.
- Read something mentally stimulating: Starting your day with an interesting book or article can help your mind wake up.
- Listen to something educational or inspirational: Throwing on a podcast or audiobook is a great idea for those who want something more mentally stimulating while exercising or commuting to work.
- Journal your thoughts and feelings: Spending some quiet time to capture your thoughts and emotions will help you be more in tune with yourself.
- Review your vision: Remind yourself of what your long-term goals and aspirations are. By visualizing where you want to go, you can increase your motivation to keep on working towards your dreams.
- Engage in a creative hobby (drawing, writing, painting): Creativity peaks in the morning as this is when the prefrontal cortex is the most active. Choose to work on a creative hobby for your first task to harness this power in the early hours of the day!
- Learn something new: Acquiring new knowledge and expanding your skillsets can help boost your problem-solving skills and stimulate your brain first thing in the morning.
Physical Well-Being Habits
- Drink water: Hydrating with cold water first thing in the morning helps kickstart your immune system and supports good health!
- Eat a healthy breakfast: As the most important meal of the day, a good morning meal with the proper nutrients will fuel your productive day ahead.
- Exercise: A morning workout will release endorphins to evaluate your mood and energy levels. The most important thing is to find a physical activity you enjoy, whether it’s going for a jog or practicing yoga.
- Try deep breathing exercises: Practicing deep breaths can help calm your mind, reduce stress, and increase focus.
Social and Emotional Well-Being Habits
- Connect with loved ones: Spending time with a family member or a friend can be a great way to foster strong relationships and start your day with a sense of connection and belonging.
- Spend time with pets: Engaging with our pets can help decrease our blood pressure and cortisol while raising our “feel good” chemicals like dopamine and serotonin. Spending a few extra minutes with your dog can go a long way in the mornings.
TIPS FOR CREATING THE BEST MORNING ROUTINE
#1. Keep it simple.
Habits take time to build. Pick a few habits you’d like to start with that will impact your life the most. As you develop more consistency in performing those behaviors, you can slowly add additional tasks.
It’s okay to start slow! I’m a huge 0-100 kinda gal and it was super easy to get burnt out and ditch the routine after a week of exhaustion. Your body and mind need time to adjust – so design a routine that is doable to maintain. Consistency is key here!
#2. Track your progress and revise if needed.
Write out the exact schedule for your morning routine with set times to perform each habit. Every single day, you should track what’s working and what’s not. Are you constantly spending too much time on one activity? Do you have trouble remembering to do something? Gather this information for a week or so and tweak your morning routine to best fit your needs.
#3. Habit stack.
The best thing I learned from James Clear’s Atomic Habits is “habit stacking,” which is a strategy to form new habits by linking them to existing ones. This is a fantastic way to start implementing new habits.
For example, if you want to say your morning affirmations but can’t remember to do them, stack them onto brushing your teeth – ie. “I will say my morning affirmations right after I brush my teeth.” Brushing your teeth then becomes the cue to say your affirmations. Over time, the new habit will start to stick.
This can be utilized in so many ways in your morning routine! Work out while listening to an audiobook about a topic you’re trying to develop knowledge around. Walking your dog is a great way to get exercise and time spent with your pet. There are SO many ways you can combine habits to achieve more.