For as long as I can remember I’ve identified as “not a morning person”. I’ve always hated getting up early and the morning was always my least productive time.
I used to hate hearing about morning routines and I thought people who thought the mornings were a great part of the day were full of crap.
However, as I’ve built a morning routine that I am really and truly obsessed with I’ve actually started to enjoy mornings and they’ve slowly become the most productive and peaceful part of my morning.
I thought I’d share some tips with you to help you create a morning routine that doesn’t suck and helps you start the day off on the right foot.
I hope these tips inspire you to create a morning routine of your own. If you’re ready to uplevel your life before to listen to my podcast episode below.
What Does a Successful Day Feel Like?
As I’ve become more intentional with my morning and life, in general, I’ve had to really figure out what I want out of each day.
I used to go through day after day feeling like a zombie and mindlessly checking off tasks from my to-do list.
Really taking time to figure out how I want to feel each day has helped me be more mindful and I try to intentionally call in the feelings that I want to feel each day.
If you want to learn more about core desired feelings and how to use them to set goals be sure to check out the Desire Map by Danielle Laporte.
This is one of my favorite books and it really helped to start focusing more on how I want to feel and not just on getting tasks done.
Ask yourself in the morning “what feelings do I want to call in?”. Do you want to feel more joy? More playful? More soulful? More productive?
Once you know how you want to feel you can build a morning routine that will help you call in those feelings. I like to think of my morning as the building blocks for the rest of my day.
I use the first hour of the day to set myself up to be able to all in the feelings I want for the rest of the day.
What Makes You Feel Awesome?
When I changed the intention of my morning routine away from productivity and towards feeling awesome my mornings quickly started to improve.
I used to put tasks into my morning routine that I thought I “should” do.
If making your bed doesn’t make you feel good don’t do it. I don’t care how many experts say you should. This is your morning routine and in my mind the most important thing you can do in the morning is to make yourself feel awesome.
I stopped making myself go to the gym and started meditating and journaling. I started cleaning my house at night before I go to sleep so my house would be clean in the AM.
Spend some time and really think about what brings you joy. What activities make you feel awesome? You can’t create a morning routine that makes you feel good if you don’t even know what brings you joy.
My favorite part of my day is walking my dog and listening to podcasts in the morning. I used to only do this if I had time and it would be the first thing I skipped if I was running short on time.
Now I prioritize feeling good in the morning so I can feel happier and have more positive energy throughout the day. I recognize that my morning dog walk is one of the most important things I do every day because it sets my mindset up for the entire day.
What Can You Do For Your Future Self?
I have two goals for my morning routine.
- Feel awesome
- Do something for my future self
Sometimes I’ll do things I don’t really enjoy doing as part of my morning routine if I really feel like it will help my future self. This is usually tasks I don’t like doing but that really improves my quality of life like making my lunch in the morning or any annoying adulting related tasks.
I try to make the majority of my morning routine about feeling awesome but sometimes it’s OK to do things you don’t really enjoy if it improves your quality of life in the future.
It’s ultimately up to you what ratio of future self tasks to feel-good tasks you put into your morning routine. I believe you are the expert on your own life and no one knows what is best for you like you do.
Be Flexible
I can’t tell you how many times I tried to integrate a complicated morning routine I read about online and immediately failed to keep up with it.
When I started adding space for flexibility into my routine it really made the practice sustainable for me. I don’t actually plan my morning routine hour by hour and I leave a lot of flexibility in my morning.
I like variety and to be honest, doing the exact same morning routine everyday sounds boring AF to me. Giving myself the flexibility to change it up each day keeps me from getting bored however I have to give myself enough structure that I actually stick to some kind of routine.
Here is what I follow for my morning routine.
- I wake up at 6 am every day. I used to sleep in on the weekend but it really just screws my schedule up. If you have a hard time sleeping at night make yourself get up earlier and wake up at the same time every day. Whenever I maintain a consistent wakeup time I notice a big improvement in my sleep.
- The 30 minutes I’m awake I can do any personal development tasks that I want. For me, it’s usually EFT tapping and guided meditation. If for some reason I don’t feel like doing that I will write gratitude lists and write about what I want to happen in my life in my journal.
- After that, I get dressed and I walk the dog for an hour while listening to podcasts. If I have any ideas for podcast episodes, book chapters, emails or blog posts I write them in the notes section of my phone. I almost always get my ideas for content on my morning dog walks.
That’s it. I keep it really simple and that makes it sustainable for me. I also really love all of these practices and that makes it easy for me to maintain.
What are two or three things you could do every day that you would love doing and that would improve your life?
When I gave myself permission to make my morning routine enjoyable and simple it became sustainable for me. I’m just not someone that is ever going to be able to get up at 4am and do some elaborately detailed morning routine each day.
Want to remember these tips? Pin this for later!
