Morning Routine to Start Every Day Right

4 Steps to Your Most Productive Day

Photo by Thought Catalog on Unsplash

Do you find yourself rushing out the door with your coffee in the morning? Does that make you feel flustered and like you’re running behind during the rest of your day? This is how I used to feel prior to creating a solid morning routine that works for me. As human beings, routines and structure make us feel good, therefore, starting your day with a set routine can be very helpful to get you energized, give you clarity and help you feel in control of your day. Below are my tried and tested tips for an empowering morning routine — take what works for you and leave what doesn’t!

Water Since you’ve spent hopefully around 8 hours sleeping, you’re bound to be a bit dehydrated in the morning. I aim to drink close to half a liter of water first thing in the morning to rehydrate.

The easiest way not to forget to drink water is to set a big glass aside your bed at night. When you wake up, it’s there for you to drink first thing.

Journaling I love journaling first thing in the morning. I use the morning pages technique, which is basically a brain dump on the pages of your journal. I write down everything that’s on my mind, just letting it flow without any control over the contents. Besides this free flow of ideas, I usually do a gratitude exercise as well, writing down at least 1 thing that I’m grateful for today. Practicing gratitude really helps you to shift from a scarcity mindset to an abundance mindset. Journaling has been very helpful in boosting my creativity, helping me write more fluently as well as structure my ideas. If you want to get into journaling, check out my post on fool-proof tips to start your journaling practice.

Movement Movement in the morning is really key for me to wake up and stay energized throughout the day. And this doesn’t have to be 1h sweat session at the gym but something more realistic for your life style.

Personally, I try to get at least 15 minutes of movement in the morning. Usually it’s either yoga, a walk, running, basically anything that I also enjoy doing. If I’m feeling really energized, I’ll go for a proper sweat session, but for me doing this every day is very unrealistic. The main thing is that I get my blood flowing, get my heart pumping a little faster and get to stretch out my limbs after a night of sleep and before heading over to my desk.

Meditation Besides journaling, meditation has had the biggest impact on the quality of my life. I tend to get stressed quite easily and my mind is always going a 100km/h. Meditation has been key to get some distance to my thoughts and create space and clarity first thing in the morning. I usually meditate for 10 minutes using the Headspace app. The app has a basic meditation course for free and a lot more resources in the paid version.

You don’t necessarily need an app to meditate though. Just sitting in silence, following your breath could be what fits you the best. I haven’t tried silent meditation yet but it’s something that I do want to get into.

My mornings always start with these 4 non-negotiables; water, journaling, movement and meditation. Having a structured routine is key, but keeping some wiggle room keeps things interesting and helps me stay consistent; like choosing the movement that fits my energy level and my mood that day.

Let me know if these were helpful & if you have anything to add that completes your morning routine!