I have a love hate type of relationship with my morning routine.
I love the results I see in my life because of it over time. But day to day I hate the actual having to get up early and, well, do things (almost half a sleep lots of the time).
If you’re on my reader list you know I’m a sucker for good tips and tools that help you get organized, and in this case a morning routine is no different.
As much as I would like to do without it, a morning routine tends to set the tone for the rest of my day.
Who am I kidding. More like it DECIDES the tone for the rest of my day.
And that’s mainly the reason why I try to stick to one as much as I can (hey, not perfect here). Because by the time my day is over, I’m not left with the feeling of guilt of ‘crap I got nothing done’ and I’m not left with an overall feeling of defeat.
Here’s one way to find out what the best morning routine for YOU is (because remember how similar yet DIFFERENT we all are) and how you can go about putting one together.
If anything consider this blog post a ‘fun’ morning routine exercise you get to walk through.
Ready? Let’s go.
First draft out a story of your ideal day
When you’re trying to achieve something, anything really, it’s always helpful to visualize yourself doing it/completing it.
It helps with your inner morale, makes you more determined to finish and get there, and overall helps you stay motivated.
There isn’t really anything spiritual about it if you don’t want it to be.
You can think of visualizing as as a helpful tool that helps you on your daily path to reaching your goals. As simple as it is to drink water because you know it’s always a good idea and will keep you healthy and hydrated and able to keep functioning daily.
I think that’s a good way to frame visualization.
So when you’re trying to figure out your morning routine, visualize yourself having the PERFECT morning, and write it out as a story of what you do and how you feel.
It’ll be a fun exercise, and help you gain clarity in areas of your life that you find most important.
It doesn’t have to be long, a single paragraph or page will do.
List about 5 non-negotiable things you’d like to get done each day
After imagining yourself having an awesome morning you’ll more or less have an idea of what it is you’d like to get done each morning.
Is it jogging for 30 minutes? It is having a cup of black tea with almond milk and honey (one of my favorites!) or is it making sure you load the crock pot with your favorite ingredients for a hearty soup in the evening?
You don’t have to get stuck with ONLY listing five things for your morning routine. But five is a good place to start for simplicity’s sake.
Remember, your morning routine has to be designed to fit YOUR needs. It’s made to help YOU function as best as you can according to your lifestyle, your goals, and how much energy you have.
As they say, comparison is the thief of joy, and creating a morning routine only because it looks like the one from another ‘successful’ person doesn’t mean it’ll work best for you.
Especially if someone believes you need to get up at 4:30 am each day to achieve all your hopes and dreams (give me a break).
That advice doesn’t hold so true for you if you simply aren’t a morning person, and when your peak hours and best ideas tend to come in the evenings or at night.
Then rewrite them in order of importance
OK. Now that you have listed 3-5 things that you’d like to get done each day, try to make a list with the most important things listed as number one, and then go from there.
That’ll give you clarity on what you want to prioritize even further, and will help you decide how much time you want to add to each section of your morning.
The main idea here is that you’re trying to create the best morning routine for success that works for you.
Talking about time…
add an ideal time frame to each task
This is where you get to decide what time you want to wake up.
And then what time you wake up (and get up) will determine how much time you’ll dedicate to everything else.
For example, if I wake up at 6 am (heaven knows I don’t) then I can have about 45 minutes to workout. Then come back at 7 am and do 15 minutes of journaling, then shower and fix myself some milk and tea.
By then its about 8 am, and I can either choose to dedicate 30 minutes to meditation or learning to play the ukelele (bought one a while back and haven’t really touched it, ha).
After that I can start work at 8:30 am and start answering emails and notifications.
Let’s imagine for a second that I do this for a whole year without fault.
I would be SO MUCH MORE fit, I’d have learned a new instrument, and would have adjusted my natural clock to be up and running by 6 am.
I would have also been much much more productive than I would have been without a morning routine.
You always want to make sure you keep your morning tasks within their time frame. That way you don’t grow distracted and then have your morning routine become most of your day (it’s happened to me).
Arrange your morning plan in a printable schedule
If you’ve been around here more than once, you likely know I’m all about printables.
I LOVE creating them and coming up with new designs that keep you organized and motivated.
You can download a calendar printable here to help you get started with creating your morning routine. Laying things all out and seeing the big picture road map definitely helps you stay motivated.
Find out when your ‘best hour’ is
Our best hour is different for each of us.
While some of us have a natural tendency to be the most productive around noon. Others of us aren’t really really productive until about four or five in the afternoon.
This means that you, through some trial and error, might want to find your best hour yourself. That way you know when its best to schedule time for the most important projects you’re working on.
For example. I know that I’m personally the most productive around two. Which is why I do most of my writing and illustrations around that time to be able to upload them to the blog later in the day.
Finding what hour works for you can be done with a habit tracker.
By listing out the times and filling in when you felt the most productive and willing to do work during the day. It’s worth giving it some thought.
Stay consistent with your morning road map
Then, to state the obvious, try your very best(est) to stick with your routine.
It amazes me each and every day how working on things like by little over time add up to bigger things. In lots of ways I think it often feels like the THEME of my life, because it’s true.
I’ve never been able to dive into anything head first and find success in it right away. Sometimes it takes some warming up. Some getting used to, before we’re able to make strides a little at a time towards what we want in life.
And that’s totally OK!
Staying consistent, or as consistent as you possibly can, is key.
The best morning routine for success
Now, once you’ve created your morning routine and have that down pat (remember, you can always use a habit tracker to help you out) you want to make sure your day is as productive as it can be.
And the beauty (and curse) of morning routines is that they often decide how the rest of your day goes. So this means if you nail your morning routine daily, you’ll have much better days that you can end feeling content and proud of yourself.
Though I admit, it can be very difficult at times to keep up with everything and keep everything lined up and on track. Especially when you have those off days.
That’s why I always like to make sure I keep my DIY planner updated with the best printables that help me plan things out and look at the big picture.
If there’s any productive or morning routine tips and tricks that you use worth sharing I’d love to hear about them below.