Master Your Morning Routine: A Blueprint For A Productive Day
Mornings. Love them or hate them we all have to deal with them. So how can we tackle our mornings so we can keep our day productive? Read on to find out!
Mornings.
Yuck.
I hate them!
If you’ve been following me for a while you’ll know that I am most definitely not a morning person and I doubt I will ever be the type of person that’s up at the crack of dawn with a skip in my step.
Society sees the “norm” as a 9 to 5 workday but this is increasingly outdated. We’re dealing with people based all around the globe so many people have workdays that fall outside of traditional office hours so when I refer to “morning” in this article I mean whatever you consider your “morning time”. For some of you that might be 6am, for others it might be mid-day and others soon it might be 4 in the afternoon.
The things covered in this article can be applied to any “morning” so with that in mind, how to we create a successful routine to get our day on track and ensure we’re productive? Read on to find out!
The Hardest Part Of Any Morning: Getting Up
I am a serial snoozer, I always have been and I always will be. I am not going to preach to you about how “evil” snoozing is and that it doesn’t do you any good (although new research suggests it can be good). If you want to snooze, then snooze. But what you need to do is build this in to your day.
I like to have at least half-an-hour so I make sure I set my alarms early so when I am snoozing I’m not eating into my actually getting up time, but I still feel like I’ve cheated the clock and grabbed some extra sleep.
You’ll also want to consider how you wake up. Some people can just jump out of bed, others (like me) prefer to snooze, others may need to wake up gradually with a daylight lamp or an alarm that starts quietly and gets gradually louder and others might need to chase a robot alarm clock around the room.
If you struggle in the morning try a variety of routines to see which one is best for you.
It’s also important to ensure you’re getting enough sleep – you don’t stand a chance of getting up and feeling like you can tackle the day if you’ve had little sleep, or bad quality sleep.
Find Your Morning Motivators
In order to get yourself going in the morning, find out what helps you kickstart your day. For some it might be listening to their favourite audiobook or podcast, going for a run or walk, meditating, yoga, journaling even making your bed – you get the idea.
Having a morning motivator will give you something to look forward to and give you a reason to get up an about.
Fuel Your Day
You can’t have a productive day if you’re feeling rundown and hungry – your energy levels will need topping up after all that sleep and even more so if you exercise in the morning.
Eating a nutritious breakfast will help aid concentration and also stop you snacking throughout the morning as well as helping to reduce the risk of type 2 diabetes and obesity.
I’m not a big fan of breakfast but you don’t have to have a full English, a filling smoothie, protein bar or overnight oats can all help you set your day up for success.
Try not to make your breakfast too overly complicated as this will eat into your morning time increasing the chance of you running late and therefore raising stress levels. If you want something a bit fancier, try and make as much of it as possible the night before – your future self will thank you!
Another important part of your morning routine is hydration.
I hear you, I hear you! I can’t get going in the morning without my caffeine either but I still make sure to drink some water as well to stave off those dreaded headaches that can some from not having enough to drink.
If you’re not a fan of plain water, there are lots of other alternatives such as infusing water with fresh fruit, sticking frozen fruit and berries in to your water to cool it down and flavour it, protein powders and many more options. So sure, grab that coffee but also grab something non-caffeinated too.
Tame The Tech
I have to hold my hand up to this one – I will quite often pick up my phone when I first get up and go through the notifications. I then get sucked into a social media or email rabbit hole and the next thing I know I’ve lost over an hour and haven’t done anything that I was meant to do.
Set up a “do not disturb” routine so that you’re not bothered by beeps, dings and the screen lighting up until it’s convenient. Look at muting screen notifications as well so you don’t wake up to a screen of things all clamouring for your attention.
Also consider a location-based routine – perhaps turn off work email notifications until you’ve reached the office for example.
And you can think about setting screen-time controls so you don’t spend hours scrolling when you should have been meditating or eating breakfast.
Prioritise Prioritising
There’s nothing worse when starting your day than sitting there and thinking “I have no idea what I’m meant to be doing”.
I don’t mean this is an existential crisis sort of way (that’ll happen no matter what I suggest!) but more in the way of what tasks you have to and want.
There’s a few ways I’d recommend looking at your tasks and prioritising them in order to avoid priority paralysis:
Weekly Review
I still use the Weekly Review technique I learned over 20 years ago and it’s a great way to look at everything you need to and have to get done during the week.
Sit down over the weekend (it doesn’t matter when as long as it’s before Monday morning) and go through all the things that you accomplished last week. Note what you did well and what needs improvement and give yourself a pat on the back for another week over – congratulations, you survived!
Look at what tasks are outstanding from the previous week and try to schedule them in the coming week appropriately.
Make a special note of those tasks you continually keep putting off – try to figure out what you’re doing it and if you’re never going to get around to it, move it off your main task list and into a “someday/maybe” list or bin it completely.
Daily Review
Give yourself another pat on the back – you got through the day!
At the end of each day, take a look at what you were able to get done, what you need to move to another day and what you want to push back until later in the month or pass to someone else.
Reviewing your tasks and setting the next day’s agenda will help avoid priority paralysis and allow you to prepare for what you need to focus on.
Make sure you put at least one enjoyable/fun/silly task on the list as an added motivator,
Monthly Check In
This is a high-level overview of tasks you think might be coming up on the horizon. It allows you to plan ahead, it also allows you to see how much you have accomplished, keep track of those pesky tasks that you never seem to complete.
Don’t be afraid to move tasks around – unless they’re truly time sensitive it’s okay to pick and choose the tasks that fit your mood and energy level. Sorting these tasks out beforehand will greatly reduce stress levels, help you keep on track and also give you a clear vision of how your day/week is going to progress.
Don’t Be Afraid To Make Adjustments
There’s no shame in admitting something isn’t working for you and then taking steps to amend and improve it.
Just make sure you don’t fall into the trap of tweaking a system in order to feel as though you’re being productive rather than actually being productive.
More importantly though, if you come across someone saying that this is the best morning routine since sliced bread and you all should be doing it or you’re missing out – feel free to try it but don’t think that you have to implement it. If you’re not happy, it or it doesn’t add value to your morning routine or improve it/simplify it in some way you don’t have to carry on using it just because some influencer/random blog writer on the internet said so (but you should listen to me, honest!)
No routine is set in stone.
Similarly what works for me won’t necessarily work for you.
What do you think? Are morning routines overrated or necessary?
Do you just roll out of bed and get on with it or do you meticulously plan out your mornings to set yourself up for the day?
Let me know in the comments below what your morning routine looks like.