How to Perform a Morning Routine every day! (even if you struggle with waking up early)
Good morning! It's currently 6 a.m. I've already done my workout, a deep journaling session, a 20-minute meditation, daily-planning, and still had time to do meal-prep for the rest of the week.
Nop. Not exactly true. This was my morning routine a couple of years ago, but it's not the case now. I still have my morning routine and a set of activities I complete before starting the work every morning. My current morning routine is not worse or better than the previous one. It is different, and it was adapted to fit my current situation and priorities.
Incorporating adaptability and change into your morning routine is an important message. It's easy to compare your own to the 5 a.m. dreaming mornings you see on Youtube. Seriously, if you have insomnia (join the club), it's far from being ideal waking at 5 a.m., when you fall asleep at midnight or later. It's also not applicable if you have a 1-year-old-kid waking you up every 3 hours. Or if you make night shifts. Or if you don't want to.
I've personally set the 5 a.m. clock as the time to get up, do the morning routine and begin working when most of the world is still asleep. I love the quiet of the early mornings. But I can't survive with less than 5 hours every night. So, I maintained all the benefits of having a morning routine but a bit later in the day.
A morning routine, as the name suggests, is to be done during the morning. And mornings last for quite a considerable number of hours. It's wonderful if you want to start your morning routine at 6 a.m., 9 a.m. or 11 a.m.
I still favour early mornings to get a fresh start on the day, but this doesn't exactly mean 5 a.m. At the moment, it's between 7 a.m. and 8.30 a.m. Depending on different factors, the most important one being sleep quality. Rather than this, my morning routine continues to be something I look for every day, it gets me excited to face new challenges, and most importantly, it's a healthy routine.
My Morning Routine Checklist
Hydration: Full glass of water + 3g of pink Himalayan salt + 1/4 lemon;
Movement: 2 minutes of movement (Kettlebell swing + Ab Wheel). But you can insert any movement here. The goal is to elevate the heartbeat and move the body. This is not my work-out for the day that comes later;
Meditation: 10-minute meditation (I use the Daily Meditation of the "Calm" app);
Intentions: Daily planning + reading my goals for this year + voicing out 4 words that I want to attach my identity to: Grateful, Present, Excited & Kind;
Discipline-Building: Sometimes, I have a cold-shower with the intent of building my discipline muscle through exposure to discomfort. It also helps me to wake up, so it's great for those lazy-days;
Coffee!
If you have never experimented with a morning routine, I highly encourage you to do so. It's a transformative way of implementing simple but healthy habits right before the busy work. Still, it's crucial to incorporate flexibility. Otherwise, you might be setting yourself to failure. Nothing wrong with the 5 a.m. club, but it might not work for you.
In the book "The Miracle Morning", Hal Elrod refers to the sensations of starting the day with the right foot, and that usually begins with a well-designed morning routine. I could not agree more. In fact, I've used early mornings to work on myself and develop projects that have, in a sense, altered the course of my life. The blog I started in the last year of high school was a 6.30 a.m. project. I would wake up early, perform a morning routine, and spend every minute of my time writing before heading over to the school at 8.25 a.m. The mornings are a blessing if you want to start a new project — either for work or for yourself, like working out or learning a new language. Still, never compromise your health for the sake of the early hours!
“Focused, productive, successful mornings generate focused, productive, successful days—which inevitably create a successful life. By simply changing the way you wake up in the morning, you can transform any area of your life, faster than you ever thought possible.”