Great days are simply great mornings. It's true! It's no revelation that having successful mornings sets the tone for a super successful day ahead.
Successful mornings must be consciously – and at times painfully – cultivated. The good news is that having successful mornings becomes less work and more muscle memory if you can build the right morning routines.
5 Morning habits to start off your spectacular day
We apologize that you may have to keep your beloved Instagram and TikTok off the first things you do when you wake in the morning. Caring for you so much, let me take the pain to carefully explain five-morning routine habits that set you for an enviably productive day.
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1. It all starts with waking up at the right time
Tell you what, if the government decides to criminalize snoozing the morning alarm, most of us would be cooling off in jail by now. A cultural pandemic, isn’t it?
The bulk of us is guilty of oversleeping into our mornings. Once you wake up late, you make your job of gaining momentum early harder. Certainly, this doesn’t in any way disregard the relevance of good and nourishing sleep.
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Today, most successful people subscribe to waking up as early as 5 am to get their days actively started. Take Tim Cook, the CEO of Apple, for example. Despite having one of the coziest beds in the world, he wakes at 4:30 am so he can send his morning emails and get into the gym by 5.00 am.
Do you know that a study by the American Psychological Association back in 2012 revealed that people who woke up early identified as “happier and healthier”?
I would be wrong to write off night owls definitively. Of course, some people hit the best of their productivity nocturnally.
2. Make your bed
If you ask me what the most ignored thing in life was, I would tell you ruffled morning bed sheets. It is no secret that the bulk of us prefer jumping right out of bed into the day. Who cares about the bed, really?
But little things matter so much in life, especially when it comes to building positive habits. As trivial as it may appear, making your bed in the morning has the profound psychological impact of having achieved something for the day.
This gets the ball rolling to stack more achievements across that day. You are pushed to do another task, and then another.
What more, such tiny gains at the very beginning of the day fill you with some vital drops of fulfillment. Yes, you can fix stuff!
How were you going to achieve a super successful day when you flopped your bed right at the start of the day?
3. Give Yourself an Early Dose of Positivity
I will not be able to help you if you wake up with a defeatist mindset – actually, no one can! It is important to drink some cups of positivity when you start your day.
It is not dumb reciting positive affirmations and visualizing a cheerful day ahead. This is a mental trick to nudge your mind to be excited for the day ahead.
We said a dose of positivity – but not an overdose. You must yet be realistic as you reflect through your day. What are the resources – time and personnel – available for you on that day. How can you best optimize them to achieve the bulk of the to-do tasks for that day?
Such positivity diced with realistic reflection not only gets you psychologically pumped for the day but also gives you that much-needed clarity to run through your day smoothly.
4. No, you are not doing without some exercise
Were you rushing off to the dining table just yet? Come on, you need to get some workout. Few things positively transform your days as much as a refreshing morning exercise.
Morning exercise does more than get your muscles popping out. It has been proven to enhance blood circulation, strengthen your body, and release a helpful bunch of endorphins.
It is a known fact that morning exercises improve your metabolism. Even upon the termination of your exercise, your body burns calories in a process tagged Excess Post-Exercise Oxygen Consumptions (EPOC). This is particularly helpful before breakfast.
More than that, morning exercise clears the head, efficient in combating anxiety and depression. Scared of hitting the gym and all those dumbbells in the morning?
No problem, no one was forcing you to a high-intensity workout in the morning. Simpler exercises like walking, jogging, biking, or even yoga would perfectly do.
In fact, Howard Schulz, CEO of Starbucks, bikes in the morning, while Jack Dorsey of Twitter is a huge fan of morning jogs.
5. Eat a Nice, Healthy Breakfast
Come on, how on earth was I going to talk about the best morning routines and ignore breakfast? Just like you need fuel in your car in the morning to drive out, so does your body need fuel to burn across the day.
This is just what your breakfast does. Your breakfast must be healthy and in the right portions to keep you alert and energetic. It is advised that you stay away from breakfasts with high sugar and fat content.
Sure, I will be more than happy to help you with the healthiest breakfast ideas. You can try out eggs, oatmeal, Greek yogurt, berries, protein shake, fruits, and yes, coffee!
These are some of the most effective – and yes, proven – morning habits to achieve a remarkably successful day. Consciously apply to starting your day with these routines, and you will thank me every day before you sleep at night.
