*Beep beep* It is seven in the morning and your alarm clock has just rung. Like the majority of us, you decide to snooze the alarm for another ten minutes. Just ten more minutes… …
It is now eight. You realise the few times you have innocently snooze the alarm is causing you to be late for work, again, even though it is work from home. Without wasting another minute, you skip the hot shower you thought of taking, forego changing out of your pyjamas, forget about your breakfast on the table and make it just in time for the online meeting.
Unable to focus due to the adrenaline rush prior, you drift off to your surroundings during the call. Suddenly, you see a new notification on Youtube and hey, there is a new video by your favourite influencer, entitled “ My morning routine” and you think to yourself “Wow, if only I also had the time to do this perfect morning routine as they do!”
Well, you know what, you DO have the time for a morning routine, and though it is not the curated, oh so fanciful morning routine that we see on Instagram and Youtube, it will help you to start the day RIGHT, so you have the energy, time for the rest of the day ahead of you.
The Daily Morning Routine Problem
The biggest mistake we make when creating a morning routine is to follow our favourite influencer’s routines. After all, if they are successful, then their morning routine should make me successful too right?
Imagine Barack Obama or Jeff Bezos going “Yeah, I need to do what that man does”
Exactly, they do not. Each one of these successful people has their own morning routine that works for them. Each morning routine was built for the kind of day each individual wants and needs to have and this applies to yourself too. The morning routine you build should align to what is most important to you and acts as the doorway to your day of excellence.
While every individual has their version of a morning routine there are a few key activities that your morning routine should help you with:
1. Prepare you for the rest of the day
Our morning routine acts as a compass to guide us through the day. The most crucial ingredient here is to find out what is the most important activity you do in the day and then, find an activity that would ease you into doing your main work.
For example, if you were to be an athlete, your day would revolve closely around your training. In that case, a great start to your day would be to do some stretches, perhaps ten to 15 minutes long, to help relax your muscles before the intensive sessions later in the day. On the other hand, if you are going to be busy studying the whole day, a great start for you would be to spend five to ten minutes in quiet time, to tune out the noises and rambles of thoughts so that you can, in turn, be more focused for the day ahead.
2. An activity that is aligned to a value close to you
To get yourself some motivation for the day, it is good to finish an activity that satisfies your core soul, much like checking off your to-do lists would. There are many ways to do this according to what you hold dear. Say you are someone who is health-conscious, you might want to include a green-juice mix in your morning routine. If Family is a value close to your heart, you could add in a simple “breakfast with family” in your morning routine.
Having a purpose to a particular activity will give you a greater incentive to want to stick to the routine, and give you a great sense of accomplishment when you complete it, giving you double the positivity boost to your day.
3. Something that makes you happy
According to the World Economic Forum in a six-month study in 2019, of 1,800 call centre workers, happier employees (who self-assessed on a scale) made more calls and achieved 13% more sales than their unhappier colleagues given the same working hours. What this means is that being happy is directly correlated to increasing your productivity for the day. Of course, productivity is not the only benefit when you are happy, you feel more motivated, you become more likely to stay mentally healthy throughout the day, so on and so forth, and giving you much reason to add in an activity that sparks joy to your morning routine. The best part is that it can be the simplest of things, like making yourself a cup of hot chocolate or buying bread from your favourite boulangerie (bakery).
A great tip is to put this activity at the end of your morning routine so that there is something to look forward to after you have done your more essential preparations and keep you on your feet as you transition to your eternally-filled daily schedules.
Now that you know about these three main ingredients, why do not you try it out and tell us in the comments below if you found any other pointers that helped you in crafting your very own morning routine?
