I’ve been getting lots of questions about my morning routine–what I do, for how long, and how often and consistently I do it, etc. that I decided to do a quick post about it so that I could give you some ideas for yours! And if you don’t have a morning routine or you aren’t quite sure why you need one, hopefully this will inspire you to consider adding some practices to your day.
Full disclosure: I am not one of those people who wakes up earlier to do my morning routine. I’m one of those people who starts their day later instead. While this occasionally eats into my workday a little bit I’m ok with it because it helps center me and get me into “work mode” so I don’t spend time dicking around on Facebook instead of writing blog posts or clearing out my inbox. For me, that time cancels out any time I would have wasted later in the day.
I typically wake up early-ish around 6 or 6:30. This is the time my body (and my puppy Duckie) want me to wake up. I tend to move slow in the morning so I just go with that. On an ideal day I’ll wake up, take the pups out to pee and then take them for a walk first thing. This let’s my body wake up and move before I go home to eat breakfast (and my dogs are psychos so I don’t want them running with full bellies). Before breakfast I have some yoga poses that I’ll do to help connect me to my body first thing and then I’ll eat and then go to an hour yoga class around 8:30 am. When I get home around 9:30-10ish I will sit down to do my morning routine before getting to work.
My 1-Hour Morning Routine:
1. I start by meditating for 20 minutes
I’ve been using the headspace app which is great, but occasionally I like to go off script and just do my own thing. If that’s the case I set my intention, throw on some music and (attempt to) clear my mind.
2. Once I finish meditating I journal for 15-ish minutes
It usually depends on the day and if I have specific questions, or worries I want to get out onto the page. I start the process by listing (at least) 3 things I’m grateful for that day. Then I write out my 90 day goals so that I spend time focusing on them and feeling into how great it’ll feel to reach them.
After that I answer the question: “If I could do today over again I’d…” and answer this according to what pitfalls I might anticipate. Sometimes it’s that I wouldn’t be so hard on myself if I didn’t get everything done on my to-do list, other times it’s that I wouldn’t waste energy worrying about stuff that probably won’t ever happen. By doing this I can stop myself from wasting precious time because this intention is in the back of my mind. I also pick a theme for the day like focus, creativity, or productivity (those are a few of my favs). Once that’s done, I will just spontaneously write whatever comes to mind if I don’t have specific questions from whatever I’m reading to answer.
3. Read
When I feel like I have gotten everything out that I need to get out, I start taking stuff in and I read. I usually read a chapter (if they’re a reasonable length) of whatever book I’m reading at the moment. This usually takes me about 20 minutes to do.
4. Reading my money story and career story out loud every day
This was at the suggestion of my coach who insisted that I read my new, positive money story out loud. This would help me retrain my mind to think positively about money. It’s so easy get bogged down by limiting beliefs. I do the same with my career story which I wrote myself. It’s amazing the things we have programmed in our minds about work and money. I want to make sure I’m doing the reprogramming. This way, I don’t just default back to the stories I’ve been telling myself that have been holding me back. This process is quick only about 5 minutes.
If short on time, I cut the time I spend doing steps 1-3 in half. I’ll then spend a half hour getting primed for the day. Although this seems like a luxury it really gets me into alignment–a.k.a. work mode. I feel like I’ve at least accomplished my morning routine if I accomplish nothing else with my day. 😂 Plus, let’s be honest, if we added up the time we waste on social media or getting distracted by the “urgent” things that fall into our lap every day then it would far outweigh the time spent this important piece of our day.
I’ve been doing my morning routine for about 6+ months at this point. On the days I skip it or don’t have time to fit it in, that I feel like incomplete. I then wish I had given myself this hour to gear up for the day ahead. We often don’t value time with ourselves, or even just give ourselves a minute throughout the day. Having a morning routine is a great way to do that. If you hate getting up early, you can always do the same thing at night to end the day productively.
Try this for a week or two and see if it makes a difference in your day. And let me know what you liked and what worked for you from my routine.
Thanks for reading friend,
