Morning routines are genuinely the most important part of our day. There are a lot of different ideas for your morning routine, but which are the absolute best ones for your future?
But before that – here’s a quick backstory:
My mornings used to start like this:
Wake up late. Slouch around indoors and hardly get sunlight. Eat breakfast while scrolling through my phone. Take a long nap right after. Repeat.
As you can see…I wasn’t quite the epitome of productivity. Heck, most of us probably start our days like this too.
Can you relate? And the worst part is, I felt mentally drained even though it was just the start of my day!
Day after day, month after month, this is how my mornings went.
I began to see negative side effects because of this routine- headaches, fatigue, a decrease in productivity, and more.
It all changed when I learned about the power of morning routines from a brilliant doctor, Andrew Huberman.
He explains that our morning routines play a huge role in determining the outcome of the rest of our day.
So if you have positive habits that energize you in the morning, you’ll be productive, active, and happier.
Can you guess what happens if you do negative habits? Ding ding ding!
So I tested and learned about the different habits that Huberman explains on his YouTube podcast.
To save you time, here are the best, most productive, and most energizing morning routine ideas, that gave me amazing changes in my life!
All are evidence-based and scientifically proven by Dr. Andrew Huberman.
I guarantee that if you follow at least one habit for 31 days, you’ll see a super positive change in your health and life. Just like mine did! If I went from a lazy, unhealthy sloth to an active, productive, and positive person, you can do it too. 😉
1. A Quick Cold Shower:
Taking a cold shower in the morning is one of the most painful, uncomfortable things you can do to yourself, and you’ll start to dread doing this, BUT THE BENEFITS ARE WORTH IT. O-okay, but maybe if you live in a f-freezing area you can skip this one. 🥶
You may be thinking, ”Wait, how is stepping into a cold, horrible shower going to help me out?”
Taking a cold shower has these amazing and super life-changing benefits:
- Improves mental health – lowers stress levels, relaxes the body.
- Removes fatigue.
- Strengthens immune system.
- Increases your self-discipline immensely – It’ll be uncomfortable to step into an ice-cold shower. But stepping into it anyway will heighten your mental toughness and discipline.
- Increases blood circulation.
- For weight loss – As your body fights to stay warm, this reaction will temporarily increase your metabolism and makes you lose weight.
When you’re incorporating a cold shower into your routine for the first time, start small – instead of doing full-length showers, just dunk your body under the shower head for 30 seconds.
It’s important to slowly get used to it instead of directly jumping into the shower and screaming your head off. Or just jump in, if you have a high pain tolerance.
Celebrities like Darren Hardy, Tony Robbins, Andrew Huberman, and Iman Gadzhi, explain how every day, they always do a cold shower without fail, ’cause the benefits are great!
To read more about the benefits of cold showers, check out this article.
“Only the disciplined ones in life are free. If you are undisciplined, you are a slave to your moods and passions.”
-Kipchoge
2. Reading:
Reading and consuming positive content is a great way to keep your mind active!
I absolutely adore curling up with a book and relaxing while waiting for breakfast to be ready. It starts my day off nicely!
So instead of grabbing your phone, pick up an interesting book and flip through it. It doesn’t matter what genre it is, all are great options.
If you’re reading this blog, you’re probably a bookworm already, so keep it up! 🐛
If you’re religious, read your holy book and develop your faith in a Higher Power.
Faith is what keeps us positive when we hit a low point, and allows us to strive toward our dreams confidently.
Living with faith is the most peaceful, calming, and happiest way of living I ever experienced.
Faith helped me immensely to eliminate stress, shush my negative thoughts, and fill my mind with gratitude and love for the world.
Building faith transformed my life, and gave me hope for the future. It will transform yours as well, if you choose to start now.
In my opinion, this is one of the best ideas you can add to your morning routine!
3. Exercise – START DOING THIS ALREADY:
Okay, this might sound super OBVIOUS…but stick with me here. It’s common knowledge that exercise is great for your health, right?
Sadly, not many people genuinely understand how amazingly powerful exercising is. Even fewer people actually start exercising.
Sheesh, they are missing out.
Do you know the single, most important thing that determines your productivity level? Your health.
I found that improving my health drastically improved my focus, and I could work longer too!
Benefits of exercising include:
- Improves your sleep quality
- Strengthens your immune system, prevents chronic diseases.
- Increases your attractiveness.
- Significantly reduces anxiety and depression.
- Releases hormones that make you happier and more calm.
- Improves memory, concentration levels, and brain function.
- Drastically increases your confidence.
Now, before you say, ”Oh, I can’t exercise in the morning, I’m too tired and busy to go to the gym.” Don’t overcomplicate it!
Even walking for 30 minutes around your house is a great way to break a sweat and get your muscles burning.
TIP: Add a bit of light stretching along with your workout, to ease up your stiff muscles and prevent cramps.
So, how long should you exercise per day? I recommend starting small – try 10 minutes a day, and gradually work your way up.
Exercising in the early morning will provide you with an energy boost for the rest of your day. It’s a great idea to add to your morning routine!
So don’t talk yourself out of it by saying, ”I’m too tired to exercise,” because exercising literally gives you energy.
But try avoiding heavy weight-lifting though! When I lifted heavy weights in the morning, the rest of the day I usually felt super groggy.
Instead, I changed it to doing some cardio and using light weights as a replacement. Good decision!
4. Journaling:
Journaling is an amazing way to become more self-aware – which will help you overcome adversity, discover mental blocks holding you prisoner, develop a deeper connection with yourself, and best of all, learn to love yourself.
Buy a personal journal and keep it on your desk. It doesn’t have to be fancy, even a simple notebook is enough.
There are all sorts of ways you can use a journal productively – but here are my 2 favorite methods below! ❤
a) Gratitude Journaling:
Every morning, I grab my journal and write down 3+ things I am grateful for in my life.
It doesn’t have to be complicated – write whatever comes to mind.
Use the following template -> I am grateful for ________ because ________.
Example -> “I am grateful for my blanket because it keeps me warm during the night.”
This is called Gratitude Journaling – it forces us to focus on and be grateful for the small things in our lives that we otherwise take for granted.
This habit did wonders for my happiness – I used to focus more on my desires and goals, than the blessings I already had.
This just made me frustrated and impatient, I felt like whatever I had in my life wasn’t enough.
I would think, ”Okay, as soon as I achieve ________ I can be at peace and happy’.’
I realized that delaying my happiness is a counterfeit hope that never fulfills.
Happiness is a choice that is made in the present moment.
Now, while working towards my goals and ambitions, I choose to be happy and enjoy the process, rather than daydream about the future. It’s much more fun and rewarding.
b) Self-Discovery Journal Prompts:
You can also try self-discovery journal prompts – which are topics/questions that you can answer in your journal, related to yourself and your life.
Just write whatever comes to mind about that topic, letting the words flow. No stress!
This is useful in discovering unhealthy thinking patterns and replacing them with positive, empowering beliefs.
You do this by being conscious of the negative thoughts you’re having and finding the much deeper, root cause of them.
It’s a great method for self-growth – prepare yourself to have mind-blowing breakthroughs and a higher understanding of yourself! 💥
Here is a list of my favorite journal prompts for deep inner healing, it’s a helpful idea to add to your morning routine if you want to do deep healing.
5. Prioritize Your Day:
Figuring out what tasks you need to get done for the day (by creating a to-do list! 📝) is a great habit to save time and mental energy.
In a nutshell, just write down a list of the 5 most important tasks you need to do today on a sticky note and paste it somewhere where you can read it easily.
(On your desk, fridge, wall, etc.)
It would be best if you plan out the things you need to do the previous night!
Now that you have your 5 tasks ready, what now? Order those from the most important to the least important.
During the morning, do the most important task at the top of your list first, then work your way down to the bottom of the list.
Doing the big, crucial work first will ease up your workload for the day and give you a sense of peace, removing any pressure you’ll feel during the rest of the day.
After that, doing the easy stuff is a piece of cake!
I wish I learned this sooner, because I wasted so much time doing small, less important tasks, while the crucial work was left unfinished and made me stressed out.
So, genuinely ponder what tasks are actually important. They usually are the hard tasks that are difficult to start doing.
Always complete the essential tasks first. Don’t let the other lesser tasks distract you.
This is the best morning routine idea if you want to increase your productivity!
6. Meditating 10 – 20 minutes:
This is the MOST POWERFUL morning routine idea ever.
I would say this is one of the best morning routine ideas to have, since your life will transform if you say consistent with this habit.
Before I started meditating, my thoughts were all over the place – I couldn’t focus properly and I was easily anxious and stressed.
So I tried giving meditation a go but then quit early because I didn’t see any results after a week.
Sometime later, after I learned about the compound effect, I started being consistent with my meditation practice again.
After a few months, I saw a dramatic change – my mood was chirpier, I was calm and composed, and even in stressful situations, I was able to stay focused and quickly find solutions.
Mediation changed my life- and it will change yours too! 😊
Meditating is the practice of focusing on the present moment, by sitting in a quiet place and doing nothing. It sounds surprisingly simple, right? Well, it is…but it’s also not.
When you start to meditate for the first time, you’ll be surprised at the number of thoughts scurrying in your head.
Most of the thoughts we have are super random and useless.
The goal of meditation is to quiet the chatter in your mind and connect to your inner guidance, so you can live with faith, peace, and clarity.
- Firstly, sit in a quiet place in a comfortable position, either laying down or sitting up. (Don’t fall asleep!)
- Next, set a timer for 5 minutes.
- Not surprisingly, you might find it difficult to meditate even for 5 minutes without squirming if you’re a beginner.
- Start small and work your way up.
- Finally, when you’re meditating you have to focus only on the present.
- You can focus on the noises around you, your breath, your heartbeat, or nothing in particular.
If you feel like you’re being drifted away by thoughts, become aware of it and gently bring your attention back to the present moment.
Don’t beat yourself up – just make sure to show up every day to meditate and be consistent.
7. Getting Sunlight:
It sounds super simple, right? It is! ☀
Feeling the warm sunlight during the morning has the following awesome benefits:
- Helps cure insomnia.
- Fights off depression.
- Releases hormone called serotonin, which keeps you calm and focused.
- Strengthens bones.
After you wake up, stand outside and admire the world for a few minutes. Bask in the sunlight and breathe deeply.
It’s been scientifically proven that getting sunlight right after we wake up regulates our sleep cycle – so when you go to bed, you’ll feel more sleepy and doze off quickly.
Since sleep is crucial for our health, regulating your sleep cycle is a MUST!
The next time you wake up, open all the curtains and windows in your home, letting the bright sunlight in.
It’s a simple, but essential habit that will benefit you very much.
8. Listening to an inspirational podcast:
To start your morning off feeling confident and hopeful, listen to an inspirational and informational podcast.
Find a podcast that suits your interests, and commit to listening to it for at least 10 minutes a day,
You could listen to it while cooking breakfast, walking outside, or doing any simple activity.
Be proud of yourself for being committed to your personal growth!
Here are some inspirational podcasts you might want to check out:
9. Fix up a healthy meal:
Strive to include natural, healthy, and organic meals in your day. Our diet plays determines an important factor in the quality of our life.
Ingesting processed foods, like bread, pizza, oatmeal, cheese, ready-to-eat foods, etc. will make you feel sluggish throughout the day, lowering your productivity.
Digestion is an energy-consuming process, so if you have a huge breakfast and sit down to work, suddenly your body will feel super tired and lazy.
The best option is to fast and avoid breakfast entirely if you want maximum productivity during the morning.
NOTE: If you are having health problems, speak with your doctor if you have plans to change your diet.
Swap these types of foods for healthy alternatives like veggies, fruits, nuts, etc. You’ll feel so much more energized and ready to tackle your tasks!
10. Fix your sleep schedule! Seriously – it’s super important:
Of course, we all accidentally stay up longer than what’s healthy for us and get up at irregular times.
Sleep is one of the most important things for the human body – if our bodies were cars, sleep would be the fuel. I literally cannot stress this enough.
There’s a widely known misconception of ”Work work work work work, even if you have to sacrifice your sleep for it.” TOTALLY 100% WRONG!
Lack of sleep just lowers your productivity and causes health problems. The next day you’ll wake up with a splitting headache and the consciousness of a zombie. Do we really want that? 🤔
Rather, doing about 4 hours of work and getting 9 hours of rest is better than working for 9 hours and getting 4 hours of sleep.
Decide now, at what time can you go to bed for the rest of your life? Be determined and stick to your sleep schedule, since your health depends on it veryyy much.
What time can you get up? Create your sleep schedule and plan out your day, so you can get 8 hours of rest. Don’t sacrifice your sleep at any cost!
Maximizing These Habits:
Thank you for reading all the way till here! ❤ So, what do you think of the morning routine ideas I’ve listed? Let me know in the comments if you’d like more similar content.
Scroll through this post again and pick out your favorite morning routine ideas.
BTW, I would recommend including meditation, exercise, and journaling as essential habits for your routine because their benefits are extremely high!
Once you’ve chosen your awesome habits, decide from now on, to do them every day during the morning.
You might feel uncomfortable changing your routine for the first time, but I promise the long-term rewards will be worth it. Stay consistent and don’t give up on yourself.
Start small, by doing the habit for about 10 minutes each day and work your way up as you get used to it.
If you ever feel that your life is getting too repetitive, choose a new idea from this list and add it to your routine!
Mix up your morning routine once in a while. Variety is the spice of life, after all. Most of all, when you’re setting up your morning routine, make it fun and dynamic!
Thank you for reading! 😊 I know you’ll enjoy setting up your new morning routine for success, and I’m proud of you for choosing to improve your life. Hang in there, because your life will absolutely transform. Much love!
If you find this article helpful, please share it with someone who might need it, so they can start their positive transformation journey along with you.
