Shifting from a night routine to a morning one is not easy. If you were a night person, your body would have already adjusted to be productive at nighttime; for you, it would be easier to work at night. But if changing life scenarios require you to work in a day, then it is essential that you must develop a morning routine. Initially, it would be difficult but practicing a particular technique daily would make it easier for you to get along with the new routine.
You’ll find a number of people giving suggestions for incorporating morning routine in your life. There could be some hacks that might work for you while the others might go in vain. Here we are sharing 27 research-based morning routine habits that would most likely yield a positive result for you. Apart from just sharing the research, we would also try to provide you with ways through which you can incorporate them into your life.
27 Morning Routine Habits:
Let’s not waste any more time and start discussing the morning habits for a productive morning.
1. Get up Early:
Morning routine definitely means to wake up early in the morning, but we aren’t referring “early” to be exactly on time for your work. To be successful, it is essential that you should be early enough to absorb the morning energy in you. One of the research highlights that half of the self-made millionaires indicated that they woke up 3 hours before the start of their workday. You’ll have to learn to manage
The reason behind getting up early is to have more control over your life. You can decide your routine, implement the decided routine without the hassle, and this can prove to be more productive. Once you know that getting up early can help you in starting your productive routine, then the next question should be how to do it?
We do admit that it isn’t easy. You’ll have to train your mind and body to be early enough. One of the ways that you can adopt is to set the alarm in another room. You’ll have to get up and switch it off. Then comes the role of your motivation and only a high level of motivation can take you out of bed. Try and practice it.
2. Snooze button shouldn’t be an option:
One of the morning routine habits that most of us have is to snooze the alarm for getting 5 minutes of more sleep. The research says that using snooze button signals your brain that you can enter into another sleep cycle so by the time your alarm rings again, you are just at the beginning of a new sleep cycle. Getting up without completing the sleep cycle makes you highly frustrated, and you don’t feel rested at all.
A tip here is don’t use the snooze button. Never.
3. Make your bed:
According to Naval Admiral William McRaven, making your bed can give you a sense of accomplishment right in the morning. With a sense of accomplishment, you can expect to bag in a number of other successes throughout the day, this gives you the reason that why should you incorporate this habit in your daily morning routine.
4. Don’t consume coffee:
This one is strange. Isn’t it? All of us use coffee as a way to boost our energy, especially when you aren’t happy getting up early morning, right? But why would research suggest us to change this routine? This is because, when you wake up your body has Cortisol – the stress hormone – in it. One of the things that help us in to get out of bed. Once you make having coffee a habit, the caffeine in the coffee decreases the production of cortisol. With decreased production, waking up in the morning naturally won’t be possible. So, if you are considerate towards your body and mental health, don’t grab a cup of coffee as soon as you wake up. Just delay it till 10 am (3 hours after you wake up).
5. Get benefit of Earthing:
Earth has its own magnetic field. In order to boost your morning energy, you need to get help from this magnetic force, and you can feel the real difference. All you need to do is stand barefoot on grass or dirt (space without sophisticated floorings), and you can absorb this natural energy into use. This energy is known to reduce your anxiety and improve your cardiac rhythm. In order to know the other techniques that can improve your productivity, you can go through this article.
6. Enjoy the sunlight:
One of the best parts of getting up early morning is to enjoy the sunlight. Incorporating a few minutes exposure to mild sunlight in your daily morning routine can help you in improving the quality of your sleep, relieving you of depression, improving your vision and bone health. Additionally, the overall energy boost that you can get from sunlight is inevitable.
This is how you can utilize the three hours’ time that you’ll get by waking up earlier than your workday.
7. Exercise:
Finishing up your workout early in the morning relieves your body from stress and gives a boost to your energy levels. Specifically, exercising in the morning will help you in consuming lesser calories the entire day, burning more fats and improving the overall muscle health. Additionally, choosing morning time for exercise would require a lesser time of yours’ to be spent on exercise for reaping the benefits as compared to the other parts of the day. You can get some ideas regarding how to exercise without equipment.
8. Meditate:
Meditate can give you the necessary inputs required focus and concentration. It can help you to relax your body and mind. Moreover, you can reduce the amount of stress if you make it a daily habit. Research has identified various other benefits of meditation as well. You can access them through this article.
9. Practice deep breathing:
This won’t take more than 5 minutes of your daily routine. But deep breathing can make you calm and can give you the necessary poise for effective decision-making. Moreover, you can also keep your temper in control the entire day by spending 5 minutes of your morning time for this habit.
10. Drink water with lemon:
Drinking water early morning is a great way to hydrate your body. But apart from water, your body needs some electrolytes as well. So, the best solution that you can adapt for your daily morning routine is to add a few drops of lemon in your water and a pinch of salt. The lemon drops will help in detoxification of your body whereas sodium from salt will initiate the proper functioning of the important functions of your body.
11. Have a cold shower:
According to research, cold therapy can improve sleep quality, reduce the systemic inflammation, and works well for detoxification of your body. Similarly, the central nervous system is also strengthened as a result of cold therapy. You don’t have to spare additional time for this therapy. In order to make your morning productive, you can have a cold-water shower and get going with your day. You might not be able to endure 10 minutes of cold water at first, but staring with a few seconds can be a good morning routine.
12. Take a healthy breakfast:
If you are not in the habit of having breakfast, then you are not doing any good to your body. Your body needs the energy to perform the entire day. For that, it requires a source of energy right in the morning and a good breakfast is an efficient source. The research works have proven breakfast to improve the cognitive abilities, both in children and adult. Increased performance at work has been gauged in people who have their breakfast.
13. Keep things arranged:
After you have made your breakfast, make sure to spend some time in putting everything that you have taken to the right place. It will give your place a tidier look and will also ensure that you’ll get the things easily the next time you’ll need them.
14. Eat the Frog:
In the morning, your energy is at its peak. So, this is the high time to handle the most difficult task of the day. Apart from getting your most important task done early in the day, you’ll also have higher morale to handle other important and difficult tasks throughout your day.
15. Remove distractions:
Another effective morning habits that you can adopt is to remove distractions that hinder you from giving your 100%. This could be your mobile, alarm, or doorbell. Make sure to keep all such distractions aside, so you can follow on the healthy routine that you are planning to set for yourself.
16. Know what is going around the world:
Some of the most famous people in the world dedicate a special time in their morning routine for reading the news. So, you must adopt it as a habit too. It is important that you must be aware of what is happening around you and what are the major developments around the world. It can help you in keeping your knowledge up to date and implement this knowledge in your daily routine.
17. Read something:
Apart from the newspaper, you must read something daily like a book or an inspirational story. Research has found to benefit the people who are in the habit of reading a few pages each morning. Some of the benefits that you can get include the increase in fluid intelligence, improvement in memory and increase in focus and concentration level.
18. Write something:
One of the best ways to utilize what you have read is by reproducing it in your own words. You can allocate 5 minutes to it and identify the major points. This can help you in improving your focus towards your reading and can also improve your writing ability. As we advise you to read in the morning, it would be better to spare 5 minutes for writing in the morning too.
19. Be Grateful:
It would be better to start your new day with a feeling of gratitude. Gratitude can fill your day with happiness and satisfaction. Research studies link gratitude with increased physical health, improved self-esteem, reduction of depression and better quality of sleep.
20. Try to visualize your day:
Research works have shown that visualizing your day can lead to increased confidence level and higher motivation to accomplish the tasks that you have planned for the day. This is why it is one of the important morning habits that you should adopt to have a productive routine.
21. Be optimistic:
Another after the wake-up activity that should be the part of your morning routine is to be optimistic. Optimism can do wonders for you. You just need to think positive and see the bright side of everything. Coupled with self-talk, positive thinking has proved to be responsible for lowering the level of stress, enhancing the mental we being and improving the overall span of life.
22. Call a friend:
You might be finding it weird to call a friend early morning but believe us you can get all the necessary energy to start your day when you talk to a friend who knows you and your goals. Just a few minutes of your call can create a significant impact, so why not make it a habit. According to one of the articles of psychology today, social connections are important for the wellbeing and an increased life span for individuals.
23. Create a Not to do list:
Yeah, this one sounds strange too. But to get a perfect morning, it is important that you should create a not to do list. Some of the things that you can include in the list include the time before you shouldn’t access your email or social media accounts, put a limit on the level of caffeine intake, and a time limit till which you should start your work. Creating such a list can be helpful in ensuring a productive morning routine.
24. Make sure you have everything when you leave for work:
One of the ways to ensure is to create a checklist that would include the important items that must be with you. Having a look at the list, you’ll be able to remember things and take them along rather than coming back to fetch them or spending your entire day in the frustration of not bringing all the necessary belongings. So, just avoid it through a checklist.
25. Don’t be too harsh on yourself:
As you are adapting to a new and healthy morning routine, you’ll have to realize that it would take some time. You can’t get perfect in a day or so. So, give yourself enough time and don’t be too harsh.
26. Prepare everything at night:
In order to read a book, drink water with lemon or exercise in the morning, you can’t expect to arrange everything just after getting up. You need to set everything in place already. The best time for these activities is the night before. When you’ll have everything ready, there would be higher chances that you’ll be able to do what you have planned for.
27. Sleep early:
Last but not least, you must sleep early. Although, you might not find it relevant to the morning routine habits it actually is the most relevant one. Without sleeping on time, you won’t be able to wake up on time. It is this simple. Even if you consider yourself some superhuman, you would not be able to continue sleeping later and getting up early for a long time. You’ll have to modify your entire routine to have a good morning routine.
Conclusion:
Following each of these habits might not be very easy for you at start. But you can continue adopting these habits one by one to ensure an overall productive morning routine. Which of these techniques is most difficult for you? Mention it in the comments section below.
