The best tips for your morning routine

Written by: Quirin Eberl, 22.02.2021

A structured morning routine is helpful for a productive start of the day and offers many other advantages. What exactly is a morning routine?

A morning routine is a consciously planned sequence at the start of the day, which, in the best case scenario, is the same every day. In this article, you will learn how useful this routine is and how you can personalize it.

We also tell you what you should try to avoid in the morning! If you are interested in starting the day in a more productive, structured, happier or even healthier way, this article is perfect for you!

What’s the point of having a morning routine?

  1. A positive start into the day is particularly important, as good and bad moods will keep up along the day. That means that if you have a great morning, you will manage to take this energy with you into the new day.
  2. You are doing yourself a favor with your morning ritual because right at the beginning of the day you experience successes as you get things done!
  3. Humans are creatures of habit. If you train your “inner animal” and fill your morning with positive activities, you will become a more productive and balanced person in the long run.
  4. Finally, perhaps the most important argument of all: You will get out of bed easier! The routine will help you get up easier as you look forward to what comes after!

14 tips for your morning routine

Don’t worry, you don’t have to do all 14 things at once in order to create your morning routine. Just try out some of the tips and find your individual ritual that will enable you to have a better start into the day.

Generally speaking, you should not overwhelm yourself either. Approach your optimal routine with small steps and try not to make overwhelmingly big changes in a short amount of time. Unrealistic changes are suffocating and will lead to dissatisfaction.

1. Get enough sleep

A better tomorrow starts by your decisions today. 7 to 9 hours of sleep are ideal to be well rested and ready to deal with everyday life. Sufficient amount of sleep leads to increased performance and learning ability. In addition, it increases our stress resistance and attention.

If that is not already enough for you, you might be convinced by other factors like more beautiful skin and better overall health. But be careful: Too much of a good thing can damage our health too! If you tend to sleep too long every day, it can also have counterproductive consequences.

2. Deactivate the snooze button

We all know this situation. The bed is comfortable, the alarm clock goes off and you have 5 more minutes left. But if you use the snooze button, you often stress your brain because it cannot process whether you should be awake or tired. Stay away from the snooze button!

3. Stretch after waking up

This tip is easy to follow because you do not even have to get out of bed for this. By stretching, you signal your brain that the day is starting. It is kind of a warm-up exercise for your body.

4. Put your mobile phone away

You have surely done that before too? Before we get up, we grab our smartphones and check WhatsApp, Instagram and Co. Try to spend at least the first 30 minutes of the day without a screen. Alternatively, you can also set a time from when you will use your mobile phone. Checking messages early increases your stress level and ensures an unrelaxed start to the day.

5. Open your curtains

As difficult as it is to let the sun or light into your bedroom in the morning. It definitely helps! Light activates our brain and serves as a biological alarm clock, in order for us to wake up faster, naturally. In winter, so-called daylight alarm clocks can also help.

6. Listen to music

This tip is arguably one of the easiest tips on this list to follow. If you listen to energetic music early on, the start of the day is easier and the good mood increases. Maybe you can put together a morning playlist with your favourite upbeat songs!

7. Smile

Smiles are contagious and will even spread your good mood. Even a forced smile gives the brain the signal that helps you make you feel happier. You can trick yourself into lifting your mood and start the day full of energy.

8. Drink half a liter of water

For many, coffee is the magic bullet against tiredness, but water shouldn’t be neglected either. The body dehydrates overnight and drinking water can help prevent headaches. But don’t worry, you don’t have to choose. Coffee and water go together, of course, and can be consumed together.

9. Meditation

Meditation is of course a must on this list. It is irrelevant what this meditation looks like. Focus on a moment of silence, whether this means looking out the window, doing yoga, or a morning prayer. This spiritual calm ensures relaxation and an orderly morning. Here are our tips for starting to meditate!

10. Sports

Exercising in the morning has numerous benefits. It makes the brain more efficient. The ability to concentrate and logical thinking are promoted by being active. In addition, the circulation and blood flow are stimulated.

The increased oxygen supply ensures a generally better feeling and a powerful start in the day. In addition to that, exercise in the morning will give you the feeling that you have already accomplished a task of the day. Last but not least, sports enthusiasts will have more time for themselves or friends and family in the evening, as the active part of the day is already done in the morning.

Maybe you can book a sports class in the morning to stay motivated to attend? Here are the most fun classes at USI Vienna!

11. Let your creativity run free

If exercise is not your thing or if you enjoy being creative more than being sweaty, try to do something creative, this would also be a possible component of your morning routine.

It does not matter whether you’re painting a picture, writing songs and poems or recreating the Leaning Tower of Pisa out of toothpicks. Creative energy in the morning stimulates the brain and makes you happier.

12. Create a beautiful environment

A tidy space is essential for an effective morning routine. If our environment is in order, it is also easier for our brain to relax and sort our thoughts. Therefore, tidy up the room and kitchen before going to bed, so that you can start the day relaxed!

13. Have breakfast

The most delicious part of the routine can be breakfast. The preparation can already have a meditative effect and be part of your routine. However, it is important to use healthy and ideally fresh ingredients in order to give the body enough energy for the rest of the day.

14. Make your bed

This childhood virtue can also be a meaningful element of your morning routine. Making the bed is a quick task and provides the first moment of success early in the morning. In addition, our environment is a bit tidier, which helps our brain to work more focused.

What to avoid!

There are some things you should absolutely avoid doing in the morning. Here we have listed the 6 most common mistakes when starting a morning routine.

Perhaps you have already found some tips that you like. But what do you have to consider when creating your morning routine and which common mistakes should you avoid? You can find out here:

1. Smartphone and social media

As mentioned above, for an optimal morning routine you should suppress the urge to look at your smartphone right after getting up. The blue light of the screen disrupts our biological clock and causes inner restlessness as soon as we wake up. This all happens before we even read our first email or WhatsApp message. The content of the news can also stress or overwhelm us easily. This can lead to a bad mood, which can drag on you all day long.

2. Overcharging

If you like many tips of our list and would like to start creating your individual morning routine, that is great. Make sure, however, that you do not overwhelm yourself. Start by selecting 2 to 3 elements and try them out in different orders.

If you choose too many and lose interest or are in a constant hurry, the routine does exactly the opposite to what it is supposed to do – it stresses you. To avoid this, you should approach your individual routine slowly and not plan too much. Once you get used to your initial routine, you can try to develop it further.

3. Don’t sacrifice your sleep

If the time invested in your morning routine means that you get less than the recommended 7 to 9 hours of sleep, you should reconsider it and reschedule it if necessary or go without it completely. Sleep remains the most important ingredient of getting the day off to a good start and nothing can replace it.

4. Boredom

If you already have some morning rituals and have repeated them for a long time, it can get a bit boring. If you find that your routine is not giving you the same level of energy as it has in the beginning, you should change it. Try to incorporate new elements or replace them with tried and tested ones. The order is not set in stone either. Just try several things. If a new routine gives you more strength, choose it to continue having a successful start in the day.

5. The weekend

Logically, there are different rules at the weekend than during the week. The alarm clock usually stays off and the daily rhythm shifts. But this is no reason to drop your morning routine completely. Take a few tips and build a little “weekend routine” so that you do not fall out of practice completely. It is important to be in a good mood on weekends too, isn’t it? Therefore, you should keep a few things after you wake up and continue your original routine during the week.

6. Breakfast television

Well, in our case, more likely a breakfast smartphone. The sprinkling of cell phones, televisions etc. during breakfast has numerous disadvantages. On the one hand, it messes up our brain, which started the day relaxed thanks to our morning routine. On the other hand, it leads to unconscious eating behavior and gulping down breakfast, which can lead to weight gain. If you want to do your brain a favor and save calories at the same time, read a book or listen to a podcast over breakfast.

Tips for sticking to your routine

Now you are equipped with tips for a relaxed morning routine and you know which things you should try to avoid. Finally, we have 4 more tips for creating new habits.

It’s hard to get used to a new routine. At the beginning, these morning rituals can feel like strange elements in your everyday life. So how do you manage to turn them into a real routine?

1. Know your WHY

Ask yourself why you want to establish this morning routine. Are you trying to study more efficiently to get better grades? Do you want to apply for a job, start your days with a better mood or live a more healthy life? There are many resons for trying to have a good start into the day. Know your motivations and find this intrinsic drive to continue. Knowing your motivation makes it easier to stick to your routine.

2. Discipline

Easier said than done. Discpline divides those who take action and those that never do. Starting your morning routine requires discipline just as learning a new language or studying for a maths exam. This endurance will make it possible to turn an abstract idea into reality. An important aspect of being disciplined is having realistic goals. It’s also nice to break down big tasks into smaller ones. This makes it easier to reach your goals and motivates you.

3. Keep going

In addition to discipline, it’s important to keep going. If you get used to doing something regularly, it will get easier to stick to those habits. So don’t become discouraged if you haven’t developped a fix routine yet. Just keep going!

4. Start now

It’s tempting to procrastinate. However, this will unconsciously build up stress. If you start with your plans or tasks right away, it’s not only done faster, but you will also increase your motivation. So, don’t wait for the perfect week or morning to start your routine. Start tomorrow morning with your new routine.

Wow! That was really a lot of tips and instructions! We hope that they will help you get started on your day better than ever before. Now we have another challenge for you. Think of 2-3 tips on this list and write them down on a small piece of paper. Start doing this first thing in the morning without excuses. We wish you a lot of fun, joy and success!

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