The Ultimate Guide To Creating A Morning Routine

It’s no secret that creating a positive morning routine can alter the outcome of your day. People such as Tony Robbins utilise a morning ritual as a big contributor to their success. In this post, we’ll learn how you can do the same.

We’ll be covering a few things in detail:

• What is a morning routine?
• What does a morning routine consist of?
• What makes a morning routine successful?
• The morning routines of successful people
• How to create a morning routine and how to form habits
• Top tips for creating a morning routine

You’ll find clarity and detailed information on morning routines in this post. We’ll look at the different elements of a morning routine. Where appropriate, I’ll provide personal insights and useful techniques.

What Is A Morning Routine?

In essence, a morning routine is a series of actions or habits that you repeat every morning. You do this before starting the main part of your day.

Morning routines can include anything and everything. Some common examples include exercising, eating breakfast, and brushing your teeth.

The main bulk of a morning routine, or any routine for that matter, is habitual. This means that they run on autopilot and don’t need much thought or concentration.

The most effective morning routines consist of many positive habits. When done together, these habits compound into massive success.

Why Is A Morning Routine Important?

The way you start your day has a serious impact on what you’ll go on to do and achieve that day.

Dopamine

For example, you may start your day with unproductive activities. This includes checking your phone, watching YouTube, or scrolling social media. Doing so will put you in a state of low energy, making you unmotivated to achieve anything.

This has to do with dopamine, a chemical in our brains that tells us to feel good. It ‘rewards’ us for certain activities. This becomes a problem when unproductive activities provide more dopamine than productive activities.

Working to achieve something provides natural dopamine that you’ve worked for. Pulling out your phone and scrolling social media provides a high, quick, and easy hit of dopamine. Why would you work hard for something when you could get more of a reward for less effort?

Momentum

We can also consider the impact of Newton’s first law on our momentum. This law states:

An object in motion stays in motion. An object at rest stays at rest. These states will not change unless acted upon by an outside force.

For you to experience the greatest level of productivity, you must take this into account. You can use a positive morning routine to build productive momentum. This will carry you forwards throughout the day.

Imagine a snowball at the top of a snowy hill, on a sunny day. The earlier you can get that snowball rolling, the more snow it will collect. The more snow, the bigger and more powerful the snowball.

But, if you don’t get that snowball rolling early enough, it will begin to melt. Soon there will be no snowball at all.

The snowball represents your productivity; rolling represents momentum.

Without any obstacles, the snowball will continue to gather momentum. It will grow bigger and bigger. But, once an obstacle appears, the snowball will come to a halt. As the snowball is now larger, it will be harder to get rolling again.

The obstacle here is anything that distracts you, such as checking your phone. Anything that disrupts Flow is a possible obstacle. I hope this analogy helps explain the point I’m trying to make. You can learn more about these two concepts in this post.

What Makes A Morning Routine Successful?

Your exact morning routine will differ from someone else’s, and that’s completely ok. Nobody has your exact biology or shares your exact circumstances.

So, it’s difficult to compare your optimal morning routine with that of another person. Your own morning routine will be successful if it works for you.

Your exact morning routine will differ from someone else’s, and that’s completely ok. Nobody has your exact biology or shares your exact circumstances.

So, it’s difficult to compare your optimal morning routine with that of another person. Your own morning routine will be successful if it works for you.

But, it’s likely you’ll need to tweak your morning routine. You’ll need to find the actions and habits that work best for you. This will allow you to create the best possible day going forward.

How can we measure morning routine success?

There are a few factors we can look at to measure morning routine success:

• Productivity
• Happiness and general wellbeing
• Enjoyment

If your morning routine doesn’t provide an increase in one of these areas, it’s unlikely to be doing you much good.

Productivity

• By doing your morning routine, does your productivity increase?
• Are you able to achieve more during your days?
• Is it easy to build momentum early in the day?
• Is it easy to find motivation throughout the day?

There might be habits in your morning routine that damage your productivity. For example, checking your phone or using social media first thing in the morning. These are both common to many people and many don’t know how harmful they are.

You can approach your morning routine for productivity in two ways. You can either include productive habits or cut negative habits. Either way, your morning routine should increase your productivity.

Happiness and general wellbeing

• Does doing your morning routine make you feel better?
• Does the quality of your life increase, even if only by a little, by doing your routine every day?

Your morning routine should increase your levels of happiness and wellbeing. If not, why are you doing it?

Sometimes, this increase won’t be direct or noticeable immediately. It will arise when you repeat the morning routine over time.

Two examples of this are meditating and planning your day.

With meditation, the benefits are rarely seen immediately. Reduced stress and a clear mind will come with repeated sessions. This will increase your levels of wellbeing.

Planning your day removes the need to think about what to do next. It reduces stress and worry throughout the day. This frees up mental space, as well as time for other positive activities.

Enjoyment

• Do you enjoy doing your morning routine?
• Are you excited to begin your morning with that set of actions, every day?

Without an element of enjoyment in your routine, it’s unlikely you’ll even want to get out of bed. Motivation will be low if the first thing you do in the morning is something you dislike. Let’s take a look at two situations to explain this point.

An Example

Toby wants to create the morning routine of waking up at 5am, followed by a 5-mile run and a cold shower.

Julie also wants to wake at 5am, but begins her day with 30 minutes of reading and journaling.

Unless you’re a masochist like Toby, Julie’s morning routine sounds more enjoyable. The problem here isn’t the contents of the routine, but how the routine begins. Going for a 5-mile run and taking a cold shower both have amazing benefits, but so do reading and journaling.

Activities towards the start of your routine need to be exciting or enjoyable enough to get you out of bed. You can’t rely on discipline in a half-awake state.

If you want to include less enjoyable activities, such as a cold shower, after you’re awake, that’s great. But by beginning with something enjoyable, it will be easier to get up.

Successful Morning Routine Habits

We can learn a lot by studying the most successful people in the world. The way they start their day can help us understand how they are able to achieve so much. They have the same amount of us every day; by copying success habits, we can also become successful.

Like I said earlier though, it’s difficult to compare your exact routine to that of others. Instead, we can look at common themes and find the activities that sound the most appealing to you.

Waking Up Early

Successful people know that the morning hours are optimal for productivity. This is the time to get stuff done.

Waking up before sunrise gives you motivation as you’re awake before most of the world. It also provides peace and quiet to aid with focus.

Time is a resource that we never get back. Most people are more productive early in the morning when compared to late at night. Our willpower and focus are both highest in the morning.

But, most people wake up late in the morning. Cultural influences and socialising, as well as other entertainment, take place at night. People need to stay awake late to engage, and so wake up later to compensate.

Often, I know that once I’ve had dinner and the time gets to around 6pm, I’ll struggle to focus and get things done. By shifting my waking hours forwards by an hour means I get an extra hour of productivity each day.

What wake-up time is best for you?

Only you can answer this question. Any time between 4.30am and 6am is ‘early’. The exact time you choose to wake up during this slot is up to you. You don’t have to wake up this early. But, know that generally, the earlier you’re awake, the more time you’ll have to be productive.

To wake up earlier, keep in mind that you’ll need to go to be earlier. Do this to shift your circadian rhythm – your wake/sleep cycle – forwards. If you struggle to wake up early, check out this post for some tips.

Further, try not to make huge shifts in your sleeping pattern at once. It will be difficult to maintain and you’ll likely fall back into old ways. Instead, try shifting your waking time forwards by 15 minutes each week. Do this until you find a time that works well for you, then stick with it!

Get Moving

We already know that exercising in the morning helps to wake up the body and energise us for the day. It also helps kickstart our metabolism and tells the body to wake up.

The flood of endorphins post-workout can leave us feeling accomplished. We’ll feel motivated to tackle the day’s challenges.

Your choice of exercise isn’t as important as actually exercising. Move your body every day and you’ll receive productivity and wellbeing dividends.

Give it your all and aim to get sweaty. This will reduce stress and blood pressure throughout the day. You’ll also feel more accomplished.

Practice Mindfulness

Roughly 80+% of the world’s most successful people practice mindfulness. Tim Ferris found this and shares in Tools of Titans. That must count for something.

Most common are meditation and yoga. Both are great; I prefer meditation in the morning, usually after having worked out.

Here’s a brief step-by-step guide to meditation:

1. Find somewhere relatively quiet where you can be still for a few minutes
2. Get comfortable and keep your back straight. I prefer to sit cross-legged with my hands on my legs or knees
3. Take some deep breaths; in through the nose, out through the mouth
4. After a few breaths, shut your eyes with an out-breath
5. Focus on how the body feels in this moment
6. Notice any sounds around you. Don’t concentrate on any particular sound. Allow them to come and go
7. Beginning at the top of your head, scan down towards your toes. Don’t remain in one part of your body for too long
8. Now notice your breath. Where in the body do you feel it? Don’t try to change it, just notice it and follow it. Notice the differences between each breath.
9. Now follow the breath. Follow each in-breath and each out-breath. If it helps, count 1 with the in and 2 with the out – repeat to a count of 10 then begin at 1 again.
10. If any thoughts come into your head, which they inevitably will, acknowledge them and ‘let them go’. Return your focus to the breath.
11. When you feel like you’re ready to finish, let go of your focus on the breath and allow your mind to do whatever it wants to do.
12. Bring your attention back to the body. Back into the space around you; sounds, smells, sensations. Then, when you’re ready, gently open the eyes.

I use Headspace to meditate and have used their service every day for almost the past 3 years. Recently, I hit a streak of 1000 days, which is incredible. I’ve adapted the above steps based on what I’ve learned.

Prepare For The Day

Knowing what to get done, and in what order, can help you to actually get things done.
How do you think the world’s most successful people get so much done? They know what needs to get done and what to do first.

A To-Do list, daily schedule, or time block is most common. I’ve tried many techniques and found a simple pen-and-paper To-Do list works best for me. I tend to write tasks in the order I want to complete them, as this gives me a sense of progression. It also helps with motivation and clarity throughout the day.

You can either plan the day first thing in the morning or the previous evening. Doing so in the morning can help you feel what would be best. This adds motivation to achieve those tasks.

But, setting tasks the night before gives you immediate clarity and direction. Doing so allows you to begin working first thing.

To prioritise what tasks to complete, you can use Eisenhower’s matrix. Or, you could do the tasks that provide the biggest results first.

The Eisenhower Matrix

Practicing Gratitude

Gratitude is a powerful habit. It works well in both the mornings and evenings. Practicing gratitude can increase your levels of happiness and appreciation.

2 minutes of ‘thanking the universe’ can elevate your wellbeing. It will provide a positive outlook on the rest of the day’s activities. Further, this can make you more optimistic and can increase inspiration.

How To Practice Gratitude

There are many ways of practicing gratitude. Some of the most common are below. Whatever your chosen method, take a minute to sit and appreciate the feeling that arises.

• Writing in a journal. List out three to five things you are grateful for.
• Prayer. Say, out loud, things that you are thankful for. This is best done when directed at a higher power, such as God or the Universe.
• Affirmations. For example, “I am grateful that I have a roof over my head”.

Eating The Frog

You may have heard of the productivity technique ‘eating the frog’. This is beginning the day with the least appealing or hardest task.

Our willpower is highest first thing in the morning. This makes it much easier to tackle the least enjoyable task. Successful people use their willpower to do the most difficult task first.

Eating the frog first increases your mental toughness and discipline. It also ensures the hardest task gets done and is out of the way. You won’t be dreading that task as you go about your day, making it easier to focus on other activities.

Break the fast?

You may have heard of intermittent fasting (IF), which has many health benefits. Intermittent fasting isn’t something that will drastically change your life. Your daily success won’t change by much if you fast. But, it can help increase energy throughout the day.

Having a nutritious meal early in the morning, though, can help you to focus. Food provides willpower, which can help you overcome obstacles. The choice is yours.

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Thanks for reading so far. If you’d like to learn more, continue to part 2 of this post.

Further Recommended Reading:

• Habit Creation
• Morning Routine Ideas
• The Importance Of Starting Your Day Right