For many people, when managed well, mornings are the most productive part of the day. A good morning work session can help you power through the rest of your day.
Even if you are not a morning person, it helps to wake up feeling better and set yourself up for the day ahead.
There is a lot you can do about becoming productive in the morning, and in this blog post, we will outline some of those hacks.
Plan your day ahead
The best time to prepare for your day is not 5:00 AM but 7:00 PM the night before. When you plan your day the night before, you wake up with lower anxiety about what to do, and that certainty can help you manage your time and effort better. You can use the Ivy Lee Method to help plan your day.
And it need not be complicated; open the Routine App and list down tasks you want to work on tomorrow, prioritize items from the list and then add them to your calendar. Since your planner and calendar are integrated on Routine, you don't have to switch between different apps.
Set ideal conditions for sleep
You can not have a good morning after having sub-optimal sleep. You can improve your sleep quality by making a few changes to your sleeping routine and surroundings.
You can start by avoiding devices 1 hour before bed, making your room dark, setting the temperature to something you are comfortable with, using a pillow that doesn't strain your neck, avoiding fluids 2-3 hours before sleep, etc.
Stick to the alarm
Hitting the snooze button is not always a good idea since you want to succeed at your very first activity for the day, and there are ways to combat the urge to hit snooze.
First and foremost, set the alarm for a time that suits your chronotype (take the free chronotype quiz). When your alarm goes off, make a conscious effort to count to five before switching it off. It also helps set your alarm to a song that makes you want to get moving.
Keep yourself hydrated
Walking around thirsty is not a good feeling during the day, let alone in the morning. So you must give your body the right amount of hydration it needs to keep functioning effectively.
Do not drink a lot of water before going to bed; that will disrupt your sleep. Instead, keep a glass/bottle of water next to you so you can drink it as soon as you wake up. Remember not to gulp all the water in one go; instead, sip it even if it takes a bit longer.
Do breakfast prep the night before
Breakfast, for many, is the most important meal of the day. However, that doesn't change the fact that it is hard to find the motivation to cook in the morning.
You can manage this by finishing as much breakfast prep the night before as you can. Not only does this reduce the friction of preparing your breakfast, but it also removes the early morning guesswork around what to have for breakfast that might induce some anxiety in people.
Get a quick stretch and some sweat
Movement is your friend in the morning, and getting a quick stretch early in the day can make your day more comfortable. There are some handy tutorials on "stretching in the morning" on YouTube for all flexibility levels.
If you feel more ambitious, you can also incorporate HIIT into your morning schedule. Also, if you like going to the gym, you can keep your gym bag and shoes ready the night before, so you don't have to do it in the morning.
Meditate & have a playlist
Mornings are the best time to meditate, and mindfulness meditation helps you stay in the moment and add clarity to your thinking. There are many meditation tutorials on YouTube and Spotify, but apps like Calm and Headspace do a fantastic job of curating sessions for specific needs.
If you are not a fan of meditation but want to power through your mornings, listening to a curated list of your favorite upbeat songs, podcasts, or audio clips can help. These tracks can act as your cue to have a productive morning.
Eat the frog
Mornings are the best time to do the hard things. If there is an important task that needs to be completed, but you feel like procrastinating on it, then there is no better time to do it than powering through it early in the morning.
Eat the frog has worked for many since it makes you confront the most challenging task early so that you are not stressed about it for the rest of the day. You can use the Routine Planner to schedule time for pursuing that task the night before, so you don't have to worry about scheduling it the next day.
Conclusion
And with that, we come to the end of this post on how to be productive in the morning. Did you find this post helpful? Let us know on Twitter @RoutineHQ.
Thanks for reading.
