My Morning Routine

My morning routine spot in the comfiest chair <3

Mike and I are big on self development. The most successful people, authors and podcast hosts seem to have this one thing in common: they have a non-negotiable morning routine. They wake up and do the same things every single day. While some of the routines may vary a bit, most look like this: say a morning mantra out loud, meditate, write in a gratitude journal, read and exercise.

Even though meditating seemed a bit silly to me at first, we decided to create some practices to implement into our morning routines. Because the people who do them on a consistent basis are some of the most influential, powerful, successful and happiest people in the world. Soo yeah, I’m going to take a hint and try this out.

Here’s what my morning routine used to look like:

Alarm goes off
Grab phone and scroll Instagram for 10-15 minutes
Get ready & make the bed
Go downstairs and sit at my laptop checking emails and doing other mindless work
Workout (4-5 days/ week)
Eat breakfast
Write a to-do list for the day
Sit at my computer and get work done, usually with a billion distractions thrown in there

Here’s what my morning routine looks like now:

And keep in mind, Mike was much more disciplined with this than I was and has been doing this for almost a year now. I’ve only really gotten a hold of what feels and works the best for me in the last few weeks.

Alarm goes off
DO NOT CHECK PHONE (this was tricky at first but feels SO good)
Get ready & make bed
Meditate for 10-20 minutes (I do a guided meditation, either sitting on my floor or the chair in our bedroom)
Write in my gratitude journal (this just take a few minutes)
Go downstairs and make a cup of tea, snuggle with the dogs while tea is brewing
Drink my tea while reading a self development book. The deal is I read a minimum of 10 pages, this usually turns into 20 min of reading time
Eat breakfast
Workout
Grab my computer and get to work, with a to-do list that’s already planned out for me & my phone out of sight to minimize distractions

Yes we work from home and make our own schedules, so it’s easier for us to block out a few hours each morning to do what matters most. But it is possible to have a routine like this even if you have kids and have to be in the office by 8 or 9am. How? Wake up earlier. Create more time in your day. Figure out what parts of this routine serve you most and make you feel the best. Maybe you can meditate, journal and read — all in 30 minutes, before your kids wake up. And then you block out time for a workout later in the day. You have to do what works best for you, but if you think you don’t have enough time for this, that’s nonsense. You just have to create it.

What this routine does for me:

It makes me feel centered, fills my mind with positive, encouraging and motivating thoughts to start the day (rather than Instagram bullshit. Sorry Insta, I do still love you, just not first thing in the morning). I’m still not the best at meditating. Thoughts come into my mind or the dogs come up to me and I get distracted with them. But if I skip it I am noticeably less grounded that day. There have been a few times now where if I can’t seem to get work done in the afternoon, if I’m in a funk or my energy is negative, I’ll do a quick 5 or 10 minute meditation. It really helps to get life back into perspective.

I wish I would’ve started doing all of this sooner. It makes perfect sense. Do the things that make you feel and act your best first thing in the morning so that you can be a better person throughout the day.

Shop my morning routine spot!