Start your Mornings off Right

Morning routines aren’t a one-size fits all. Having said that, if you cast an eye on the morning habits of the world’s most successful, you’ll start to notice some constants – with mindfulness, hydration and movement some common themes.

And whilst it probably isn’t the morning routine that makes Jeff Bezos or Tim Ferris, but rather vice versa, imagine how much more productive you could be if you swapped a morning social media scroll for a leaf out of Bezos’ or Ferris’ book.

My mornings are the most productive and peaceful time of my day. My morning routine allows me to address my life buckets (physical health, mental well-being and academic/work life) before needing to address the needs, gossip, problems or requests of the rest of the world.

Having a solid morning routine doesn’t only set you up right for a productive day but also grants you flexibility. You’ll have many more opportunities to say yes to things that come your way, when you know you’ve already achieved your most important habits and tasks for the day.

These are some tips on how to build your best morning as well as how and why I start my (ideal!) mornings.

• Get the habits that are most important to you done in the morning.

If it’s important to you to keep fit change your workout to a morning workout. If reading is a must for you, grab your book over breakfast.

We never know what the day’s going to bring, by shifting your most important habits to the morning, you guarantee that they get done.

• Do NOT check social media.

In a hyperconnected world, take a moment to yourself before you are flooded with other people’s news and needs. The texts, likes, follows can wait.

Take advantage of your undisrupted state of mind and use the mornings to focus on work that requires your attention and that matters to you.

• Fill your buckets!

Make sure the habits you include everyday nourish your physical health, mental wellbeing, and any other department that’s important to you – this might mean practicing the piano for 30 minutes, doing a crossword or walking the dog!

• Live slowly

There never seems to be enough time in the day. But, if we take our screen time out of the equation, I think our minds would change. So, during this undistracted part of your day, don’t be afraid to live slowly – engage with your senses, notice the world around you and take your time.

• Some Staples:

Hydration, fresh air and movement should be staples of your morning routine. Whether you want to wake up to a glass of water and a 30-minute run, or you’d rather have a large green tea, open your windows and do some stretching, these are staples known to improve mood and boost productivity, so get them in no matter how!

My Morning Routine

(Disclaimer: Not every one of my mornings looks like this, but it’s always a good day when they do!)

Wake up and get up! – I don’t have any specific wake-up time, but when my alarm goes off – there is no snoozing! I’m fairly consistent about getting 7-8 hours of sleep per night, so whatever time I go to bed the evening before, I will generally set my alarm as a bit of a safety net for about 8 and a half hours later. Ideally, I wake up naturally before this so I can finish off my sleep cycle without interruption. I aim to wake up before 8:30 every day.

No Wi-Fi – To avoid the temptation of crawling back into bed and scrolling through social media, I turn my phone’s internet connection off the night before as I set my alarm. If I don’t need my phone for anything urgent in the morning, I don’t switch it back on until midday – when I can check my messages over lunch.

Tea and Porridge – Whilst I know many people leave their breakfast until later, or skip it all together, I find I need the energy. I make myself a very simple breakfast – a tea and porridge with honey. I don’t like starting my morning with too much sugar nor caffeine, which is why I opt for porridge rather than cereal and tea rather than coffee.

Morning Pages – To gather my thoughts and train my creativity, I like to write down one A6 page of anything on my mind. Morning pages is traditionally a 3-page endeavour, but for me one suffices. I like to write my morning pages in French – and that way I get my French practice in too. I note down any vocab I can’t express as I go along.

Brain Dump / To Do List – I note all the things on my mind to get done for the day in list form and then choose a small handful that are the most important/ urgent to me to get done that day. I usually choose two or three goals for the day and then put together a rough schedule around my classes, plans and meetings.

Wash up, make my bed, get dressed (into sportswear), brush my teeth and wash my face – I’m quite reactive to my space so keeping everything clean and tidied as I go along with my day is important to me. I also find this sequence adds a little movement to my morning and gets me woken up.

Vocab – I head to Word Reference on my laptop and translate any of the vocabulary from my pages and pop it in my vocab book.

Emails – Now my laptop is open, I head over to my emails and Slack. Whilst, in an ideal world I wouldn’t be distracted by anything in the mornings, as I work part time it’s important for me to know if anything urgent is needed from me.

Finimize – I then read my email newsletters. Personally, I just have one – Finimize, a brief, less-than-5-minute read that keeps me up-to-date with my financial news.

My most important task of the day – I then spend one hour on my prioritised task for the day. I might not get it done but at least I’ll have started it. This way, no matter what comes up during the day, I know that I’ve put in a good hour of focused work towards my most important goal of the day – whether it’s an assignment, essay, work or personal project.

Workout – I follow up with a 20 – 45-minute workout, depending on how I’m feeling and how busy I am.

FT News Briefing – As I work out, I usually listen to the FT News Briefing, and catch up with some other news podcasts or the Audio book I’m currently reading too.

Finally, I shower and get dressed for the day.

It might seem like a lengthy routine, but for me it’s a protected 2-3 hours of the day where I’m able to leverage the lack of distraction and get some work (and other things!) done that matter to me.

I hope this has inspired you to make your own ideal morning routine. But don’t forget – that this is just for ideal days, and we all need an 11h00 (or 14h00!) wake-up from time to time!