What I’ve learned from watching one month wroth of morning routine videos
I love mornings, and having a bit of time for myself before jumping on the computer is essential for my well-being.
I’ve watched high performers, entrepreneurs, influencers, wanna-be influencers, trainers, everything I could find on YouTube. They all say the same things. Almost. There are 6 recurring habits that I’ve noticed for most of them:
1. Glass of water: when you first open your eyes because your body gets dehydrated during sleep
2. Meditation: for 5–10 minutes to get grounded.
3. Workout: from yoga to running to going to the gym, you name it. Any kind of movement is accepted.
4. Planning / Journaling: this looks different for everybody. From writing affirmations, how you feel, or what you wish to accomplish. Others planned the tasks for the day instead of journaling and highlighted the most important ones.
5. Reading: to get a fit brain. After training the body, the brain needs some stimulation as well, so reading for half an hour (at least) it’s a great way to do it in the morning while enjoying your coffee.
6. Green smoothie. I was surprised how many actually did and drank this in the morning. The recipe varies, but it always has some sort of spinach or kale. It’s a great and easy way to take in more vitamins and eat enough vegetables in a day.
BONUS: Make your bed. This will help you feel like you’ve already accomplished one task that day and if you are working from home a tidy environment will definitely help with productivity levels.
The order is different for everyone, except for that glass of water, of course. Overall, the waking up time is between 6–7 AM, with some exceptions for those that wake up at 4–5 AM. As I’ve watched all these, I realized I am already doing some of these, and you really don’t need to do all of this in the morning.
Not everyone did everything that I’ve mentioned here, it’s usually 4 out of 6, depending on how much time they have in the morning. But all these habits are part of their weekly routine, at least.
Building that perfect morning routine can become stressful if you try to follow what each successful person (in your view) does. Finding these common habits after watching so much content about this from different types of people helped me narrow down the most important thing for me.
I am not doing all of this everyday, but whenever I feel lost I think about this list and pick one to start my day with and the rest will follow.
My advice is to start with one small habit if you don’t have any of these habits. The glass of water is the best one, seems like nothing, but trust me it’s the first step towards building more healthy habits.