By show of hands how many of us have a love-hate relationship with mornings?
Figures like Apple’s Tim Cook, former US First Lady Michelle Obama and Twitter’s Jack Dorsey all begin their mornings between 4-5 am. Vogue’s Anna Wintour starts her day at 5.45 am with an hour-long tennis match! And here we are struggling to get up at 6 am so we can beat traffic to work.
The average employee has a vastly different schedule and lifestyle from that of a leader of a Fortune500 company. The schedule we keep often determines the way to manage time and activities throughout the day. However Fortune500 company heads are great examples of how good habits drive good behaviors. As long as our to-do lists can be, it is far more important to be productive than it is to be busy. A morning routine is a good strategy towards living a more productive life on a day to day basis.
Having an established morning routine also offers the following benefits:
- Allows us to enjoy the night.
- Sets the tone for the rest of the day.
- Enhances productivity at work.
- Promotes a work-life balance.
- Promotes self-care by helping us make time to spend by ourselves.
- Helps us develop self-disciple and self-control.
‘NYOTA NJEMA HUONEKANA ASUBUHI’
A Swahili proverb that translated into English means ‘A good day starts in the morning’.
A 2018 study at the Dominican University in California showed that those who took the time to writing their goals were significantly more likely to accomplish them than those who didn’t. So I incorporated this into my routine. Whatever morning routine you choose, it is less about the actions themselves and more about that time you take to carefully plan out how you’re going to perform them daily.
A morning routine is a setup/ series of habits that ensures we maintain a certain level of productivity for the rest of the day. We all have to start our day at some point so there’s probably no morning routine that is ideal for everyone. But whenever we choose to start, we have to start it out right.
Here’s what my morning routine looks like:
- Prayers
- Reading
- Going through my daily Goals
- Connecting with 10 people through email
And if you’re looking to start or improve your morning routine, here are 6 of the top tips that will help you get started.
1. Start the night before
Create a more sleep-inducing environment. Here we emphasize on quality and quantity. Make your bedroom as dark as possible, turn on some white noise, read a book and keep away from electronics. Make a to-do list of the following day the previous night.
2. Change your routine slowly
Work on making small changes and build on them. The approach will help the transition smoother while keeping you mindful and excited for the days to come.
3. Pick activities you enjoy in the morning
so you can stay enthusiastic and motivated.
5. Track your habits
This will help you understand yourself better. By tracking what changes you make and the effect they have you are keener to what is important to you so you can do more of that.
6. Remember to account for the weekends
Either your routine can fit perfectly for all 7 days or you could opt for something special over the weekend e.g. sleeping in and starting a bit later than usual. Anything that works for you, do it!
7. Resist the ‘Snooze’ button
Contrary to what it may feel like, those extra hours of sleep actually mess with your sleep patterns. You are starting out the day by procrastinating and that negatively impacts your self-discipline and self-control.