For a very long time I underestimated how important a good morning routine was for my productivity and general wellbeing. I was well known as being the girl that always sleeps late, never has time for breakfast and was usually running out the door 5 minutes later than intended.
Trying to rid these bad habits and creating new, much healthier, good habits was a New Year’s resolution of mine a couple of years ago and although it was difficult to begin with, I’ve never looked back. This is how I did it…
1) Start the night before. Do all the preparation for the next day the evening before to ensure a smooth running morning. Make a packed lunch, pack your work bag, lay out your clothes and prep all that you can for your breakfast.
2) Minimize decision making. Try to avoid doing tasks that will involve a lot of thought first thing in the morning. Get into the habit of getting straight out of bed when your alarm goes off and jumping into the shower to wake yourself up or throw on some running gear and go for a quick 10-minute jog.
3) Put down your phone. I have to keep my phone in the bedroom with me because I use it as an alarm but if you can, leave your phone in another room when you go to bed. That way you won’t be tempted to lay there scrolling through Instagram and Twitter for half an hour before getting up and wasting half your morning.
4) Try Meditating. Do you ever wake up and immediately start thinking about everything you have to do today? That anxious feeling creeping up on you before you’ve even had your cereal? I’ve found using an app like Calm as soon as I wake up and meditating for 10 minutes really reduces stress.
5) Set one goal for the day. And do your best to achieve it! Even if it’s something small like making sure you have a healthy lunch or doing a load of laundry, when you achieve that goal you’ll be motivated to tackle that bigger rock of the day!
By Jess Scott
As well as being our Logistics Administrator at Think Productive, Jess is also a talented writer and runs a food blog with her boyfriend. Check it out here: www.jessandjoshcook.com