5 Keys to a Good Morning Routine
"WAKE UP AND START DREAMING" - Yes Theory
This quote is on the back of one of my favorite sweaters that I own. It is ironic and yet a simply true statement. If you establish a strong morning routine you set yourself up for short-term daily success and long-term self-actualized growth. Here are the keys to the morning kingdom:
#1: Journaling
In line with "WAKE UP AND START DREAMING", the most creative you are in your life is when you are sleeping. It is in this moment that your subconscious is at its most active, you achieve Rapid Eye Moment (REM) sleep and create worlds and ideas uniquely your own.
The secret of journaling as soon as you get up is to bottle up that creativity. This can exist as an idea journal of things you remember from your dreams, solutions to interpersonal problems you came up with in your drowsy state, or simply devoting time to think on things that you care about while your brain is at its least clouded.
I recommend using a hand-written journal so that you are more intentional (life cheat code #3) with what you are writing down and it gives you more time as you are writing to reflect on if what you are writing is worthwhile. Also, muscle memory is a real benefit to hand written journaling. I use a small pocket size leather-bound notebook by Moleskine.
#2: No Caffeine (in 1st hour)
From the moment you wake up your body exerts cortisol which increases your level of alertness. This level peaks around 2 hours after waking.
This cortisol inhibits the drowsiness induced from the adenosine molecule that occurs while awake. By having coffee as soon as you wake up you are stopping your body from doing its natural role in waking you up via cortisol. This results in your natural cortisol having little effect and manifests in the crash you feel from caffeine later in the day. You feel tired but it is only 1 pm! You go to the closest coffeehouse and buy another cup of coffee. Additionally, your body adapts and gets used to the caffeine in a way that it does not with cortisol. Thus, you need more and more caffeine to have the same effect in the morning that cortisol would do on its own.
By postponing your caffeine intake, by the time you would think about having caffeine you may not even need it because your cortisol is at the max. Meanwhile, by the time you want caffeine in the mid-to-late afternoon you can be at your most productive while caffeinated and by the time you experience the crash from caffeine it will be late enough that you could go to bed or not be in the office.
Caffeine Levels by Popular Drinks (low - 1- to high - 4 - ):
#3: No Technology (in 1st hour)
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It is important to BE IN CONTROL OF YOUR LIFE. Many times we check our phones upon waking and get bombarded by the texts, emails, missed phone calls, and social media direct messages from the night before. This immediately shifts our brain into a reactive mode that is incredibly difficult to shift out of as we go about our busy day.
Being in this state we do what we are told but not what we want. And what is worse is that we did not even give ourselves the time at the beginning of the day to decide what we want so WE HAVE NO IDEA WHAT WE ARE MISSING throughout the day. Not only does this make us not in control of our own lives but enables others to use us with little resistance on our part. In this state it is hard to say no if a coworker or peer asks for you to do or complete something by an unrealistic deadline.
If we do not use technology in the first hour we mentally slow down our mornings and can bask in the calm before the storm if you will. We create a PROACTIVE day rather than a reactive day. The first thing you do in your day should be something you WANT to do not something you HAVE to do. We do not give others access to us until we are ready to accept that external energy. We must put our mask on before helping others or everyone dies.
What To Do Instead of Looking at Your Phone:
#4: Water, water, water
The first thing you should consume each morning is water. By consuming water you are jumpstarting your organs to function efficiently throughout the day. Consuming anything before this is drastically worse for you than consuming it later in the day. A cold glass of water could also shock your body into a more awakened state and act as a good transition beverage when attempting to give up coffee in your mornings (tip #2).
It is recommended you drink AT LEAST 8 cups of water per day. However, the average daily consumption is less than half that at 3.9 cups per day. By drinking a cup of water when you wake up you immediately progress on a daily health goal and help you in habit setting towards drinking more throughout the day. What you do in the morning perpetuates throughout your day. You might as well make it something that is good for you.
#5: Sunlight
This is especially important in the winter and spring months as sunlight becomes more scarce throughout the day. For most people the morning will be the time they have the greatest access to the sun and they are not cooped up indoors away from a window.
Sunlight gives you vitamin D which is especially important for immune and bone health. Increased exposure has also been linked to better mental health. This is extra valuable for those with seasonal affective disorder. Also, getting sunlight as soon as you get up helps your body adjust to waking up at the same time every day - leading to higher productivity levels as a result of establishing an effective and consistent routine.
If you enjoyed reading this and would like to LEVEL UP to the ADVANCED version of yourself, please reach out to me via my website. I look forward to hearing from you & BE BOLD!