Why I stick to my morning routine

In a book I was reading yesterday, there was an entire paragraph on the importance of the ? morning routine ?. 

Must admit, it did resonate with me ! Indeed, for a few years now, this is something I have been focusing on purposefully. 

The book was emphasizing that those little things we do in the morning put us in the right mood & in the right mindset. 

Tiny details that can help us win big : obviously, I am all for it ! 

When I started giving it some thoughts a few years back then, I remembered thinking it was easier said than done though. 

There is always so much to do at home in the morning, especially when you have a family. (My 2 kids are getting older for sure, but still !) 

Few years have passed now… and I must say I am pretty happy with the morning routine I built for me. 

I made it simple and easy. 

And you know what, for you to judge it for yourself, let me walk you through it ! 

The cornerstone : start early 

I remember reading somewhere that one could hardly achieve anything creative after 10am… 

I am sure it varies a lot from one person to the other (I do a lot of my writing and presentation stuff well after 10am for sure), but one thing seems true though : during the first hours of the day, when everything is quiet and everyone is still asleep, it is definitely easier to focus. 

In those early hours, the mind can be sharper and more creative indeed. 

That is why my day starts early. At 5am typically. 

My alarm clock is set up at 6am, but I now always wake up almost an hour earlier. 

At the beginning it did require a bit of effort but now, it has just become my routine. 

As soon as I open my eyes, I basically stretch and jump out of bed. 

I want to get a lot done before the others wake up… and that definitely motivates me ! 

Working out : it’s key ! 

It is usually around 510am, and it is time for my work-out session, which lasts approximately 20 minutes. 

It is not much (and will definitely not turn me into The Rock anytime soon)… but it serves two important goals : ? fully ? waking me up… and starting making efforts… early in the morning. 

This last part is actually very important. If you want to push yourself at work, if you want to make it happen, working out and making the effort is a great way to put you in the right mindset. 

I never realized how important it is until recently, and am definitely glad I made it part of my morning ! 

As I said I keep it simple (I use exercises I learned from my basketball days, I also rely on an app on my phone), and there is a reason. I travel a lot so I want to be able to execute my morning work-out from anywhere (especially from a hotel room actually) ! 

Breaking a sweat early in the morning makes me feel great( I am sure there is a hormonal mechanism behind this but no idea what it is). 

And after one of this short session, I already feel more awake, more focussed… more ready to face any challenge that will be thrown at me !

Feeling inspired first thing in the morning ! 

I don’t like multi-tasking too much but I make one exception : listening to inspiring podcasts during my morning work-out session. 

I have a few of them I like to listen (Gary Vaynerchuk, Michael Hyatt, James Attucher, Andy Paul, just to name a few) and I just play then randomly. 

While I’m working out, I am listening to their words, looking for inspiration and new ideas. 

As I am waking up, listening to those podcasts make me think… and then again, I find it puts me in the right mindset as my day begins.  

So after this 30min work-out session, I feel refreshed and inspired and I already want to start doing things. 

And it is only 530am in the morning. 

Remind myself I should never stop learning. 

I like to learn new things : this is how I find new ideas and how I push my creativity skills. 

And this is something I have to remind myself. 

Every morning, around 545am. 

After working out and taking a shower (which is definitely needed), it is time for my morning coffee. 

And while I sip it from my favourite orange mug, I take my phone and work on my foreign languages skills. 

Few years ago I decided I wanted to learn Spanish. Last year, because now I travel quite often to Brazil, I decided I should also learn a bit of Portuguese. 

In today’s world, if you want to learn something, there are endless possibilities. However, here again, it requires motivation and discipline. 

And that is why I do this for around 30min… every morning. 

I use the famous Duolingo app and as I write those lines, I am on a series of 561 consecutive days (and I have no intention to quit). 

And because it is an app on my phone, once again this is something I can easily do while I am traveling. 

I did not speak a word of those two languages, and while my Portuguese is still a work in progress, I can feel my Spanish is getting better (proof was my last trip to Argentina where I actually got to use it daily and felt comfortable about it). 

Early in the morning, I put myself in the learning mindset. 

When I will turn on my work computer later in the morning, I will still be willing to learn and therefore will be more focussed on every discussion I have and every meeting I attend.  

And it is only 615am. 

Early morning writing : my treat

I still have 45min to myself before the kids wake up… 

And I am usually done drinking my coffee by then. 

Time for a treat ! 

I’ll usually use this time to do a bit of social media browsing… but I’ll always keep at least 30 minutes to write something. 

Because I just LOVE writing.  

I often pick a topic based on the podcasts I listened earlier, or based on something I just have in mind… 

But basically, I open a blank page on my computer or on my phone… 

And I write.  

I just write and fill the blank page with words, hoping something nice will come out of it. (It is not always the case, but it is really not the purpose of this exercise.) 

I let the words flow because I actually want to get in the flow. 

This is when I feel I am the most creative, and as I write, very often new ideas pop up in my mind and I make a note of it. 

This blog I wrote here actually started like this. 

Of course, I will later on edit this first draft (sometimes I just delete my writing because… I simply did not like it). Not all of those get published ! 

Still, I like this daily exercise. It get my creative skills activated. 

And it is only 7am in the morning. 

You see, I feel my morning routine helps me start the day on the right foot.

After all this, I am in the right mindset, I feel ready to tackle any challenge… and honestly, I just feel great - which is what I think matters the most ultimtately !  

Of course, nothing here is set in stone and I keep trying to polish this, based on the new ideas I read and hear about. 

( And by the way LinkedIn friends, if there is anything you do that makes a difference for you during your morning routine, feel free to share in the comment section below, I’d love to here about it !)

At the end of the day, It is a mindset game. And I feel that my morning routine really makes a difference in how I approach every single day.

I want my days to be productive and inspiring. 

And how I try to achieve this actually starts at 5am, every morning !