Changing your Morning Routine Will Change your Life
“For the past 33 years, I have looked in the mirror every morning and asked myself: ‘If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?’” And whenever the answer has been ‘No’ for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something.”
If you’re someone who hits snooze several times, scrambles out of bed, grabs a muffin on the way to work while checking their Instagram, you’ll be interested to hear that changes to your morning routine can help boost your productivity and energy throughout the day. And after all, who doesn’t want to have more energy and be more productive?
So, let’s spend our mornings wisely so that we can be happier, healthier, and more dynamic.
1. Ditch the screen until after breakfast
You open your eyes and reach for your phone, hoping to see some exciting news or a nice message. Instead, you read a worrying work email about an overdue deadline. “Looking at your phone immediately can hijack your morning routine,” writes Tristan Harris, Google's former Design Ethicist, on Medium. Phones are a constant temptation, but try to resist checking email until after breakfast. Give yourself time and space to wake up and start the day before you jump into work and problem-solving.
2. To snooze or not to snooze
Reena Mehra, M.D., M.S., Director of Sleep Disorders Research at Cleveland Clinic, says,
“Much of the latter part of our sleep cycle is comprised of REM sleep, or dream sleep, which is a restorative sleep state. And so, if you’re hitting the snooze button, then you’re disrupting that REM sleep or dream sleep…This can cause a ‘fight or flight’ response, which increases our blood pressure and heartbeat. The short period of sleep that we get in between hitting the snooze button, five, ten minutes at a time, is not restorative sleep.” Take a look at your sleep routine. We need, on average, seven to eight hours of good quality sleep a night.
3. Exercise
Researchers studying the attention spans of schoolchildren found that 20 minutes of aerobics-style exercise significantly improved their attention spans. So, why not try incorporating 20 minutes of exercise into your morning routine. Walking for an hour or running for fifteen minutes also boosts your mood and reduces your chances of depression, according to a study at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.
4. Eat a proper breakfast
“People who consume breakfast regularly often have increased physical activity. They have better dietary profiles and lower intake of snacks,” says Sharon Collison, a registered dietitian nutritionist and a clinical instructor in nutrition at the University of Delaware.
Research also shows that breakfast can help improve focus and attention span, plus boost short-term memory and creativity. People who ate breakfast reportedly performed better in exams, than those who skipped it.
5. Set goals for the day
Structure your time to maximize your concentration. If you’re someone who focuses better in the morning, then plan your most important work for that time. Save emails for later in the afternoon. Keep the goals short and achievable. Aim for 3-4 goals per day. If you have a larger goal, then try breaking it up into manageable chunks. Make sure you factor in time for breaks too. Microbreaks are proven to increase your concentration and focus.
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