Create A Productive Morning Routine: 13 Ways to Be More Productive

I’m Not a Morning Person

I have always struggled with getting my butt out of bed and beginning my day with any sort of positivity. I’m great at finding ways to procrastinate getting up, which leads to the inevitable mad dash out the door. That’s no way to start a productive day! It’s especially hard for me now that I work for myself and I don’t strictly speaking need to get up at a certain time. But as I’ve become more responsible for my own time management, I’ve learned a few tips and tricks to help me create a productive morning routine and be more productive.

Creating Your Productive Morning Routine

Don’t Look at Your Phone

This is one of my biggest struggles. In my attempts to keep my eyes open, I often open Facebook or Instagram and start scrolling. This is a terrible idea! For one, it launches me into the not so pretty world of news and politics before I’ve even had a cup of coffee. Plus it means I can accidentally lay in bed for 45 minutes while I mindlessly scroll, making the start of my day an act of procrastination – which doesn’t feel good. On top of all of that, it gives the mind no chance to think freely without the influence of social media.

It’s tough to peel away from my phone, but it’s absolutely the right choice. The days I start without the morning habit of checking my phone always feel more productive and more centered. So take my advice – stay away from your phone in the morning! If that means you charge your phone in the kitchen or living room overnight, then so be it. Buy a real alarm clock (yes they still make them) and just avoid your phone for the first hour of your day. You’ll thank yourself for that digital break.

Don’t Snooze

Remember what I said about starting the day with an act of procrastination? Snoozing is a perfect example of that. You are not going to feel more rested from an extra five, ten, or twenty minutes of sleep. In fact, I’ve found that the mornings I hit the snooze button a few times tend to be the groggiest and grumpiest. Because the truth of the matter is that no matter how many times you hit snooze, you will eventually need to get up. So have a set wake up time and just set one single alarm, put your alarm clock across the room so you have to physically get up in order to turn it off, and have any snooze settings disabled. This one single change can really be the perfect (though perhaps hardest) way to improve your morning routine and make your day feel more productive.

Write Morning Pages

Writing my Morning Pages every day helps me in multiple ways. I have thirty minutes of peace and quiet at the beginning of the day where I can clear my head of any bothersome thoughts or worries. I like to pop on some gentle forest sounds or ambient music from Prime Music to help me focus my mind. If you haven’t tried ad-free listening yet, then you are missing out.

The act of writing my thoughts helps me feel more on top of my day and jump in with a positive attitude. If you haven’t been able to stick with a journal writing routine, give this technique a shot and see how it feels! I’ve been doing it for more than a year now and I can’t get in a good day of work without a journal entry in my Pages.

Get Dressed

This one might seem super obvious, but I work from home so it’s really an optional step. I face an enormous level of temptation to only wear the coziest clothes I own. Don’t fall into the trap of comfy sweats and pajama pants! Take the time to pick out a cute outfit and do your hair. Slap on some foundation really quick, maybe put on some lipstick. Just make yourself look like a productive member of society and you will feel like one. I still occasionally wear some sweats and a Tshirt while I’m working, but I feel a lot less like my own boss and a lot more like a bum.

Even on days you are off work or weekends, try to step up your wardrobe beyond the laziest option. When you dress for the day, you feel more confident and ready to take on whatever life throws at you. So skip the ratty shirt and wear something that makes you look and feel snazzy.

Eat Breakfast

Do I really have to explain this one? It doesn’t have to be a huge breakfast or even a sit-down cereal and milk breakfast. Just eat something small and healthy and you’re good. You can even take a small granola bar with you to work so you can munch on it at your desk. There are so many fast options for eating breakfast on the go that there really isn’t much of an excuse to miss this meal.

Drink a Glass of Water

When we sleep, our bodies get dehydrated. If you drink a glass of water in the first thing morning, you will replenish the water your body lost in the night and feel refreshed. It’s a super easy and tiny thing you can do to wake up your body in the morning to get a good start on the day ahead. I mean, it really can’t get any easier to improve your morning routine. Water is always a great idea!

Exercise

I know this one is tough but bear with me. Exercising early in the day has several benefits that you should really consider before you scoff at it. Waking up and jumping into some type of exercise, whether it is gentle yoga or a long run, wakes your body right up. You will get the blood flowing and shake the sleep off your brain. It also is great to do exercise early because then you knock an important to-do off your task list early. It feels really good to begin a day knowing you already accomplished something good. So give it a try for a few weeks and see if it doesn’t feel pretty amazing.

Meditate

If you haven’t heard by now, morning meditation is awesome. And it’s not just hippie stuff anymore – science backs up how incredible regular meditation is for you. It can reduce anxiety, improve concentration, and help dial down the obnoxious chattering thoughts that take up space in your brain. Meditation first thing after you get out of bed in the morning is great for a few reasons. Just like exercise first thing in the day, it helps to knock it out early on so you don’t have to try and squeeze it in later. Meditating early is also nice because it can help you begin your day on a more centered, positive tone. It’s the perfect way to start a productive and successful morning routine, and it doesn’t cost a dime.

I struggled for years to meditate on a regular basis. I just felt I couldn’t stick to a schedule, or that I didn’t have time. Over the last six months or so, I’ve started pairing a few minutes of meditation with my Morning Pages. Now I sit down, meditate for ten minutes or so, and begin writing. If you struggle with finding time for meditation, I’d suggest you do the same thing. Pick a part of your morning routine and pair meditation to it. Meditate for five minutes before you shower, while you wait for your coffee to cool before you put on your shoes. And it doesn’t have to be for long. Start with five minutes and gradually increase the time in your sessions. I find that lighting some sage and a candle helps tremendously. Try out a few methods and find something that helps you relax and focus. Once you practice meditation for a while, you’ll feel the difference and wonder why you didn’t start sooner!

Write a List of 3 Tasks

Before you jump into your day, write down three tasks that will feel good to accomplish that day. For example, you could write exercise, send an important email, and grocery shop as your three tasks. Try to gear your day to accomplish those three things. When you are gearing down to go to bed, you can look at those three tasks in your planner and feel satisfied knowing that you knocked them out. Even if the day went off the rails and you didn’t feel very productive, you can gauge your day off of the success of those three items.

Of course, you can (and should) get more than three things done in a day. But putting the emphasis each day on three individual items can help you get a clear plan of action and avoid feeling overwhelmed. No one likes a to-do list of 10 things! So improve your morning routine by breaking it down, keeping it simple, and working more effectively with laser focus on three tasks.

Eat the Frog

Do the hardest or most important task first thing in your workday. The mentality, coined “Eating the Frog” by Brian Tracy, is basically this: If you have to eat a live frog, you might as well get it over with quickly. There’s no point in drawing it out, putting it off, or staring at the frog on your plate. Just eat it already, and you’ll feel better knowing that the rest of the day will be easier and more manageable. So when you make your list of 3 tasks, do the one you hate the most first. When you finally do it, you will feel so much better and feel more ready to take on the rest of your day!

Throw a Load of Laundry In

This might seem out of place on this list, but hear me out. If you are anything like me, then laundry is… problematic. It piles up, it gets left in the machine, and suddenly you can’t find socks to save your life. How can you systematically fix this issue? Well, do a load of laundry every day. In the morning, just throw a load of laundry into the wash. When you get home from work, move that load to the dryer. Fold it before bed. Boom.

Yes, it does mean doing laundry first thing in the morning, but it’s easier to keep that massive pile of laundry in check when you simply add it to your morning routine. If you don’t produce enough laundry to do a load every day, just do a load of laundry every morning you have a full load. That might mean only actually putting clothes through a cycle once every three days, but you can add checking your hamper to your routine to keep up the habit. Either way, making laundry (or any chore, for that matter) a part of your daily routine can make housework a bit more palatable.

Spend 30 Minutes on a Hobby or Skill

Spend a half hour every morning doing something you simply love. Whether you are a fiction writer, artist, avid bird watcher, or baseball enthusiast, you can take time each day to learn something new or hone your skills. For some hobbies, like drawing, you can sit down for small batches of time and still get some good work into it. Other hobbies, like sports or woodworking, don’t have that luxury. However, there’s nothing stopping you from using that time in the morning to learn. Take my crazy camping passion, for example. I can’t camp for half an hour every morning – duh. But what I can do is read camping blogs, research campfire recipes and write them down, look up good camping locations near me, etc…

Whatever your passion or hobby, find a way to devote thirty minutes to it every day and learn something new. You will enjoy learning about your favorite things, and, like exercise and meditation, it will be easier to keep up with such a positive habit if you do it in the morning. Later at night, when you are tired, it’s easy to put it off or simply forget to do it. But place it in the morning and you’ve got a winning formula for gradual progress in your hobby. If you don’t feel like you have many hobbies, this is the perfect time to pick up one of the many creative hobbies out there!

Prepare the Night Before

While this is technically an evening routine, preparing the night before can be a major step towards a productive morning routine. Eliminating decision making early in the day can help your whole morning go smoother. Plan out the next day’s tasks, lay out your clothes, know what you plan on making for breakfast… all of these are good ways to keep your morning free of pesky hang-ups.

Have a Cup of Coffee

Or tea or a smoothie or whatever floats your boat. Just take a few minutes to enjoy it. Make it your morning ritual – peaceful, relaxed, and indulgent. Be kind to yourself and allow yourself the pleasure of drinking your coffee. Relish these little moments. Be thankful for them. Carry that positivity to your day.

You Can Have a Productive Morning Routine

It might not be easy to make changes when you are groggy and tired, but the first hour of your day can have an incredible effect on the following 18 hours. Just remember to not try to overhaul your entire routine in one morning, it takes time to create a productive morning routine. So try a few of these suggestions and improve your morning routine.  Not next week or next month or at the turn of the new year – improve your morning routine tomorrow morning. Stop treating your morning like an inconvenience and greet the day with a smile, and guess what? The day will smile back at you!