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A good morning routine is as much mental as it is physical, and waking up rushed and unprepared can lead to a day filled with stress and chaos. If you’re looking for new ways to improve your morning routine, try these tricks used by some of the most successful entrepreneurs in the world.
Put Something In Your Stomach
Too many Americans run out the door for work without eating or drinking anything. Even if you work from home, eating a proper breakfast or having a cup of coffee can completely transform your workday:
- High-protein, low-carb breakfasts can prevent late-morning crashes and fuel your body and brain for the day.
- A cup of coffee or espresso, sans all the sugar, is a great boost for the mind.
- Learn to love eggs, if you don’t already. They’re a fast, cheap source of protein and nutrients.
Use A Real Alarm Clock
Stop using your phone to wake up in the morning. In fact, you shouldn’t keep your phone in the bedroom at all. Looking at your smartphone’s screen before bed can negatively affect your natural sleep cycle and keeping it on the nightstand will do nothing but hinder a solid morning routine.
Buy a real alarm clock and keep it at a distance from your bed, forcing you to actually get out from under the covers to turn it off (no snoozing). If you don’t want to wake up in the dark during the winter, look into a Philips Wake-Up Light which simulates natural sunlight early in the morning.
Make Your Bed Every Morning
Before the bathroom, before the shower, before your first sip of coffee, make your bed. It’s the easiest way to feel accomplished first thing in the morning and it makes for a much more welcoming environment when you go to bed at night.
Practice Gratitude
Move Or Hang
An early morning workout will help kickstart your metabolism and boost the brain for better productivity, but it also has the benefit of saving valuable time in the afternoon. With a membership to a gym with locations nationwide, like 24 Hour Fitness, an early morning workout can give back valuable time in the afternoon for running errands, working late or making dinner. Plus, there’s the added benefit of not having to worry about exercising throughout the day.
But if breakfast, bed-making, and gratitude already fill your morning, just hang; no, literally. Hanging from a pull-up bar (it’s easy to add one to your door frame) helps decompress the spine, improve mobility in your shoulders and strengthen grip, but it also provides a good stretch in the morning. If you want to get some pull-ups in then, that’s fine too, but just hanging for 30-60 seconds each morning will work wonders.
Krystle Cook – the creator of Home Jobs by MOM – put her psychology degree on a shelf and dived into a pile of diapers and dishes instead. She is a wife and mother to two rambunctious boys, sweating it out in her Texas hometown. She loves cooking, DIY home projects, and family fun activities.
Glazed Cinnamon Star Cookies
We’re in pretty good shape as far as routine goes in our house. We’ve been doing it for so long it’s just habit now.
Glad to hear it’s so easy for you! We’ve gotten into a routine as well but before we did, I never realized how much a good start truly changes the day.
Currently trying to work on making my bed every morning! It’s always been a tough one since I was a kid haha! I definitely think it makes the start of my day better though.
It’s tough to get into! When you’re busy especially. My reasoning used to be that nobody ever visited our house so I wasn’t going to waste time fixing something that was just going to be messed up when I got home, haha.
I need to buy a real alarm clock and stop reading my iPad at night for the same reason as the cell. I’ll try making my bed tomorrow am, although I might need coffee first!
The best thing about a morning routine is finding the thing that works best for you. If coffee needs to be first, you go for it, girl!
I make my bed everyday – I can’t function if my bed is not made. Sometimes I even get my hubby to help!
I’m glad you’re so on top of it! That’s awesome that your hubby helps as well!
Wow, such good and interesting information. I do use my phone as an alarm. I guess I shouldn’t but I also read at night. I am buying some of the blue diffusing eye glasses. I hope they help!
I hope the glasses work! I used to read or play on my phone a lot before bed and never realized how “awake” it kept my brain. It made it harder to sleep. However, everyone is different!
These are great tips — I’ve guilty of not doing all but one (putting something in my stomach). If I don’t have food, I don’t function. I’m good at practicing gratitude at night before bed, but I’m going to try it in the morning now, too. Thanks!
The food part is probably one of the hardest parts for me. If not for the kids, I wonder if eating would fall within my radar, haha. MY kids keep me busy but they sure do help remind us of the important stuff!
These are great tips!! I have really been struggling to get into a groove in mornings again since the holiday break!
Oh mercy, don’t you know it! Holidays are a routine killer for sure!
I really need to improve my mornings…a great way to start is going to bed earlier. I use my phone as my alarm. but I’m not on it at all once I walk into the bedroom…it’s the tv that keeps me up. I watch a DVR’d show and before I know it I’ve watched 4 and it’s almost midnight…so when the alarm goes off in the morning, I hit snooze and eventually turn it off, and sleep in….it’s ok every once in a while, but now I’m in the habit. :-/
I have a friend who kicks herself for the same thing. She also watches DVR’d shows before she goes to bed and the TV is in the bedroom. It always keeps her awake longer than she wants to be which makes her tired the next morning. She moved the TV out of her room which changed everything.
This is so timely since I’m struggling to become a morning person after so many years of working night shift! The alarm clock helps!
Yes, it does! I noticed I had far less instances of it not going off as well. My phone seems to bite be in the bum with not going off often.
This a particularly great post for me as I SUCK at mornings! I need coffee and about 2 hours of silence to feel human…hard to do in a house full of five kids!
Five kids would truly make a morning chaos, haha. You are a brave mama! I don’t think anyone can blame you for having an imperfect morning.
I am so not a morning person! I lay in bed until I hear one of my boys calling for me from their beds. That’s when I get up lol. I love the idea of getting a real alarm clock, I’m actually getting one for my husband for valentine’s day. I need to stop skipping out on breakfast, i know i always do so much better throughout the day when I actually eat breakfast. I love that you said to practice gratefulness because I often don’t. I need to start off each morning with a prayer and being thankful for that day and what it may bring.
I truly don’t blame you at all. We’re allowed those types of mornings as parents, haha. Get on that breakfast! You’ll be glad you made it a habit!
I have never heard about hanging from a bar before. I think my back would like it. I also have problems getting going in the mornings so thanks for the tips.
They also have little contraptions that look like workout equipment that allows you to strap your feet in and hang. It’s easier than a bar but more expensive. I had no idea it worked so well until I started adding it in.
This is a great list to help a morning routine. I recently started making my bed every morning. I makes me feel that much better to have my bed neat and straight. Thanks for sharing.
My mom always told me to make my bed and I didn’t know why. Now I know there’s more than one reason to do so!
I am so not a morning person and never have been. I think you either like the mornings or you simply do no. I do not! ☺
I don’t blame you! I think those who say they like mornings are full of it. haha!
Love the reminder about practicing gratitude. Thats something so easy to do, yet so easy to overlook. Starting with that tomorrow morning!
I’m glad it inspired you! I’m a firm believer in starting each day with a positive attitude. This world is so full of hate and negativity that the last thing I need is adding on to it with my own sour attitude.
These are great suggestions, I’m a big believer in a real alarm clock and I can’t leave the house without my bed made!!! No wonder Im a morning person! Thanks for sharing!
I don’t hear people say they’re a morning person very often. What about the morning makes it your favorite?
I definitely need to start making my bed every day. It rarely gets done around here.
No judging here! We start each day with good intentions and we fall short many times over. However, we never stop trying to keep the routine!
My morning routine is to sit right down and get to work. I need to schedule in some time to get moving before that I think to get me going!
I just had a friend talking to me about the same thing. She works from home and immediately goes from bed to computer. It’s hard to change up routines!
It seems simple but I really like the idea of making my bed every morning. I always feel more organized and prepared when my bed is made. Great tips!
I used to be slow to get around in the morning because I just wasn’t sure where to start with the day because the list is usually long. However, the simple task of making the bed just seemed to organize my thoughts and focus.
Absolutely sounds a great tips! Yes you are right I need to buy a real alarm clock when I’m using my phone and start to alarm, I always check the time if its early and adjust it again.
Ha! I have done that before…a lot. It’s easy to adjust the phone even in mid-sleep. A real alarm clock takes a lot more effort.
These are great tips! I love the one about the using a real alarm clock! I also noticed that if I have a small breakfast in the morning I feel so much better during the day!
My family and I love a big breakfast. However, I have a friend who gets queasy with any breakfast so a small one better suits her. As long as you get breakfast, as you said, the day will feel much nicer!
I need to work on the first two of these. Not sure I’m ready to give up on my phone alarm even though I know it isn’t great for me.
Phone alarms are so touchy, at least in my experience. Mine tends to not go off a lot for random reasons. Outside of that, if my phone alarm goes off, my phone is right next to me so it doesn’t force me to get up.
Omg so many awesome tips!!! I’m convinced gratitude is the answer to everything!!!!! It really does help a lot!
I’m glad you like them! Oh, I know! Being positive and grateful for the things we DO have instead of focusing on all that negative is seriously the easiest way to have a good day even if it’s really a bad one.
Those are some great tips, I do most of these things in the morning (make my bed, eat breakfast, use a real alarm clock) and I find my mornings are a lot better.
Glad to hear these work for you! Feel free to share anymore tips you may have!
I totally agree with all of these! Getting some breakfast and exercising first thing in the morning really has the power to change how to feel for the rest of the day. Great tips!
I agree! It made a world of difference when I made these things a habit. It wasn’t easy and still isn’t but the good mood and stamina to make it through the day is worth it.
i need to do some of these. mornings are rough in my house lol
haha! I think with kids, most mornings are rough but I think it feels worse to parents. If somebody watched your morning they probably wouldn’t think it was as rough as you think.