Your morning is your day

 

The alarm clock rings. You hit the snooze button once, twice, three times. You are late. You jump out of your bed, and start running. Coffee in a take away mug, quick teeth brushing, maybe fast shower, you are already out of your house. But of course, you took a moment to check your phone, your messages, your work emails, the social media.Your brain is already fully stimulated and ready to tackle the day. But you programmed your brain to be in a "running" and stressed mood. How could you expect your day to be different from that?

Your morning is your day. If you want your day to be relaxed, calm, and efficient, then you need to make sure that you wake up in those conditions. And here are some tips to help you with that. 

You have probably seen a lot of Instagram posts about that. Drink water, meditate, go for a walk, etc... All those tips that could be summarised in a post called "Morning routines of the most successful people in the world". I am, of course, not saying that they are bad advices. But they are hard to apply. And the point is to build sustainable habits. 

First, you need to tackle the bad habit of hitting the snooze button. Why? Simply because hitting the snooze button will be interpreted by your brain as a failure. You wanted to wake up early, and you did not manage. Failure does not seem like a good way to start your day, does it? To do that, here is a very simple rule: start your morning routine with an activity you enjoy. Something you love. You love video games? Fine, just give yourself 10 minutes, or half an hour, to play your favourite video game. You love reading a book? Then just do so. That way, when your alarm rings, instead of thinking "Oh no, I don't want this day to start" and then hit the snooze button, you will think "Oh nice, time for me to have a good time." and you will get up.

Then, and this is the only other advice I would give you for your morning routine, since I strongly believe that there is no magical recipe, try to stay away from your phone or computer for a while (says the guy typing this article at 7:20 am, 30 minutes after waking up). Keep this moment being about yourself and yourself only. The moment you start checking notifications, you are already out of your place. Your brain is already being extremely stimulated, and - at some level - stressed. 

"Oh yeah thanks, but I don't have time to have some good time in the morning, I have to go to work." 

Well, if I may, this is not an argument. Because there is a simple answer to it: make time. Which, in the morning, means wake up earlier. Usually, I give myself about an hour and a half before starting working or leaving my house. 

"Yeah but don't we need 8 hours of sleep?" 

We do. And that is why the first step of any morning routine should actually be "have a good night of sleep". And this will be the topic of a next post. But if you add those 30 minutes during which you are hitting the snooze button, and use those for your morning routine instead, don't you have more time already?

Now, take a moment for yourself before starting your day. If you are reading this article, it means that you are already on your phone or your computer. You will start your new morning routine tomorrow. But at the moment, just close your eyes, take a deep breath. And another. And another. 

You are gonna have a great day. You just need to convince yourself that you will.