If you’re not a morning person, then leaping out of bed may seem insurmountable. As difficult as it may feel to get up, how you spend your morning sets the tone for the rest of your day. If you’re running around in chaos and pressed for time to get out the door, later on you may feel sluggish, scattered or more stressed. A calmer, more productive start to your day can be the difference between a good and bad day and could directly affect your productivity at work.
We’ve gathered our top 6 tips to help you implement positive morning rituals.
- Get out of bed immediately
Setting multiple alarms and snoozing them until the last minute does you no favours. Instead, get up as soon as your first alarm rings and take away the opportunity to dwell on what lays ahead or to justify spending an extra 15 minutes in bed.
To begin the habit, clear your mind and count down from three, committing to yourself to jump out of bed when you reach number one.
- Make your bed
The simple act of making your bed can have powerful benefits for your mental clarity and wellbeing. Starting your day by ticking off a task can boost your productivity and have a flow-on effect for the rest of your day at work. Research shows that making your bed every day can help lift your mood as well.
- Rehydrate
Before you drink your first tea or coffee of the day, it’s important to first hydrate. As you’ve probably not drunk any water for eight hours, you may be slightly dehydrated. If you’re not a fan of drinking plain water first thing in the morning, adding a slice of lemon may help make it more enjoyable.
- Remain disconnected for a while
Instead of immediately reaching for your phone to catch up on the news and notifications you missed overnight, spend the first part of your day doing something that makes you feel happy and grounded. This may be enjoying your coffee, journaling, stretching or mindful meditation. This allows you to focus on you and your mind to warm up to the day ahead.
- Incorporate movement
Waking up earlier to give yourself some time to fit in movement is hugely beneficial to your mind and body. Exercising in the morning will help to get your blood circulating, clear your mind and also give you another task to cross off your to-do list. This may involve going for a run, a session at the gym or stretching.
- Eat a nourishing breakfast
The old adage that breakfast is ‘the most important meal of the day’ is true. Your body is essentially running on empty in the morning, so how can you expect it to keep up with the demands of all your day? If you tend to skip breakfast but find that your energy and productivity falters as the hours tick by, it can be helpful to take the time to have something nutritious mid-morning.
It may take time to make changes to your current morning routine, but over time you will begin to reap the benefits. Start by adding one or two changes into your morning, then when these become second nature, add a few more.
