The alarm clock rings a few times. You look at it and delay the alarm for a few more minutes. It sounds again and more of the same. By the time you want to realize half an hour has passed and you’re already in a hurry and stress the rest of the day. Sounds familiar to you, right? Today we are going to show you how you can increase your productivity simply by changing your habits when you wake up. Are you ready to change your routine tomorrow?
Why should you change your routine tomorrow?
Most of us do more or less the same thing every morning and at practically the same times: the alarm goes off, we get up, take a shower, get dressed and run away from home so as not to get too much jam on the way to work or to the place corresponding study. We have been running like a headless chicken since we have stepped out of bed and every day we think that you cannot live like this, with so much stress and so much haste. On top of that, no matter how much we run we never have the time or to have breakfast as God intended and almost all of us feel grateful if, with luck, we arrive a few minutes early and can have a quick coffee from the office machine. Does this situation seem familiar to you?
This, which we have come to normalize because almost everyone happens to us daily, is a horrible way to start the day and makes us start our daily lives with insane levels of nerves and anxiety, which in the long run can come to take its toll. To this, we must add the feeling that invades us daily that we never reached anything, no matter how hard we try. If you talked to your friends and family, you would realize that almost everyone experiences the same thing and they have the same feelings of frustration every day. It is normal? No, but the truth is that this way of starting the day has become part of our daily routine. Insane yes, usual too.
Have you ever wondered what you would do if your day started in a different way? A little sport, a quiet coffee, a walk listening to music, a long hot shower first thing in the morning. Does it seem like a luxury to be able to do something like this on a daily basis? Well, you can do it with something as simple as changing your first-hour routine every morning. Do you want to know how to create a new routine in the morning?
How to create a morning routine to increase your productivity?
But is changing my routine in the morning really going to improve my productivity that much? Think about it, most of the famous entrepreneurs who have built real empires have one point in common: each and every one of them talk about the great benefits it has brought them throughout their lives to establish a profitable morning routine. Yes, surely you are not going to become one of those business gurus because it is not in your medium-long term plans, so do it simply to help you have a more structured day to day and obtain the daily benefits that this can bring you.
So how can you introduce new habits when you get up to increase your daily productivity? As we mentioned in our post on how to create a study habit, a habit is the habitual and constant practice of activity. What does this mean? Well, to get to introduce new habits in your life you must practice them continuously for a certain time and, little by little and before you know it, you will have introduced all these changes in your morning routines and you will have become the king of morning productivity.
Here are some tips that can be very useful when you start making these changes in your mornings that will transform your day to day:
- Determine WHY you want to make these changes. Incorporating these new habits into your mornings will be an effort, and if you want this to come to fruition you must have a sufficiently powerful motivation.
- Introduce only one change at a time into your morning routine. It is not going to do much good to want to radically change your habits since this is all you are going to do is get tired soon and give up. First, introduce a habit and only when this habit is sufficiently rooted in your day to day, think about what new habit you are going to add. In this way, you will be able to focus all your energy and willpower on a single charge and you will have a much better chance of success.
- Start by including the most transformative habits in your morning routine. This way you will see the most important results during the first weeks, and this will suppose an extra motivation that will help you to continue with your routine change.
You can use an application to see how you progress with your goals. Checking your progress will make you want to continue, not to leave it. In this aspect, gamification is very helpful in achieving your goals. In this article, you will find some apps that will help you incorporate new habits.
What habits should your morning routine include?
At this point, you are surely wondering what you should do to establish a change in your mornings and start the day with healthier and more productive habits. Here we are going to indicate some habits that you can include in your morning routine and that will make you start your day to the fullest and with the batteries charged.
- Start preparing your mornings the night before. If you want to have a great start to the day you must plan ahead. You can leave everything you need ready first thing: from the gym water bottle, the socks you are going to wear or the bag you are going to take to that meeting. Doing this will make you not waste time on insignificant things as soon as you get up. Having everything prepared in advance and leaving everything ready before sleeping will make you go to bed with the necessary tranquillity to be able to rest deeply. This will be a decisive factor so that when the alarm clock rings you can face the new day rested and wanting to eat the world.
- Disconnect a few hours before going to sleep. Forget about email, social media and all your technological devices. Avoid using screens (mobile, laptop, television …) for a while before going to bed since the blue light they give off interferes with your sleep cycle. Change all of the above for quieter and more relaxing activities, such as reading a book in bed.
- Make sure you have slept enough. Sleeping is vital to find yourself well. It is not compatible to be a productive person with not sleeping enough hours. So if you want to get up early to have more time and get to do much more, you should go to bed before. Stealing hours of sleep to dedicate to other activities can have catastrophic effects for the goals you have set for yourself.
- Do not delay the alarm clock. Avoid starting the day by failing. When the first alarm sounds (yes, you read correctly, the first alarm) get out of bed and don’t look back. Don’t hang around, nothing more than five more minutes. Take a leap and start the day with the firm determination that today is going to be a great day.
- Plan an important task or something you love first thing in the morning. This may be the extra motivation you need to get out of bed without a second thought.
- Always try to get up at the same time. Yes, you read it right. FOREVER. Changing the routine on weekends is of no use since the only thing you get is that on Monday it will be difficult to start again with it. It may seem fatal and you prefer to stay a couple more hours in bed, but think about the whole and how you are making your day to day change for the better. Look at it with perspective and it is an opportunity to start enjoying the silent walks on Sunday mornings.
- Avoid using electronic devices and social networks as soon as you wake up. Now is the time to do other things that make better use of your time than that. Remember that with this routine we try to take advantage of the time first thing and give ourselves a moment for our well-being, so don’t you think it would be a shame to waste it watching kitten videos on Facebook? Social networks yes, but later.
- Introduce some exercise into your new routine. Take a walk, do yoga, some running or go to the gym. Any exercise you like to do is welcome. It is not necessary to do it daily, it starts little by little and soon you will see how the world changes when you start the day with a dose of endorphins.
- Treat yourself to a healthy breakfast. Yes, one of those we see in the movies, with its juice and cereals. The kind that leaves you time to sit down and quietly read the newspaper. This moment should be the first gift you give yourself every day and it is essential to improve our day-to-day life and obtain the benefits of healthier lifestyle habits.
- Take the opportunity to have your daily moment of introspection. Sometimes we are so involved in the rest of the world that we forget ourselves. Think, meditate, reflect. Set yourself goals and small goals, watch your progress. Remind yourself where you are and where you want to go. And pamper yourself a little, you deserve it.
- Maintain a positive attitude toward the world. Do not start the day reluctantly, sad or angry. Believe it or not, the way we get up will be decisive throughout the day. A smile, a high head and a positive mind. With this, you will carry the good vibes at least half of your day. What if you don’t like something? Don’t complain, just think about what you can do to change it.
Conclusions
Be consistent, follow these tips and, in less time than you think, you will begin to see the fruits of your work. You will see how simply by opening yourself to change and doing a good routine first thing in the morning will exponentially increase your productivity.
