No Matter How Dull a Morning You Can Always Be a Bright Morning Person. Here’s a List of Things to Do Just That.
Someone once said, “success comes to those who have the willpower to win over their snooze buttons.” If this is not you Aluxers, then stay right there because here are 15 morning routine ideas you need to achieve your personal goals.
If you’ve just woken up, reading an article might not be the best idea. Switch out to the video version of this article.
With that out of the way, let’s bounce back to the article.
1
Stop Whining About Waking Up
Let’s cut the bullsh*t. Waking up is a privilege. So many people did not get the luxury of waking up today… but you did. And you’re moaning about it? WTF! That is literally the stupidest complaint ever.
The simplest but yet one of the most effective morning routine ideas is to be grateful that you have been gifted another day to do great things. Stop moaning and go out there and add value to your community.
Don’t pull the covers back over your head, avoid hitting the snooze button and don’t scroll. Scrolling or gaining 15 minutes of sleep puts us in a bad mental space, which means that our whole day is ruined for what? 15-munutes.
Is it worth it? We don’t think so.
2
Stop Skipping the Morning Shower
Aluxers, you sweat a lot during sleep – so right off the bat – the number 1 reason to shower in the morning is to get rid of the sweat. If that’s not enough to motivate you, showering in the morning increases blood circulation, decreases stress, alleviates stiff muscles, and of course, you smell good.
Mona Gohara, MD, associate clinical professor of dermatology at the Yale School of Medicine quoted the following for the Independent online, “A morning shower allows for time to meditate and regroup before starting a long or hectic day. This mindfulness can decrease inflammation in the skin by keeping levels of a hormone called cortisol capped.”
Even MSNBC’s Morning Joe, Willie Geist, loves his morning shower. He says, “When I wake up in the morning, I have to shower to wake up for one thing,”
3
Stop Rushing and Trying to Multitask
In our video, 15 Biggest Time Wasters in Life, we mention that “multitasking makes everything take a lot longer, and it doesn’t guarantee the same quality as when our attention is focused. Each time you switch gears between tasks you lose time and concentration changing from one to the next.
So, in the morning, for example, brushing teeth and getting dressed at the same time is not making you go any faster. In fact, it’s making you go slower, and you inevitably smash your toothbrush into your eyeball, trip over your trouser leg and kick the cat… all while trying to save time. These are not good morning routine ideas to experiment with.
Aluxers, remember to subscribe to our channel – we have plenty of helpful videos designed especially for you.
4
Stop Jumping Out of Bed Like There’s a Cracker up Your Bum
Jumping out of bed at the speed of light is just as bad as lounging there. You hurt your body in the process. We’re not getting any younger Aluxers, so let’s look after the bodies we’ve been given.
Stretch and give your body a chance to wake up.
Then slowly get out of bed and do some more stretches to ease your body into the day and relieve any tension or cramping from the previous night’s sleep.
5
Stop Drinking Coffee Right Away
We’re sure one of your magical morning routine ideas is the possibility of having an intravenous line of caffeine hooked up to your body, which slowly starts pumping coffee into your system to wake you up… We can only dream, right?
Before you start stressing, we’re not suggesting you skip the coffee. Hell no, but we are suggesting you start the day with a glass of water. Once you’ve had a drink of the H2O, then by all means have your caffeine fix.
Beyonce, Jay-Z and Gwen Stefani are all in favour of the coffee beans which have been enjoyed since around 800 AD!
6
Stop Leaving Your Bed Unmade
Admiral William H. McRaven said the following during a commencement speech.
“If you want to change the world, start off by making your bed. If you make your bed every morning, you will have accomplished the first task of the day. It will give you a small sense of pride, and it will encourage you to do another task, and another, and another. By the end of the day, that one task completed will have turned into many tasks completed. Making your bed will also reinforce the fact that little things in life matter. If you can’t do the little things right, you’ll never be able to do the big things right. If, by chance, you have a miserable day, you will come home to a bed that’s made. That you made. And a made bed gives you encouragement that tomorrow will be better.”
Be sure to listen to his book on Audible, and redeem your free book if you haven’t already, thanks to our partnership with Audible. It’s called Make Your Bed. Little Things That Can Change Your Life…and Maybe the World.
7
Stop Eating Sugary Crap, Pretending That’s Breakfast
Aluxers, if your idea of a good breakfast is sugar-coated, empty promises of added vitamins and minerals, then you need to do something drastic and fast.
Healthline.com confirmed the 10 worst things to eat for breakfast were packaged cereals, pancakes or waffles, toast with margarine, muffins aka cake under the guise of a muffin, fruit juice, toaster pastries, scones with jam and cream, sweetened non-fat yoghurt, granola bars and processed, gluten free breakfast options. These are all disastrous morning routine ideas.
Opt for protein, oats, Greek yoghurt, berries, and nuts.
Cindy Crawford recently shared a snap of her breakfast on social media. It was a fried egg, smoked salmon and avocado on the side. What really confused people were the raspberries on the same plate… It sounds like the perfect breakfast to us.
We recently featured Cindy Crawford in our video, 15 Richest Models in The World. Be sure to check it out.
8
Stop Leaving the Blinds or Curtains Closed
You’re not Dracula, the sun won’t kill you. In fact, you need the light to kickstart your body and wake it up. Even if it’s dark outside and opening the blinds doesn’t make it lighter, switch your main lights on and not just a dim lamp.
Printed in the Jakarta Post, there is evidence brought forward by the University of Oregon that says, “dark rooms held 12 percent living and actively reproductive bacteria, almost twice as much as the 6.8 percent present in rooms that were exposed to daylight, and the 6.1 percent in rooms that were exposed to UV light.”
So Aluxers, when you’re up, open up and let the sunshine in!
9
Stop Doing in the Morning What You Could Have Done the Night Before
In our video, 10 Ways to Stop Procrastinating, we introduced you to our unwelcome visitor, procrastination. This unwanted house guest has been cluttering our “To Do” lists and plaguing our minds since time immemorial…” and honestly, only we can curb his errant behaviour.
So, if it’s packing lunches – do it the night before.
Put your laptop bag, purse, and coat at the front door the night before.
Prepare your outfit – the night before.
Make sure all notes are signed, homework books completed, and any school sports gear is packed – the night before.
You’ll experience far less stress in the morning. Even though all these ideas are executed in the night time, but they really are efficient morning routine ideas.
10
Stop Waking up at Different Times Every Morning
Jeffrey C. Hall, Michael Rosbash and Michael W. Young jointly won a Nobel Prize in 2017 in Physiology or Medicine for their “discoveries of molecular mechanisms controlling the circadian rhythm,” according to nobelprize.org.
Our bodies are basically one big biological clock, with cycles in the body called circadian rhythms. When those cycles are out of rhythm for whatever reason, it increases our risk of picking up diseases and infections.
We can keep the rhythm in alignment by going to bed and waking up roughly the same time every day. This helps with digestion and increases our immunity.
You can take it a step further by eating your meals at the same time every day, which then supports the body’s internal clock and makes our digestive system resilient.
11
Stop Skipping the Exercise
Aluxers, even if it’s a 10-minute yoga or meditation session, don’t skip it. Look, if it means you’ll miss the bus, by all means skip it, but if you’ve followed the steps up until now, hopefully those rushed days will be a thing of the past.
By skipping your exercise, yoga, meditation, stretches… you’re doing yourself a disservice and these skips are definitely morning routine ideas that will make your mornings dull.
If you’re super sleepy, a few jumping jacks, sit-ups and squats won’t go amiss.
Like the silly truth of this quote goes, “exercise in the morning, before your brain figures out what you’re doing.”
12
Avoid the Anxiety by Writing Out Your Schedule for the Next Day
A video published on cbsnews.com highlighted a podcast series by Gretchen Rubin, called Happier. She joined the “CBS This Morning” to share tips for a better morning routine, enabling people to live healthier and more productive lives.
She agrees that everything you can do the night before do it. And that includes writing out your schedule the next day. The reason for this is that it leaves your mind free to just focus on getting ready, and not making last-minute decisions in a frantic panic.
Rubin has got several books published, and all of them can benefit you. They include:
– Outer Order, Inner Calm
– The Four Tendencies
– Better Than Before
– Happier at Home
– The Happiness Project
You can also follow her podcast series, Happier, where themes such as “Tackle Your Email for One Hour, A Hack for Dealing with Photo Clutter, and an Interview with Gary Taubes About “The Case for Keto.”
13
Stop the Self-Doubt
If you’re stuck, pop on a happy playlist. Use the time to listen to motivating, inspiring podcasts or call a friend that always leaves you feeling better after you’ve chatted.
Find something that helps you ease out of the funk. Remind yourself of the things you like about yourself and focus on those instead of the supposed flaws and failures.
Like motivational public speaker and self-development author, Brian Tracy once said, “fear and self-doubt have always been the greatest enemies of human potential.”
The best remedy to stop self-doubt is to simply re-create a new version of you. Check out 15 Steps to Reinvent Yourself and Start Over.
14
Stop Skipping Sunscreen
You would think that something that takes 1-minute would be doable every day, yet we just don’t bother.
Dermatologists around the world all agree that sunscreen as part of your daily routine is a must. The Chicago tribune published an article exactly a year ago, confirming this fact. The article affirms that it’s obvious that during summer we need sunscreen every day, because the sun increases our risk of skin cancer and causes premature aging. However, it’s not just summer you need to worry about. The harmful UV rays are there even during the wintertime.
Dermatologist Katie Manno, mentions, “You should wear sunscreen every day because when you are outside, you are constantly being exposed to UV radiation. UV radiation even penetrates through the clouds, so yes, you should even be putting on the cream on cloudy days.”
Not to mention the fact sun damage ages you in hyper speed, so Aluxers, if you want to keep that youthful glow – you know what to do!
15
Stop Complaining About Anything and Everything
We mentioned in our first point to stop whining about waking up, and maybe you don’t do that… but you do complain about other things.
Maybe the milk is sour, or you got your sleeve caught on the door handle and you’re cussing and swearing like a sailor, or your lunch plans were cancelled or it’s raining… again. Whatever it is… if you’re complaining about it, you’re setting yourself up for a sh*tty day.
Shift your mindset to be grateful and the morning will be a breeze.
Question:
Aluxers, what would you like to stop doing in the mornings? We’d love to hear some morning routine ideas from you.
