I never had a morning routine. I only did something in the morning.
If I already had a morning routine it would be something like this:
Waking up as late as possible to make it just in time for my first appointment/work. Just joking..
I can tell you: that was not a success.
During my search for the good life, I kept coming across the importance of an optimal morning routine. I couldn’t avoid it anymore, so I started taking it seriously. It wasn’t an easy road.
I tried dozens of habits during my morning. I kept the most successful.
And now? I never want to be without a morning routine again.
In fact. My morning has become the most important moment of my day. Something my younger self would never believe.
In this article I am not going to tell you what a morning routine should look like. There is no gold standard in that.
No, I want to make it clear to you here why you should have a morning routine. And don’t be afraid. You don’t get a long list of reasons. I share the three most important reasons I know. Maybe you will have more.
1. A morning routine is essential for your productivity
Do you want to get more out of your days? Then start with your morning routine.
You are not distracted in the morning. You have not consumed any energy yet. And you can do exactly what helps make your day a success.
That ties in with perhaps the most important tip I know for productivity:
Decide each day what your most important task is for that day. Start each day with that task. Repeat that. So you have a productive day every day.
To do that, you need a morning routine.
If you leave every morning to chance, there is little chance that you will do the right thing. Then ‘ what feels best ‘ takes over from ‘ what’s best ‘.
A quote from behavioral expert Nir Eyal sums this up perfectly:
The antidote to impulsiveness is forethought.
Freely said: the antidote to impulsiveness is to think in advance what you are doing.
If you still have to decide what to do in the moment, then you are too late. You must have thought this through beforehand.
A morning routine is completely thought out in advance. You don’t leave your morning to chance like this. You do the right thing every morning. You set the tone for the rest of the day.
You can also plan the rest of your day during your morning routine. That way you have a clear picture every day of the most important tasks that day.
My morning routine has become my anchor for my productivity . Even if I have a really bad day, another morning routine awaits the next day. That’s way I can immediately recover.
And there are a number of reasons why a morning routine contributes to your productivity:
- Your willpower is still at its maximum in the morning. The best time to do your most important tasks.
- The morning is the best time for meditation. One of the most important exercises for productivity.
- You have a moment for reflection. This way you can think ‘why’ you do everything. And you can clarify what your goals are for that day.
2. Successful people have a morning routine
Ask anyone on the street about their morning routine and you’ll likely get an answer like:
What kind of routine?
Ask a successful person about her morning routine and you’ll likely get a comprehensive story.
Just look it up. The entire internet is full of morning routines of successful people.
Could it be a coincidence that they deal with their morning so consciously and not the rest of the world?
3. With your morning routine you have the most influence on the quality of your life
Yes, you read that correctly.
A morning routine has the most influence on the quality of your life.
Just look at it this way:
Your life is a sum of what your days look like. If you have good days, you have a good quality life.
The secret of a good life is to make sure you have good days. And you simply have to repeat that.
And what influences the quality of your days the most?
Right. A morning routine!
Why isn’t that another time of the day? That’s because your morning is the only best time of the day to organize yourself completely.
In the morning you have no input from outside yet. You wake up with yourself. You’re not at work yet. Nothing is expected of you yet. It’s the only time of the day where you don’t have to take anything into account yet.
And think about it. Everyone secretly has a morning routine. Everyone does the same thing almost every morning. The only question is:
Have you consciously chosen your morning routine, or do you leave your mornings to chance?
Start your successful morning routine
Enough reasons to start tomorrow with your own morning routine.
But how do you start?
Easy.
Yes it is simple, but you also have to start simple. As small as possible. It’s not about setting up the most successful morning routine as quickly as possible. Your goal should be to have a morning routine that you can sustain.
It takes time to make your activities a habit. but keep pushing.
My morning now consists of maybe twenty different habits that I perform in an hour and a half. It took me several years to achieve that.
You can probably do that faster. Especially if you keep it simple.
The most important thing is that you stick with it. And as I always say: the secret is in the 1%. Make sure your morning tomorrow is 1% better than the day before.