Designing your perfect morning routine is difficult. There is no universal solution that works for everyone. We all operate on different schedules. We all have different goals.
A good morning routine, however, can set the tone for the rest of the day. Eat a healthy breakfast and you will have a day full of energy. Make a to-do list and you will get things done.
Productive mornings leave you with a sense of accomplishment, a feeling that you’ve achieved something impressive. Once you have accomplished your first small win of the day, forces are set in motion to favor yet another small win. Before you know it, you will have had your most productive day yet.
In this exclusive article, we will look at a few simple steps you can take to implement the perfect morning routine into your daily life. I will also give you a little bit of personal insight into the lessons I’ve learned over the years and show you the best way to avoid common pitfalls.
Perfect Morning Routine Step #1: Goals
The first step to designing your ideal morning routine is to know your goals. You need to know what you’re working towards. Without clarity, it is difficult to make progress.
Below, you will find the 10 most common success categories. Which one of the following applies to you?
- Material success: Objects that you own or things that you can buy (For example: money, jewelry, houses, or cars)
- Emotional success: How you feel and how things in your life make you feel. (For example: relationships, mental health, self-esteem, confidence, happiness)
- Intellectual success: How much you are challenged and how much you are learning. (For example: school, work, knowledge, challenge, books)
- Spiritual success: How you feel about spirituality and religion (For example: belonging, purpose, religion, faith)
- Physical success: How you feel physically, how you feel about your body and shape (For example: weight, fitness, energy, appearance, better health)
- Commercial success: How you view jobs and business success (For example: salary, reputation, connections, growth)
- Evangelical success: How much influence you have on other people (For example: connections, inspiring others, wisdom, influence)
- Environmental success: How you interact with your surrounding environment (For example: home cleanliness, ecological impact, sustainability, lifestyle)
- Time success: How you spend your time on earth (For example: longevity, time management, priorities)
- Collective success: How you have a good relationship with other people (For example: team productivity, team effort, groups, leadership)
For this exercise, choose one of the above. The category you pick should align with your values and aspirations. If you want to have more money and create financial freedom, select material success. If you want to lose weight and feel better in your own skin, select physical success.
Tip: In the past, I’ve made the mistake of being too broad with my goals. I always knew that I wanted to influence other people positively (evangelic success), but it wasn’t until years later that I did so through my website. One of the most important things is to narrow down your goals and be as specific as possible.
Perfect Morning Routine Step #2: Constraints
Everyone’s life is different. Some people are early risers and are wide awake at the crack of dawn, while others are night owls who can’t seem to go to bed until well after midnight. Some people start their full-time job at 7am, while others work part time and rarely start until 1pm. Some have to take care of their children or pets first thing in the morning, while others are on their own.
When designing your perfect morning routine, one of the best things to do is to make an account of all constraints. Chances are that your morning differs greatly from your friends and family. This might look something like this:
- Night-owl: can’t fall asleep until 1:00am on most nights.
- Student: don’t start class until 12:00pm on most days.
- Pet: your dog begs you to go for a walk first thing in the morning.
It’s also important to go to bed early enough to get a good night’s rest. Getting enough sleep ensures you can be productive in your early hours and that don’t hit the snooze button on your alarm clock the next morning. Practice going to bed at the same time every night, and after a couple of months it will be second nature.
Tip: What if you are not on a consistent schedule? What if you have to get up at a different time every morning? It’s a good idea to get up at least 2 to 3 hours before your first commitment. This gives you extra time to get ready for your day, while also providing you with sufficient time to be productive with your goals.
Perfect Morning Routine Step #3: Trial and Error
Mistakes and inevitable. There will be days when you oversleep. There also will be days when you don’t feel like putting in the work.
To start every day on a positive note, you must try different methods and learn from your mistakes. It is through repeated, varied attempts you achieve a routine that works best for you.
You might, for example, find that you over-plan. That is, you select too many tasks and can’t complete them in the time available to you. You might also find that you don’t have a lot of energy in the morning or scroll through social media after you wake up.
If you want to have a productive day every day of the week, you must follow the trial-and-error technique. You don’t have to find solutions immediately or become a master over night. It takes weeks, if not months, of repeated efforts to design a system that works best for you.
Bringing All Steps Together
Are you ready to design a good morning routine? Here are some ideas you may pick from:
- Sharpen your mind: cold shower, meditation, controlled breathing, visualization.
- Nourish yourself: balanced breakfast, water, supplements.
- Maintain your fitness: yoga, weightlifting, outdoor walking, stretching.
- Get organized: mind clearing, intention, scheduling, to-do list.
These examples are not the only things you can do, but they are actions I’ve found to be most useful for achieving my goals. Pick one or more of the routine ideas from the accompanying PDF and write them on a piece of paper (Make sure they bring you closer to your goal, of course).
The next step is to make a list of all constraints that interfere with a successful morning routine. What does your typical morning look like? What time do you like to wake up? What is your first commitment of the day? This is perhaps the toughest part of designing your morning routine, so spend as much time on this as you need.
Last but not least, decide on how much time you want to spend on each activity and create an hour-by-hour morning schedule. To improve your chances of showing up, ensure you give yourself enough time to switch in between tasks and list the time, duration, and location of each activity.
Design Your Own
Taking everything into consideration, your morning routine might look something like this.
- Success Category: Emotional Success
- Specific Goal: Stop worrying and reduce anxiety
- Actions: Meditation, controlled breathing, yoga, mind clearing
- Constraints: 9:00am–Work
- Bedtime: 10:00pm the night before
Time | Action | Notes | Duration | Location |
6:30am | Wake up | Alarm clock will ring, don’t hit snooze. | 15 min. | Bedroom |
6:45am | Mind clearing | Write all thoughts on paper. | 5 min. | Office |
7:00am | Controlled breathing | 5s inhale, 10s exhale. | 5 min. | Office |
7:15am | Yoga | Yoga video on YouTube | 20 min. | Living Room |
7:45am | Meditation | 10 minutes of meditation | 10 min. | Living Room |
8:00am | Get ready for work | Shower, good breakfast, brush teeth etc. | 30 min. | Bathroom, Kitchen |
Use this template as a guideline to design your best morning routine. When your morning rituals get tough, remind yourself of your goals and draw upon the steps you have learned. Perhaps you need to implement some new habits. Maybe it turns out you’re not a morning person after all.