Have you ever woken up on a work day only to feel not properly rested, snooze a couple of times, scramble all over the place to pack your bag, pick out your clothes, eat an excuse of a breakfast and run out the door worried about how much you have to do and how late you are only to realize that you’ve forgotten something important back at home. If your mornings are anything like this- stressed, chaotic and disorganized- all you have to do is plan out your morning routine and make it a habit. Once you begin to execute a certain system, your body will imprint it in your mind and it will come to you as naturally as brushing your teeth in the morning. (Hopefully, you have gotten used to the routine of brushing your teeth every morning.) The habit doesn’t set instantly though. According to researcher Phillippa Lally, it takes about 66 days for a new habit to be formed. The formation of the habitual routine will be a lot easier if you arrange and simplify the process. These tips can help you organize your mornings thereby making you significantly more productive, peaceful and happier.
1. Start With A Good Night’s Rest
You can’t expect to have a peaceful, stress-free morning if you are not properly rested the night before. This may seem silly, but if you are the kind of person who stays up too late without realizing it, set yourself a bed time. That’s right we just might have to parent ourselves. Try and think about how much sleep you require to feel fully rested. On average, an adult requires about seven to eight hours of sleep. If you’re used to sleeping for about ten hours – cutting down to eight all of a sudden might make you feel drowsy through the day. Cutting a half hour per week until you reach your goal sleep time could help you ease into it. Also, if you are someone who goes to bed on time but just doesn’t fall asleep – try taking a brisk 15-20 minute walk before bed. It will help tire you out. Keeping away from all electronic gadgets is advisable as the light emitted from them tends to keep your brain alert and prevents you from falling asleep fast.
2. Rise And Shine
Waking up in the morning is relatively easy and might happen naturally but getting out of bed tends to be the hard part. When you don’t get out of bed as soon as you wake up, you’re tempted to just go back to sleep and that “just five more minutes” ends up becoming half an hour. You could try keeping your alarm far away from the bed to help you get up and stay awake. If you wake up before the alarm, get up anyway because during the time that you wait for the alarm to ring, you might just fall into deep slumber. Another trick that many people stand by is picturing the time at which they want to wake up before hitting the bed. It is said that your mind remembers this information and wakes you up right on time.
3. Organize Everything You Might Need For Your Morning The Day Before
We have all been through this experience before where we struggle to figure out what to wear or can’t find something we need. This state of affairs is only worsened when we are aware that we are getting late. An easy fix for this is to organize everything we might need for the next day. Starting from the smallest thing – like ensuring that your morning coffee cup is clean. Once you have everything you need ready and laid out, the process becomes a lot simpler. You’re not putting yourself in a stressful environment and expecting yourself to make decisions as soon as you’re up.
4. Plan Your Week Before It Starts
Planning your week in advance- either on a non-virtual calendar or on your phone will help take off a lot of the burden that comes with storing the information in your head. If you have classes, workout sessions or dinners to attend- it helps to plan them in advance so that you don’t have to make big decisions through the week. Also, it helps to spend some time on an assigned day to declutter. Take out trash, do the laundry and keep things in it place- this will help straighten everything up before the week begins. Having an assigned laundry day will help keep the constant “running out of clothes to wear” struggle at bay.
5. Once You Get Used To A Calm Morning Routine, You Will Not Want To Go Back
Once you start enjoying your calm, stress-free mornings, you will begin to appreciate the peace that comes with it. You can even play your favorite music as you execute your routine making it even more enjoyable.You might even be surprised by all the things you have managed to achieve and wonder how you got all that time.
