HI! It's been about two months since my last/first early morning routine post and things have changed! WooHoo!
I'll admit, early morning routines are hard to figure out especially when you're afraid of waking others up, EVEN when they say it's no big deal. I'm really self conscious like that. It was my biggest obstacle.
So, you may be wondering...
What is the best way to set up an Early Morning Routine?
#1. Make a List of Important Factors to Your Morning Routine.
Do you sleep in the same room as others? What do I want to accomplish in the morning? Will your routine change from day to day depending on school, work, or something else?
Do you sleep in the same room as others? What do I want to accomplish in the morning? Will your routine change from day to day depending on school, work, or something else?
- Sleeping in the same room as someone is different than sleeping in the same house as someone. If you share a room with someone else and neither of you have been early risers in the past, have a conversation with them. They may join you or they may ask you to do something, such as leaving the room as soon as possible and quietly. They CAN NOT tell you, you are not allowed to wake up early that's not their choice!
- Why are you getting up earlier? To study, workout, eat better, fix better meals for your family, or to clean? Find your reasons and think of different methods to achieve them. Sometime the first method doesn't motivate you and causes you to just roll over and sleep again. Different methods help you find what's right for you.
- Routine changes can be challenging I have two different routines for my 9am workdays, and for my 11am or later or off days... I recently found out I need a rainy day routine since I do my running outside verses a gym. remember you can have cheat days too.
#2. Focus on you!
It's your morning routine, so you need to think about you! I know, super selfish right now! It might be harder than you think to start the early morning routine, especially if you have other people in your life. I personally live with my mom and brother. Despite them saying it was fine to leave my room, make breakfast, and even leave the house (we have an alarm system that makes loud beeping noises when you open any door or window), I was worried about bothering them. I tried waking up early, but then I stayed in my room and surfed FB. It was a waste of valuable time, so I started sleeping in again. When both my mom and brother went on vacation while I stayed at home, it was the perfect opportunity to adjust to the routine I wanted to implement. I needed alone time to figure it out, but how do you get that time?
- Let your family (or roommate/s) go on a vacation without you. I promise you will survive!
- If your family (or roommate/s) can't go, or it'll be months before they do and you want to start your routine now, get a hotel room for a week (or less, it may only take you 2 days to figure it out). Also remember if making breakfast is an important part of the morning routine you want look for a hotel that has a kitchen in it, like a Residential Inn.
- If you share a room with someone, and they don't wake up early as well, ask them to sleep on a friend's couch for a few days. Explain that you want to work out the cricks, so you won't drive them nuts. You might be majorly clumsy those first few days and make a ruckus in the room and to avoid any sleep driven anger it would be ideal to have the space alone. If they refuse... hotel room.
- If you can't get that alone time because you can't afford a hotel stay and they're not planning on going anywhere anytime soon, well... push through it. Act like no one else in the world exist in the morning and just do the routine you want to do. The people around you will adjust. Change is good!
Obviously, especially with the last one, don't be obnoxious about it. You will make noises and move about the house, but you don't need to bang cabinets, blast music, or slam doors.
#3. Know your habits.
How many times do you snooze your alarm? Do you often procrastinate on food until it's too late and you go to work hungry? Is it really easy to lose time flipping through social media? Yeah, we can get off track and lose our way if we don't pay attention. I'll admit Alexa has really helped me stay on track and nip a lot of bad habits in the butt. A few methods to help you stay on track are...
- A home AI device, like Alexa or Google Home and etc. I have personal experience with Alexa, whom I've set up a morning alarm with that works with my habits of snoozing a lot. Alarms in the past have often been in reach and I'll tap to snooze without even know it. My Alexa device (a 2nd generation Amazon Echo) is on the other side of the room, I've set up a morning routine. It wakes me with music for about 10 minutes before telling me an interesting fact to get me thinking, but I'm still likely to roll over afterwards, so after another 5 minutes it lists off things I should do in the morning.
- Having a list is a big help. You should have it somewhere easy to access, like asking Alexa, or written on a paper posted in your bathroom, on the kitchen door, or at your desk. It could also be on your computer or phone.
- When making a list/ writing your routine down put the things you procrastinate on before the things you really want to do. For example, I tend to procrastinate on food. I'll keeps saying 10 minutes, then in another 10 minutes, and before I know it 2 hours have passed and I'm hungry and late to work! So I decided before I even look at my laptop in the morning, I go make breakfast, then surf the web for an hour.
- This is limited to contacts and glasses wearers. Figure out a time when you want to sleep and take off your glasses or contacts at that time. I know when I can't see I get tired real fast. Keep them near by in the morning so when the first alarm hits you put them on. It'll wake you up faster if you can see.
- No phones, computers, or iPads in the bedroom, or keep them on the far side of the room you sleep in. This way they are not an easy distraction to keep you up for hours on social media.
- Do you share a room and can't have an alarm going off so early? Try bluetooth headphones. You might have to get used to sleep with them, but if it works you can set up alarms and music and etc to wake you up and your roommate will be none the wiser.
There are work-arounds for everything... you just have to work for them!
I wanted to help you figure out your own Early Morning Routine, but I did name this My Early Morning Routine Update, so here are the details:
My Early Morning Routine
- At 6am Alexa plays my 'Inspire Fun' Playlist for 7 minutes. The two songs it always plays is "From Now On" and "This is Me" From The Greatest Showman. It starts slow and low and then becomes upbeat and fun! Get my sleepy head to start moving.
- At 6:07am Alexa tells me an interesting fact.
- At 6:15am Alexa says "GET UP, drink water now, make your bed, then go have breakfast." I generally roll out of bed and make it, before putting my contacts in and drink any room temp water I have in my room. I take my water bottle with me to the kitchen.
- Around 6:30am I'm making my favorite breakfast, grilled avocado on Nature's Own Double Fiber toast topped with over medium eggs! So Yummy!
- I go back to my room, feed my cat, eat my breakfast, and surf the web for about an hour.
- Around 8am on a '11am or later, or off day for work' I get dressed in legging, a tank top, my Asics, and grab my phone, a carrier, and my bluetooth headphones. Once I'm ready I walk/run for 2 miles. (On a 9am work day, I get dressed for work and go. That's where that morning routine ends.)
- I'm done with my walk/run no later than 9am. I'll shower and change for work.
That's it! Pretty simple, huh? I've been keep up with it since the beginning of July! I'm really proud of that! I really hope this helps some of you figure out your best early morning routine!
Let me know what your routines are like in the comments below!
