Mornings are the most crucial time of the day. This is because how you start your day significantly impacts how good and productive it will be. It also adds up to how productive and fulfilling your week will go. As an individual and a business person, you need to be productive to achieve your different goals. So, why don’t you put effort into practising a productive morning routine?
18 Activities For a Productive Morning Routine
The following are eighteen activities that you can adopt to create a productive morning routine:
1. Sleep Early and Well
It might not seem like a morning routine to you, but ending your previous day well has a great impact on how your new day will be.
The best way to end your day is to go to bed early and get quality sleep.
Doing this will give your body more time to recuperate from your day and prepare for the new day.
This way, you have already started laying the groundwork for a productive new morning and day.
As an adult, the time for quality sleep at night is eight hours.
So, it would be best to reduce or do away with staying up late at night.
If you struggle with going to bed early or enjoying quality sleep, you can try out the following:
- Take warm baths to relax or read any book that can induce sleep in you
- Set a precise time to switch off your gadgets and electronics every night
- Get cosy and comfortable in your bed or couch with a nice cup of tea
- Set an alarm for the coming day
When you practice these techniques, you will find it easier to enjoy a relaxing and quality sleep.
2. Wake Up Early – Productive Morning Routine
Are you a morning person?
If you are not, then you are missing out on different great benefits that will make you active and productive throughout the day.
Morning people get more time to do things for themselves than others.
This gives them an advantage in having a more fulfilling day.
For example, if you have to resume work by 9 am, waking up by 8:30 am will do more damage than good for you.
This is mainly because you will rush to do what you could have done earlier and prepare for work.
As a result, you will feel mentally and physically unprepared for your day.
Ultimately, this will cause a flaw in your day progression and productivity.
However, waking up early will help you to avoid this and create better momentum for the rest of your day.
So, if you are not a morning person, you need to become one by learning the act of “waking up early”.
To become a morning person, you need to start by having a good night’s sleep.
You also need to have a mindset that is at a “go” every morning.
If you have the habit of snoozing your alarm, then you need to stop it.
You have to stop grumbling about the start of a new day.
Do not see a new day as another day of hustling and bustling.
Instead, see it as another day to pursue your goals, achieve milestones, seize opportunities, and live your life to the fullest.
With this mindset, waking up early will be less tasking for you.
3. Make The Bed
A simple but effective way to start your day and improve your mood and productivity is properly making and arranging your bed.
Yes, that’s right.
It can be considered a small victory when you make your bed as soon as you’re up.
When you have this small victory, it will make you feel hopeful and good about yourself.
Furthermore, making your bed will help you to keep your room tidier.
So, as irrelevant as this may seem, you shouldn’t overlook it.
Instead, try it out and watch for the difference in how you feel and stay productive in your daily living.
4. Stretch – Productive Morning Routine
Stretching is considered an exercise.
However, you shouldn’t have to wait until you exercise before stretching out your body.
Instead, you can do this immediately after you get up from your bed in the morning.
Stretching as soon as you leave your bed will help your body get ready for the activities ahead and also promote efficiency.
You can even go further to engage in a yoga session.
Whether you opt for simple leg and arm stretches or a yoga session, you will still enjoy great benefits.
5. Hydrate
At night, the human body tends to dehydrate naturally.
This is primarily because people sleep without drinking fluid or very little water for hours while they sleep.
Hence, when you wake up and don’t drink water, you will be doing wrong to yourself, as your body cell needs water to function correctly.
Getting hydrated at the start of your day will make you more focused and active.
So, when you wake up at daybreak, drink a glass of water to get hydrated.
Ensure that you drink water before consuming caffeine or tea.
This way, your body will combat the dehydration from consuming caffeinated drinks.
6. Enjoy Your Cup of Tea or Coffee – Productive Morning Routine
Staying hydrated from the early hours of the day helps you to be healthy and promotes a better condition for you to face your day.
However, it does not have to stop there.
You can also enjoy your morning routine better by having tea or coffee.
Doing this will wake you up faster and increase your likelihood of sticking to your routine.
So, don’t hesitate to enjoy your aromatic and warm cup of tea or coffee.
You can enjoy your drink better by spending a few minutes with your family, housemates, or pets.
Or you can practice mindfulness as you take sips out of your drink before going about your other activities.
7. Prepare and Eat a Nourishing Breakfast
Health is indeed wealth.
This is because one cannot be practical or productive as a sick person.
When this happens, such a person will be unable to work and acquire money.
So, to avoid this, one thing you ought to do is to eat a nourishing breakfast every morning.
When you do this, your mind and body will be active for your new day.
The meal you prepare doesn’t have to be grand but healthy.
Something as simple as a smoothie or a plate of oatmeal can go a long way in keeping you healthy and nourished.
You can consider preparing your lunch at the start of your day, as it will help avoid any productivity disruption.
8. Engage In Self-Care – Productive Morning Routine
To be productive, you need to be well and happy.
Therefore, when aiming to have a productive morning routine, you should not hesitate to create time for self-care.
This is because self-care helps support and promote your well-being and happiness.
Also, it helps you to create, balance, and maintain an excellent work-life and mitigate the chances of burnout.
Self-care activities can be anything, such as reading a book, taking a warm bath or shower, and so on.
It is you that defines what self-care is.
So, think of those activities or things that make both your mind and body feel good.
9. Exercise
Still focusing on health, your body needs exercise to be at its best.
Exercising has several benefits for your mental and physical health.
For example, exercising helps one to be more relaxed, sleep better, and increase one’s energy.
So, if you want to be productive, adding exercise to your routine will be great.
You need to understand that you don’t necessarily have to engage in rigorous exercise routines to enjoy the benefits of exercising.
Exercises as easy as running, jogging, or engaging in yoga before work can go a long way in keeping you sharp and ready for your day.
Furthermore, you don’t need to exercise every day to get a good result.
Working out for a few days a week can still do the trick.
So, don’t miss out on the benefits of morning exercises.
10. Practice Positive Affirmations – Productive Morning Routine
Positive affirmations have a way of filling one with hope, increasing confidence, and combating limiting thoughts.
Saying them to yourself every day will go a long way in ensuring that your day goes well.
So, when you wake up at daybreak, speak positively about your day and yourself.
Whatever positive things you say to yourself, ensure that you believe them, regardless of your situation.
The beautiful thing about practising positive affirmation is that it is not limited to the morning.
You can say them anytime.
However, saying them in the morning does wonders for your day.
So, consider adding this to your activities for a productive morning routine.
If you don’t know any affirmations, here are some examples:
- My week will be productive
- I am happy and grateful for the things I have achieved in my life
- I am bold, strong, and competent
- This new day will be good for me
Check here to discover how entrepreneurs can begin using affirmations.
11. Make Use of The Breathing Technique to Meditate
Another thing you should add to your routine is meditation.
Meditation is the practice that helps in training one’s awareness and attention and achieves a mentally and emotionally precise, calm, and stable state.
This practice can work effectively with positive affirmation.
All you need to do is create time in the morning to meditate by breathing deeply and focusing on your thoughts.
Breathing deeply helps you to tune out other things around you and focus on your thoughts.
If you meditate well, you will quickly pinpoint your negative thoughts, and if you use a positive affirmation, you can get rid of those thoughts.
Even without negative thoughts, saying your affirmation in your mind while meditating will help you achieve a more relaxed state of mind.
This will help you to be more productive and positive throughout your day.
12. Prioritise and Plan Your Day – Productive Morning Routine
Prioritising and planning help you to be more productive, and what better time to plan your day than in the morning?
Planning and prioritising make it easy for people to deal with professional and personal tasks and activities during the day.
If you want to opt for this, all you have to do is set aside time in the morning to go over all your tasks and activities for the day.
Then, you can categorise those tasks based on their importance and urgency.
When you do this, you will know which task needs to be done before another.
This will help you to make a good plan on how to go about all of them.
As a result, this will ensure that you have no confusion about when to do any of your tasks.
If you ensure to follow through with your plan for your day, you will have good momentum progressing from one task to another.
13. Engage In Mental Exercises/Games
Another productive activity you can add to your morning routine is mental exercises or games.
Engaging in mind exercise in the morning helps your mind to become more aware and awake.
These games are not only good for your mind but also fun.
Some examples of these exercises include crossword puzzles, sudoku, and chess.
These games can be found in newspapers, magazines, or even on the internet.
So, you can play these games virtually or non-virtually.
Since they will need you to concentrate, you will have to ensure that you set aside time to play them.
In other words, to enjoy the full benefit of engaging in mental exercises, you should not play them while doing any other morning activity.
14. Gardening – Productive Morning Routine
You can also engage in quick gardening in the morning before going about your day.
Gardening in the morning does not automatically make you a full-time gardener.
This is because you don’t need to do much when gardening in the morning.
You will only need a few minutes to water and groom your plant pot or garden.
Doing this will not only help you to create a better environment but also make you feel much better.
This is because gardening helps one feel more relaxed and connected with nature.
So, if you consider adding this routine to your morning, you will need to start a garden in your home or have one or more potted plants.
15. Reflect On Yesterday
It is popularly believed that the past should be left in the past.
As much as this is true, it is still debatable.
This is because the knowledge of the past can shape a better today and tomorrow.
Reflecting on the past is different from beating yourself up about it.
This is because reflecting on the past is a positive activity while beating yourself up about it isn’t.
So, reflecting on yesterday is a great idea if you want the best from your new day.
All you need to do is create time in your morning before fully starting your day to go over the previous day’s happenings.
To do this, you need to be open-minded, positive, and precise.
You will need to ensure that you play out and reflect on things the way they were.
This is because you might be tempted to butter up the past to make yourself feel better.
However, this will not help you to make positive changes on your new day.
Additionally, you will need to be quiet when reflecting on yesterday, as getting distracted might derail your thoughts.
If you engage in this routine every day, you will see improvement in your daily decisions and actions.
16. Listen to Good Music – Productive Morning Routine
Another thing you can add to your morning routine is listening to music.
Music has a way of making people feel relaxed and happy.
This is especially true when it is good music or music you enjoy.
So, instead of starting your day grumpy or without any rhythm, why don’t you listen to music that will wake up your body and mind and get you in a good mood?
The good thing about listening to music is that you don’t have to listen to it consciously.
You can still enjoy it while doing other tasks and allowing it to play in the background.
So, you shouldn’t deprive yourself of that happiness that good music can give you in the morning.
However, when you need to concentrate and know that music will not help you, you should either stop playing it or reduce its volume to the barest minimum.
17. Show Kindness
Helping or showing kindness to people, both you and the person you helped.
As much as there should be no specified time to show kindness, helping people at the beginning of your day helps to set you in a great mood.
So, you should practice showing kindness to people.
You can consider volunteering in groups or just helping those around you in need.
Whatever and however you intend to show kindness, try to start it from your morning and see how well your day goes.
18. Listen To a Podcast – Productive Morning Routine
Morning inspirations are great to keep you going during your day.
One fantastic way to get inspiration is by listening to the podcast of someone you admire and respect or discussing something you are interested in.
Finding the right podcast will encourage and push you to do better in different ways.
If you take the time to listen to it every morning, you will be constantly reminded of the direction you are heading to.
Conclusion on Productive Morning Routine
Waking up early is the focal point of having and practising a productive morning routine.
This is because if you wake up late, you will have little time to engage in all those fantastic activities that will make you productive during the day.
So, train yourself to be a morning person.
When you do this, you will find it easier to engage in self-care, meditate, prepare your day’s meal, exercise and get ready for your day.
