There are so many books out there that talk about the power of a morning routine and how a successful one can completely transform your life.

Why? Because they say that successful people are just people with successful habits, right? And essentially, a morning routine is basically just a sequence of habits that you execute on autopilot every single morning.

And you might say that you don’t have a morning routine, but I’m convinced everyone has one. For most people, their morning routines are just rather unconsciously established. Even if it’s just jumping out of bed, checking your phone while sipping a cup of coffee, that’s a morning routine as well.

However, think about the opportunities that could arise by intentionally putting in some thought about what activities make you feel amazing and designing your morning routine in such a way that it works perfectly for you.

A morning routine can be so freakin’ powerful because…

ONE it sets the tone for the whole day, so it can either set you up for success (but equally, it can also set you up for failure).

And TWO, it’s a great opportunity to squeeze in those activities that matter to you and where you might not find the time for during your evenings.

By waking up only one hour earlier, you’ve got a whole hour of extra time to do whatever YOU want to do.

And you might say, yeah whatever, but what can I do with only one hour, right?

But these hours build up to 7 hours a week, 30 hours a month, and 365 hours a year. That’s a lot. You can build a side hustle, learn a new language or get super fit with only 1 hour per day…

So, that’s why designing a morning routine is a great way to take back control over your time and decide how YOU want to spend it.

Let’s talk a little about my morning routine first.

So, recently, I moved back to my home country (thank you, Covid), and I was struggling a bit to find back my rhythm and create new routines. I mean, I was in a new city, new apartment, new everything. And I don’t know about you, but living in a new space just changes up everything and gives you this clean slate, right?

I experimented with morning routines and I really found that once I established one that worked for me in this new environment, I finally found back my rhythm.

My current morning routine looks like this:

At 5:30 am, I wake up, put on something comfy, do a quick skincare routine and go downstairs. I make my coffee and drink a large glass of water and set up my desk if I haven’t yet the day before.

From 6 am-9 am: I will check my to-do list for the day and will start right away with my three focus sessions of 50 minutes with a 10-minute break in between (using a Pomodoro). In these 3 hours, I will do my most important and focus-intense tasks for the day.

At 9 am, I will take a longer break and spend some time with my boyfriend who just woke up. And then, I will work until around 10h30 (usually, from bed) where I will do other, more relaxed tasks such as social media, engaging with my community, admin,… etc.

At 10:30 am: I will do a 30-45 min work-out (mostly I will do a HIIT work-out, a spinning session or I will go for a run, depending on the weather). And after that, I will take a shower and get ready for the day.

At around 11:30 am, I will take around 30 min to engage in self-care, so I will either meditate, journal, or read and take this time to connect with myself and check-in with how I feel that day.

At noon, I will put on some music and prepare lunch, which is mostly smoothies, fruit salads with granola, or avocado toast.

A lil’ side note I want to add is that I would definitely describe myself as a morning person. My attention and energy levels are at their absolute peak right after I wake up because I feel my mind is at its sharpest and is not totally exhausted yet by all these thousands and thousands of signals that I’ll receive throughout the day.

And I also absolutely love waking up that early, because it’s just so peaceful and quiet, and I love the feeling of knowing that everyone is still asleep.

So, I like to postpone my self-care, work-outs, etc to a little later in the morning so I can use my ‘golden hours’ for my most focus-intense tasks.

I also feel like I enjoy my me-time at 11:30 much more, knowing that I already accomplished my most important tasks for the day.

This morning routine has been wonderful for me, but of course, what works for me, might not work for you. So, the most important thing here is to design a morning routine that fits best with your lifestyle.

So let’s get over some tips to design your ideal morning routine that sets you up for success.

Other Reads:

• How To Organize Your Whole Business In One Single Notebook
• Overcoming Perfectionism: 7 Steps to Silence Your Inner Perfectionist
• 12 mistakes you are probably making that are killing your productivity
• Losing Motivation? 7 Bullet-Proof Ways To Regain Your Passion And Stay Motivated In Your Business
• 3 Key Mindset Shifts To Stop Letting Fear And Anxiety Sabotage Your Success
• How I Avoid Feeling Overwhelmed As A Solopreneur: 3 Simple Steps

Tip #1: Identify the hours of the day where your attention and energy levels reach their natural peak and organize your morning routine those hours.

So for example, if your attention and focus levels reach their peak in the late afternoon until midnight, then you probably won’t want to wake up at 5:30 in the morning, right? So, in this case, you probably will sleep in and wake up a little later, and do your self-care and work-outs right after you wake up, have lunch and do your most relaxed tasks after lunch, so you can use your time in the afternoon and evening to get your most focus-intense tasks done.

I hear all the time, but Tascha, I’m not a morning person. I literarily wake up at 10:30 am every day, so why would I need a morning routine for those 2 hours I have left of my morning?

So, first, I quickly would like to say that ‘mornings’ are not just from whatever time you wake up until noon for everyone. if you wake up at 10:30 am, then your day just shifts a few hours later, so in this case, your mornings would be from 10:30 am until around 2:30 pm.

And morning person or no morning person, everyone already has a morning routine, the question is if its an effective one or not.

So, identify at what time during the day you’re the most productive naturally, and use these hours to your advantage by organizing your morning routine around those hours.

Tip #2: Identify the activities that are important to you and make you feel like your absolute best

What are those activities that make you feel amazing physically and/or mentally?

Maybe you absolutely love to really take your time to prepare and eat an amazing breakfast?

Maybe you love long morning walks with your dog?

Or maybe you prefer spending time doing a 1-hour yoga session.

Make a list of all activities that come up.

I would recommend you to have at least some movement, mindfulness, and self-care in the morning, but what activity this specifically includes, can be different for everyone.

Tip #3: Don’t be too rigid in your morning routine

Your morning routine shouldn’t be strict, stressful, or boring.

Yes, it can definitely help to have some time blocks for certain activities as I have, but try to give yourself some freedom in how exactly you want to fill these in.

Have a portfolio of activities that make you feel amazing, and let yourself choose whatever you feel most like doing.

So in my case, I like moving my body at around 10:30 am every day, but what this movement is, could be different every day. Mostly, I do spinning sessions, HIIT, or I go for a run, but other days this might include a walk, a stretching session, some yoga, or whatever I feel like.

Tip #4: Determine your time blocks in an order that makes sense

For me, the order of my morning routine was the thing I struggled with the most.

I tried doing my self-care before my focus sessions, and that didn’t work out, because I would be completely zen, very present in the moment, feeling completely relaxed, and right after, when I would do my intense focus sessions, I just couldn’t focus that well. And after those 3 hours, I was full of adrenaline and a little stressed and I absolutely needed another meditation session.

So for me, it made way more sense to do it the other way around and postpone my self-care to a little later in the morning.

So think about a sequence of time blocks that makes the most sense to you. And don’t be afraid to experiment and move things around when you feel like your morning routine isn’t ideal.

Tip #5: Set alarms for your time blocks

Once you have found a sequence of activities that work for you, set alarms at the beginning and end of every time block to help you get used to this morning routine.

Because nothing is more annoying than having to look at your watch all the time to make sure your time block isn’t over yet, right?

So set up alarms, so you don’t have to worry about the time, and whenever the alarm rings, you can just move on to the next time block.

Tip #6: Give your morning routine enough time in order to become a habit

They say that in order for an activity to become a habit, it takes around 30 to 60 days.

So, it might be a little difficult in the beginning to really push yourself to do this routine, but you just need enough discipline until it becomes a habit.

And when it does, you will notice that everything will become easier and easier and that you will eventually just execute on autopilot without thinking.

So choose your activities wisely, choose the ones you know will have a huge impact on your life, and then, once it becomes automatic, you can just watch your morning routine transform your life completely.

If you’re interested in this topic and you haven’t already, I would to totally recommend you too read the book ‘The Miracle Morning’ by Hal Elrod.

Other Reads:

• How To Organize Your Whole Business In One Single Notebook
• Overcoming Perfectionism: 7 Steps to Silence Your Inner Perfectionist
• 12 mistakes you are probably making that are killing your productivity
• Losing Motivation? 7 Bullet-Proof Ways To Regain Your Passion And Stay Motivated In Your Business
• 3 Key Mindset Shifts To Stop Letting Fear And Anxiety Sabotage Your Success
• How I Avoid Feeling Overwhelmed As A Solopreneur: 3 Simple Steps

Let’s Chat!

What do you love to do during your morning routine? Let me know in the comments 🙂