I often get asked about how my day runs and how I manage to get so much done. Well, here’s my secret – it’s all down to my morning routine.
I’m not a natural morning person – in fact, for years I stayed up working into the early hours of the morning, convinced I was being my most productive after hours. So I never had a great morning routine.
Until recently.
I’ll be honest, introducing a morning routine wasn’t easy for me – in fact it wasn’t until the third time I read Miracle Morning by Hal Elrod that I finally managed to make a habit out of my morning routine.
When I read this book again recently, I still resonated with it just as much as I did the first couple of times. But this time something was different – something really clicked.
Was it that my head was in a different place? My natural body clock had changed? Or maybe my brain just needed to absorb the concept multiple times before it sank in… who knows.
Whatever it was, it revived my vision of being awake to watch the sun rise, hear the birds starting to tweet and enjoy the bliss of the morning stillness before everyone in the house awoke. There was just something about having prepared for the day and boxed off my exercise before the kids alarm clocks had even rung… a cheeky little smugness that I’d never experienced before. It’s a feeling that’s really hard to describe – almost like I was winning at life.
But I didn’t get to this point overnight – it took me a year to tweak my routine and a lot of time reading too.
Another book I found really useful was Atomic Habits by James Clear. Again, I’d read it before but this time it created a powerful duo with Miracle Morning that seemed to hit the spot for me. Enough to make me seriously implement – and maintain – a morning routine for the first time ever!
James Clear talks about the common misconception that a new habit only takes 21 days – the reality is that it takes 66 days. If I think back now, I can see that in the past I thought it would happen quickly and then felt a failure when it didn’t. Sticking with the process has definitely been a game changer for me.
So, what does my morning routine look like?
- I am up and dressed at 6am – (this is honestly a massive change for me – the amusing exclamation of ‘WTF’ from my best friend shows this sort of thing is highly out of character!)
- Then I’ll find a quiet space for my meditation.
- Time for gratitude – acknowledge three things I’m grateful for today (there’s always something to be grateful for, even on a really bad day).
- Practice affirmations and visualisation, then set my intentions for the day.
- Full body stretch (in the form of Sun Salutations) and a quick weight workout.
- Finally a 5k morning walk before I start work at 8.30am – I do this with a friend. Like many things in life, when there’s someone else to answer to, it’s more likely to happen.
Why such a structured morning?
Without this routine, I honestly don’t believe I would have achieved my dream of a house by the sea. The belief, clarity and feeling of being centred that my morning routine gave me, drove me to achieve something I never thought possible. The house was a massive renovation project and my morning routine was a massive part of me realising my dream – it’s such a critical part of my focus.
But it’s not just for the big dreams – this time in the morning for me is also about building in time for the things I need to do (and often forget) each day for self-care – from taking medication and doing physio exercises to applying a good face cream and enjoying a glass of lemon water or a smoothie. Just build it into your morning routine and you’ll know it will get done!
So what are the benefits?
If I said that having a morning routine could increase your:
- focus
- clarity
- gratitude
- productivity
You’ll see why it can have such a beneficial effect on your business!
Taking time to complete the routine really does set you up for the day – whether it’s the focus on what you need to achieve (such as converting a client or finishing a report), gratitude for what you have and are achieving, or the increased productivity that comes when you stop procrastinating and have a clear vision of what your days should include.
For me, being forced to go to bed earlier and increase the amount of sleep I’m getting, to the buzz (and serotonin boost) I feel having achieved so much by 8.30am each day, it’s really transformed my wellbeing, as well as my ability to grow the business.
Do I ever give the morning routine a miss? Hell yeah. I’m far from Little Miss Perfect. Occasionally if I’m tired, under the weather or worse for wear I skip it. But I try to get back on it the next day; I’m all too aware how rapidly that motivation can disappear.
And with research showing that habits save energy, wouldn’t you prefer to channel your resources into the things you love, like your work and your family?
Give your own morning routine at try. And believe me when I say, if I can do it anyone can.
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