How to Create a Morning Routine

On my journey to create the best version of myself and create a more fulfilling life, I have learned the importance of a good morning routine.  How we start our day can have incredible impact on how the rest of our day goes.  Starting our day with gratitude, time in scripture and prayer, and setting our intentions for the day sets us up for success.  Creating time to work on ourselves and our goals is life changing.  Not feeling rushed, unorganized, and flustered in the morning is important in setting the tone for the day.

I have always been someone that wakes up early, mostly because I have to!  In my younger high school days, I would often set my alarm for 4 am to finish up homework or study for a test before an early morning practice.  In college, it was often the same way.  I just never seemed to have enough hours in the day or would tire out early at night, so I was left with early morning hours to get my work done.  As a nurse in the hospital, I had to be at work by 6:40am, so I was always up by 5:30.  When kids came along, they would often wake me up well before I needed to get up for work.  With my current demands of work and getting kids ready for school, I can wake up at 5:30 or 6 if I want to have time to get myself ready, breakfast and lunches made, kids ready and all of us out of the house.  But after waking up at 5:30 for many years, I decided it just wasn't cutting it.  I wanted more time for me.  In our current season of life, days are filled with work, cooking dinner, evening activities for the girls, a quick run, and preparation for the following day, but little time to work on personal growth and goals.  We need that quiet time to ourselves.  It's what we miss most after becoming parents to little ones.  We are being pulled in every direction between work, parenting, dating our spouse, cooking, cleaning, going to activities, and all the adulting kind of responsibilities.  But where are we to find time to read books, learn and grow, spend time in scripture and prayer, work on personal goals such as going back to school or writing a book or training for a marathon, or just have some peace and quiet with a good cup of coffee?  This time we want doesn't just present itself to us.  We have to create it.  We say we don't have time, but that's because with our current wake up time, we don't have time.  But we can make time.  We can carve out an extra hour (or more!) if we just train ourselves to wake up an hour earlier every single day.  Can you imagine what you could do with an extra 7 hours of uninterrupted time each week to just work on yourself?

I've listened to all the podcasts and read or listened to all the books about waking up earlier and creating a morning routine, wanting to be able to wake up even earlier than I was already waking up. I craved this time to myself and wanted to have time to pursue things like writing a book, starting a blog, having more time for devotionals, and just feeling like I was ready to conquer my day.  I knew in order to do this, I would need to wake up at 4:30am.  Last year, I finally made the switch.  My reason for waking up earlier finally out-weighed my reason for sleeping longer.  My "why" became strong enough that I actually looked forward to these early morning hours to myself.

Yes, 4:30am is early.  I wake up about 2 hours before the rest of my house wakes up and it is glorious.  I have gotten so much accomplished with these extra hours before my day job and all the parenting responsibilities that take over once the kids get home.  If you find yourself in a season of craving more time to yourself, consider waking up an hour earlier every day.  This is where all the magic can happen.  You can gain back your sanity, get ahead for the day, have time for exercise, you can work on a personal goal, or you can just catch up on your favorite show or read a book and enjoy some coffee.  The possibilities are endless, and I promise you won't miss that hour of sleep.

My Steps to creating a Productive Morning Routine 

1.     Go to bed early, allowing enough time to get a restful night’s sleep.  I strive to be asleep by 9:30pm during the week and a little later on the weekends.  

2.     Prepare anything the night before that might help to set you up for success, such as getting the coffee pot ready, laying out your work-out clothes if you are going to work out in the morning, pack lunches, and have things cleaned and organized so you feel prepared for the day ahead.  I do all of these things, and it is so helpful.  

3.     Get up at least 1 hour earlier than the rest of your house gets up.  You have to create this time for yourself.  You say you don’t have time to work on yourself and your goals.  You have to create the time, and this means getting up earlier.

4.     Set a recurring morning alarm, and get up as soon as it goes off.  No snoozing.  No hesitating.  Just get up.  I wake up at 4:30am during the week and usually move that to 5:30am on the weekends.  Yes, I get up early even on the weekends.  

5.     Have a reason to get up.  Your “why” must be strong enough to overcome excuses that you will have in the morning when that alarm goes off.  You have to know what you are working towards and enjoy the journey that will get you there.  If you want it, you will do it, and if you don’t really want it, you’ll keep making excuses.  My “why” that got me up the last several months was to finish my 1^st book.  When my alarm went off, I was excited to get up and use that time to write.  

6.     Do something for your physical, emotional, and spiritual well-being.  This might look like getting your exercise in for the day or at least doing some stretching or taking the dog for walk.  Listen to a motivational podcast or some music, read a book or do a morning devotional, pray, meditate, journal, and do things to get your mind right for the day.  Focus on gratitude.  

7.     Plan and set your intentions for the day.  When you fail to plan, you plan to fail.  Not focusing on your goals, not setting your intentions and planning for how you are going to accomplish everything you want to accomplish in a day will result in you not succeeding.  You have to know where you are headed, lay out your plan for the day, and stick to it.  Exercise won’t happen if you don’t schedule it.  That book won’t get written if you don’t block out time to write it.  You won’t eat healthy if you don’t meal plan and prep ahead of time.  Decide who you want to be, make a plan, and stick to it.  

8.     Reevaluate each week and each month.  What worked and didn’t work?  What did you accomplish?  Focus on all the positives of having that time to work on yourself and your goals. 

9.     Create habits that support the person you are wanting to be.  Just like brushing your teeth, waking up early and having a morning routine can become a habit.  It often takes 2-3 months to form a new habit, so commit to waking up early and working on your goals for 90 days, and before long it will be as routine as brushing your teeth.  

10.  Change your mindset.  We are what we focus on, so focus on what it might look like to have time for yourself, time to work on your goals and dreams, time to prepare for the day ahead, time to read a book, time to read scripture and pray, time to listen to a podcast, time to exercise, time to get yourself ready and not feel rushed or flustered, or time to write the book that’s on your heart.  

The best morning routine is the one that is perfectly tailored to you and what you are trying to accomplish.  What's important is that you are creating time for you!  You can't pour into others from an empty cup.  Fill up to spill out!  

Have a great week! ~ Allison