Sharing is caring!

The Right Way to Start Your Mornings

If you are reading my series, by now you know how awesome morning routines can be. If you jump on Google or Pinterest, you will find oodles of information supporting this. But where do you start? Do you follow MY routine because it works for me or better yet, copy  <insert any highly successful influencer here> because he/she is successful? So what is the right way to start your mornings?

(This post may contain affiliate links. What does that mean to you? Well, if you click on a product and make a purchase, I may receive some compensation at NO charge to you. If you want to read the boring stuff from my full disclosure can be found here.)

This post is part 4 of a series. If you would like to read the other posts related to creating a morning routine, here are the links.

Part 1 — Why You Need to Start a Morning Routine Now

Part 2 — Tips to Create a Perfect Morning

Part 3 — How to Find Time in Your Morning for You

Don’t forget to sign up for my free 7 Day Morning Routine Mini-Challenge to help jumpstart your morning routine in just one week! CLICK HERE to sign up for all of my tips and reminders to help you become your most productive self by using a morning routine.

So what should you do in your morning routine? Do you jump into a routine of someone you follow and admire because they are successful, powerful, wealthy, etc.? It works for them right! Do you honestly think that is the key to your success?

If copying a morning routine of someone successful is the wrong way to go about starting your day, then what is the right way to start your mornings?

Are you ready to hear the answer?

Here’s the super special secret…

YOUR morning routine should align with what’s important to YOU!

Here is the secret again…you know if you missed it… (click on the Twitter link and let’s send this tweet to your followers)

[click_to_tweet tweet=”YOUR morning routine should align with what’s important to YOU! #morningroutine #goodmorning #startyourdayright #itsasouthernlifeyall” quote=”YOUR morning routine should align with what’s important to YOU!”]

The right way to start your mornings is to craft a routine for you, BY YOU!

This is the only morning routine you’ll ever need!

What makes an effective morning routine?

Your morning routine should consist of:

1. Prepare you for your day (ie: reading, meditation, stretching, exercising, etc.).
2. A value that’s important to you (ie: journaling, morning devotion, healthy living).
3. Something that makes you happy.
4. Any combination of the above.

Your morning routine has to start with what’s important to YOU!

If you don’t follow this simple rule, you won’t care enough to stick to it!

Whether you are an entrepreneur, a stay at home mom, or any other career field, we all only have 24 hours in a day.  Being more productive does not mean working faster or cramming more into an already packed schedule to make it feel like more time. It’s being smarter with time. But how do you prioritize your morning when everything feels important?

In one of my previous posts, we talked about finding the time in your busy morning to do the things that are important to you. Now I want you to think about what you should and what you shouldn’t be doing in those first few hours of the day.

That’s an important idea to ponder. So often we get stuck in a rut or a routine and do things because that’s what we’ve always done or we know someone that does the same thing.

We do it without really thinking about whether or not it’s the best use of our time.

It’s Not About Cramming More Things Into Less Time

Making over your morning isn’t about figuring out how to cram more tasks into fewer hours.

When you read books and articles on productivity and time management, that’s often the main message and gist of it. While it can help in the short term, it isn’t a good long-term strategy for meaningful change. Very soon you’ll hit the limit of how much faster and how much more efficient you can get.

Shift your thinking and don’t try to add to what you do in the morning. If you want 15 minutes for devotions, meditation, or exercise, don’t just think about getting up 15 minutes earlier, or shaving 15 minutes off your morning routine by showering faster, getting dressed in record time, and rushing through breakfast.

In other words, don’t add to your already lengthy list of things that need to get done. You’ll only feel more rushed and stressed if you do.

It’s About Making Smart Choices About Using Your Time 

Instead, what you should be thinking about is the best use of your time in the morning.

Compare your perfect morning with your current morning routine. What aren’t you doing in your ideal morning? If you can start by cutting things out, finding time to do what’s important to you becomes much easier.

There are two great ways to find things you can stop doing.

• The first is to look for busy work. This is something you do out of habit that doesn’t necessarily need doing every day. Maybe it’s checking your email first thing in the morning or playing around on Facebook for half an hour while you drink your coffee. If that’s how you choose to spend your time, that’s perfectly fine, but if you’re doing it out of habit it may be time to rethink it.
• The second way to quickly earn back time is to see if you’re doing things that others can do themselves or things that can be done ahead of time. Kids are the perfect example. We start out fixing their breakfast, making their lunch, cleaning up after them, picking out their clothes, and making sure their backpack is packed and ready to go. When they are very small, we have to do these things, but all too often we continue to do them long after they’re capable of doing things on their own.

I am a big believer in prepping for the week and use MyFreezEasy to prep my meals. MyFreezEasy takes all of the guesswork out of my meal planning for the week. In just a few minutes, I have my meals planned for the week and have a grocery list created. This saves me so much time in the morning!

Maybe there was a time when you had less to do in the morning and it made sense to take on the majority of morning chores. Did things change and if so, is it time to lighten your load and get help?

A few small changes may be all it takes to make the time in your busy morning for what’s important to you and to find the right way to start your mornings.

What do you feel is the right way to start your mornings to help you be your most productive self? I would love to hear from you in the comments below!

 

Sharing is caring!