My Morning Routines

For as long as I remember, I have been a morning person. As a kid I loved to get up early on the weekends to watch cartoons before breakfast. As a teenage student I preferred to wake up at 6:00am to finish up homework, rather than staying up an extra hour at night. And still today I feel like I’m most productive and energetic in the morning. But it’s not only that, it’s the quietness and peacefulness that I love about those early hours, when the world is still asleep.

 

 

During the dark hours in winter I do enjoy to cuddle up in bed a little in the morning, but now with spring awakening and the sun shining in the early hours, I actually feel excited to get up in the mornings! That feeling of warm sunlight hitting your face, birds singing outside, a fresh breeze coming through the crack of the window. No cars, no people. How blissful! The early hours give me the feeling of a head start – the day still has so many hours and everything is possible.

Nevertheless, it happens to me that I don’t use those precious morning hours efficiently. Even though I have extra time when I get up early, I end up finding myself at the desk at 10:00 am or even 11:00 am and still not having done much. This bad habit started while I was working on my final thesis. I got up early to study, but since I couldn’t motivate myself to write, I ended up finding so many “excuses”, like checking Facebook, that by the time I actually sat down to work, many hours had passed already. By then my energy level had dropped again and it felt frustrating to realize how much time was lost.

After I finished University in December and started working on my own projects, I felt a strong need to structure my days better. I want to use the morning to channel my energy towards new goals and be energized to work on daily tasks.  It simply feels so much better to have a productive day rather than wasting time during those precious morning hours and end up doing less in total.

It was perfect timing in January, when I saw that the Little Green Dot Blog would give an internet course called “How to become a morning person”. I’ve been following her lovely green blog for a while and I was sure that this would be a great opportunity to help me kick-start the new year. I signed up and 4 weeks later I can say that this course has really helped me create a better morning routine that allows me to feel energized and actually get stuff done in the morning and throughout the day!

So this blogpost is not only about my personal morning routine, but I also wanted to give a shout out to Militza from Little Green Dot, for creating such a fantastic course. It was so kind of her to offer it for free and through a Facebook Group a whole community formed that made it easy to exchange experiences and stay motivated. I really wanted to get this blogpost up today, because she will start the course over tomorrow and you still have the chance to sign up here if you’re curious. Again, it’s for free and I can highly recommend it!

So here is the morning routine that I developed during these 4 weeks, with the guidance of the course tasks. Hopefully it will inspire you to also become a morning person, or if you are already, to use those magical morning hours in a way that benefits you and your daily goals.

These are the activities that structure my morning (not always in the same order and sometimes I mix it up to not get stuck in a rut):

My Morning Routine

Morning stretch 

I usually wake up between 6:00-6:30 am and before I get up I stretch a bit to get moving and fully wake up.

Rise & Shine

Once I’m up, I do a quick wash-up with cold water to feel refreshed.

Clutter-free Home 

Working or being creative is so much harder for me when my environment is cluttered. I love our place to be at least decently tidy and clean when I start my day. So I make the bed, do the dishes and tidy up the apartment after I get up. Meanwhile I do oil pulling with coconut oil.

 

 

Morning Walk in Nature

A big part of my morning is the walk with my dog Fritzi. We spend about 1 hour outside in nature and this not only gives me the chance to get some exercise and breathe fresh air, but it also feels wonderful to connect with nature. Taking a walk every day makes me notice and take in the seasonal changes much more and the calmness of nature calms me too. It’s a feeling I try to carry in me for the rest of the day.

 

 

Mindful Walking

During the walk I try to be mindful, which means to me to either pay attention to nature and my surrounding or to look inwards, noticing my own feelings and being thankful for the things I have in my life. This can be a great way to clear my mind from anything negative.

 

 

Eye Training

Another thing I do while taking a walk is 5-10 minutes of eye training. I’ll have a separate blog post on that soon. 🙂

Self-Care

For the walk I usually just throw on some comfy clothes and old sneakers, so when I come home I get ready in a more proper way.

 

 

Daily Tasks & Focus

Something that I started doing while taking the course is making To-Do Lists. I take a quiet moment to sit down with either a tea, (green) smoothie or warm water with lemon and then think about the tasks and activities that I want to work on that day. If you ever made a To-Do List, you know how good it feels to put a “check” with each finished task, right? The down side is that you might feel frustrated if you don’t cross of all the things you had on your list. That’s why I don’t use these lists to pressure myself but rather to stay focused during the day. When I don’t get to cross something of the list, I just add it again the next day.

 

 

Time for Breakfast

After I finished writing my list, I prepare breakfast and sit down at my desk. While I eat I usually check my emails and check out sites like Bloglovin and Pinterest, just for the fun of it. It’s one of those guilty pleasures that I just love doing, but it’s also very inspiring!

 

 

Here we go!

By the time I did all of the above, it is around 9:30 am and I’m ready to start working on the things I’ve put on my list.

But now I would like to hear from you! Do you also have a morning routine? What do you love to do in the mornings to feel energized and happy?

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