Morning people are not the only ones who are allowed to have great mornings!
Do you have a friend or family member who is a natural morning person? It may seem like they wake up happy and energized every day. Some people indeed have the chronotype that makes them their best in the early hours of the day, but they don’t have exclusive rights. Everyone can enjoy the morning.
It starts with a well-planned morning ritual.
A morning ritual does not have to be difficult or complicated. It is merely a set of actions that you perform in the morning before you start your day. Those actions that you repeat daily form your morning ritual. With that in mind, you can plan your morning to set yourself up for a productive day.
Regardless of your chronotype (even us morning people), everyone will benefit from being intentional about how you start your day.
If you need some extra help, here are seven practical things you can do to help you jumpstart your morning.
7 Ways To Jumpstart Your Morning
1. Splash Your Face with Water
A quick way to wake up is to splash cold water on your face. If you’re someone who struggles waking up in the morning, this is a quick and easy fix.
As soon as you get out of bed, go to the bathroom and splash at least 3 times, cold water on your face. Once you’ve done that, you’ll feel no need to go back to bed and you can immediately transition into the rest of your morning ritual.
2. Drink Cold Water
Here’s another way to use cold water. Before you go to bed tonight, pour water in a bottle and put it in the fridge. When you wake up, drink this cold water and you’ll wake up in no time.
The first couple of times might feel like your body is shivering but that’s the whole point! Not only do you hydrate yourself (which is essential after being dehydrated the whole night) but you’ll also wake up every part of your body as the cold water fuses through every body part.
3. Stretch, Stretch and Stretch
Another great way to jumpstart your morning is to do a couple stretches. It’s nothing fancy, just a couple sun salutations (and this is coming from someone who has never done any yoga).
There are lots of other ways you can stretch – you can do joint rotations, posture alignment against a wall or the basic stretches you learned at PE.
The main idea is that stretching will signal to your body that the day has started and that you’re getting ready to be productive. Don’t underestimate this simple activity – if you haven’t incorporated it yet in your morning routine, do it now!
4. It’s Motivation Time
“People often say that motivation doesn’t last. Well, neither does bathing, that’s why we recommend it daily.” – Zig Ziglar
Motivation comes and goes. To keep your motivation high, it’s worthwhile allocating some time in the morning to get yourself in the right state.
I have to give credit to our friend Charles Ngo for this. In this podcast he first mentioned “motivation time” where sets aside 10 minutes to engage in activities that will motivate him. Need some ideas? Here are 6 ways to motivate yourself:
- Watch a motivational video
- Listen to a motivational talk
- Read a passage of a book you enjoy
- Review your goals (you do have them, right?)
- Look at your vision board
- Visualize your future success
If you need some material, here are a couple videos to get you pumped up:
https://youtube.com/watch?v=UizlkbS61mQ
5. Drink Green Tea
Some people need to have coffee in the morning to get started. We like to drink green tea as an alternative to that. You get all the benefits without all the negatives of coffee.
Sometimes mornings, especially in a family household with kids, can be stressful but with a cup of green tea you’ll be ready to go and relaxed at the same time. Not only does the caffeine help you get going, green tea also has a soothing effect that calms you down. That combination is a great which is one of the many reasons we prefer it over coffee.
6. Get Your Body Moving
It’s no secret that regular exercise has a positive effect on your productivity. However, sometimes people struggle with finding time for it.
That’s why we recommend that you exercise in the morning before all the crises, emergencies and craziness kick in. Make it part of your morning routine and it’s a great way to kickstart your day.
Do remember that amazing feeling you get after a good workout? What if you could get that feeling every morning before you start your workday? How would that impact your effectiveness?
Your exercise routine doesn’t have to be long. Even just 20 minutes of exercise each day is better than no exercise at all. If you prefer intense workouts, we recommend at least 3x a week with each session for at least 1 hour.
7. Celebrate the Successes
A great way to jumpstart your morning is start it on a positive note by celebrating your successes.
In our crazy and busy daily lives we often forget all the great things that are happening. Journaling can help you keep track of that but one thing that also helps is to set aside time each morning to consciously think about all the positive things in your life.
There are lots of ways to do this:
- think of yesterday and mentally highlight all the good things that have happened to you
- reread your old journals and realize how far you’ve come
- express gratitude for what you have and where you’ve come from
- tell someone you care about how you feel about them
This is a tip I got from our friends Marc And Angel who run the most popular happiness and personal growth blog. Not only is it a fantastic way to start your day, it will also put you in a good mood and that of course will make you more productive.
Next Action
If you haven’t formally set up a morning routine yet, get the Asian Efficiency Primer that will show you step-by-step how to set up a morning routine for more success and productivity.
We get hundreds of emails every year from people who have implemented our morning ritual and have noticed a huge positive impact on their happiness, quality of life and productivity. Get your morning ritual going today.