Image: http://www.flickr.com/photos/wolfgangstaudt/ / CC BY 2.0
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Another morning. Another day begins.
You get up too early, stumble into the shower and in somewhat of a haze try to get things together and get work or school on time.
But by applying a few simple tips you can make not only the morning but the whole day more relaxed and smooth.
- Plan the night before. Choose the 2-3 most important tasks and put them on a to-do list. By choosing just the most important stuff instead of a dozen things you are less likely to start procrastinating or realize at the end of the day that you filled it with less important tasks.
- Pack your bag the night before. This very simple habit can alleviate quite a bit of stress in the morning. If you pack your bag before you go to bed then you don’t have to run around in your house half panicked tomorrow while looking for your books or some important papers.
- Make your lunch the night before. Pack the leftovers of your dinner in a container and put it in the fridge. Just don’t forget to put it in your bag in the morning. You may even want make an extra serving so you can quickly heat up dinner when you get home from work/school. Doing this the night before will save you a bit of time and possibly a bit of money.
- Don’t forget to just relax. You can’t get much done if you never get any rest and revitalization. Well, you can for a while but soon you’ll start to feel run down, stressed out and fill up with all kinds of negative emotions pretty much all the time. So take some time to just relax. Meditate in one way or another. Take a warm bath. Take a walk in the woods. Listen to relaxing music. Have some fun with friends and/or family. Release pressure, stress and tension that can come from a hard day’s work so you don’t carry all of that into the following morning.
- Get enough sleep. It’s tempting to stay up a bit longer and let the “morning-you” take care of the problems – I do for example become more likely to revert to old behaviour patterns such as negativity and being easily stressed – that come from lack of sleep. But be good to yourself at least some days during the week. Go to bed a bit earlier and catch up on your sleep.
- Use a morning routine. What you do early in the day often sets the context for your day. We have a tendency to want to be consistent with what we have done before. So if you have the time – or are willing to get up a few minutes earlier – then a nice morning routine can be a great way to start a day. I do for example get up and drink a glass of water, pull the blinds from my windows to let in the sun, eat breakfast and drink a cup of green tea, brush my teeth, make my bed and declutter for a few minutes. Read more about my morning routine and the routines of many of the readers right here.
- Keep everything in its place. If everything has its own place then it is whole lot easier to keep your home reasonably ordered and decluttered from day to day. And to find the keys as you are heading out the door.
What is your best tip for creating a better start to the day?
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It’s true how you begin and what you do first thing in the morning effects your day. I’ve ran for over 20 years because it’s the first thing I do in the morning. Period.
Thank you for your wonderful tips. These will really help me now that I´ve been a bit stressed at work. Thank you so much and have a nice day
I have a morning routine to help me ease into the day.
Get up, open window and take 10 deep breaths, scull 500ml of water, 20 minutes exercise, scull another 500 ml of water, shower, breakfast, work. It works very well for me.
Excellent post. Very simple easy to follow advice. I’m mainly morning person and do alot of this naturally. I think a morning routine is really the key. While I we don’t want to feel like we are living Groundhog Day(the movie), a routine give us some good structure.
Most people start the morning drinking coffee. Starting the morning hydrating yourself with some fresh water or some fresh fruit until noon time can help give you more lasting energy to start off the day.
Hmm, no one has mentioned kids so far, who add a bit of morning craziness. I am not a morning person, but I try to start my day with some yoga stretches to loosen tight muscles and get some oxygen running through my system.
I’m with you. Stretches definitely get my blood flowing and help me feel less zoned-out in the morning.
Hi Henrik and thanks for a fabulous post!
Yes, so much of it is in the planning ahead…so that when you wake up, you (pretty much) know what to expect. One thing that I have been doing that really starts me out on the right foot is this: Each morning I go down to the living room and pick out a song that will get me completely energized and knock my socks off when I blast it loud…then I dance, exercise, or just hang out and enjoy. This morning it was Stevie Wonder’s “Signed, Sealed, Delivered.” Let’s just say that dancing was in order, and I knew it was going to be a great day!
Wishing you a fabulous day,
Michelle S.
Morning is not exactly my friend. Nonetheless, I get up at 5:30 AM everyday. A couple of things that help me are:
1. Putting an upbeat & uplifting CD into my radio & setting the alarm to wake me up with the CD playing.
2. Setting the alarm clock without extra time to snooze
3. Eating a quick, light breakfast… even if I don’t feel like it
Hey Henrik.
I like how much you stressed how the night before the coming day is a huge part of how well the next day goes. An hour of planning the night before can turn the next day into a pleasure filled with momentum and energy.
I always do better when I prepare and organize for the next day the night before. I don’t do it that often. I will set a mental reminder to do so daily now.
Thanks for all the comments and for sharing the additional tips for creating less stressful mornings!
Great post. I always start the day with gratitude. Gratitude for what I had, have, and will have. Puts me in the right “vibration” for a great start to the day.
Good tips. Though all the things can not be done as a rule. All people would do it with little change here and there… adding some more things or removing some from the given list… Nice
Thanks for this article – I already do some of the tips and now I have some new ones to try out. My favorite question for getting me excited about the upcoming day, before I get out of bed, is: “Tonight, when I am back in this bed, what will I want to remember and be happy about today?”
Nice tips. I think being marginally stressed is okay, as it moves you outside of your comfort zone and into a zone where you can experience flow. The danger is that you end-up in a zone where panic reigns if you’re not mindful.
my best tip for the morning is to relax and not rush anything
Great post Henrik! I really recommend people to start using checklists. A small detail that actually made a huge difference to me: starting to prepare my next day the first thing I do when I get home from work instead of doing it the last thing I do before I go to sleep.
Do not snooze! Its the key to every thing, trust me!
what crap. Is no one clever enough to get up in the morning any more.
I’ve read that some members of society are more productive at night, being myself one of those, so your theory about sleeping earlier and getting up earlier is just wasting a lot of potential!
Very very nice Article!
I wrote a (near) translation to german at my personal weblog.
You can link to it, if you want
Greets
I find that starting my day with a nice bowl of Froot Loops or Cinnamon Toast Crunch does wonders. They say breakfast is the most important meal of the day, and I have a weakness for sugar-laden cereals. (Especially the ones with a prize inside — then it’s like Christmas morning!)
Great tips! Simple, yet effective!
Along with these tips that already has been mentioned, I found out that prayer helps also. Sometimes through the early morning hours we get up for some reason or another just take a little extra time before going back to sleep and pray. As for my self I read the bible and pray not just for me but for others as well. Be Blessed