Have you ever felt like no matter what you try, you haven’t been able to successfully follow your morning routine? Or do you feel like it’s just so difficult to follow your morning routine that you feel exhausted rather than energized after finishing it? If either of those sounds familiar, then these tips are for you!
If you set yourself up for success, I promise it is possible for your morning routine to feel easy. You can feel accomplished and energized for the rest of the day.
It took some time for me to really settle into a routine that worked for my lifestyle and I now cherish my mornings. I am able to get a workout in, have breakfast, and have some one-on-one time with my boyfriend all before leaving for work.
These tips will allow you to pinpoint exactly where you can try to improve your approach to your morning routine. You will also find all the steps necessary to apply these changes and start loving your mornings!
This post is all about finding the weaknesses of your current morning routine and making adjustments to make it feel easy.
Effective Tips to Make Your Morning Routine Feel Easy
1. Spend a couple of days writing down exactly what you spent time on in the morning.
A great way to diagnose your morning routine struggles is to consider what you actually spend time doing. As you go through your morning, write down what you are doing and how long each thing is taking. For example:
- wake up 5:15
- shower 5:20-5:40
- breakfast 5:45-6
This list does not need to be long or detailed, just enough so you can better understand what your mornings are like. Using this list, you can decide what needs to change, or not change, in order to reach the goals you are setting for yourself. Here are some of the benefits of writing out a list of your current morning routine:
- More stable and relaxing mornings: If you can determine what you do in a typical morning, you can get better at time management by evaluating what your real priorities are. Knowing your priorities will allow you to figure out what needs to be done to achieve the morning routine you are striving to create. This will eventually create a better, more stable morning routine.
- Allocating your time more efficiently: Using the list and times of everything in the morning can be eye-opening to how long some things take. Having this information will allow you to focus on optimizing the areas that are taking longer than necessary.
2. If there really isn’t enough time to get everything done, create more time.
If you feel like you have your morning routine down, but you struggle to complete it every day (or any day) you might just not have enough time to get everything done. No worries! You have a couple of great options to solve this problem. Check them out below:
- Wake up earlier: I know this can be challenging, but the best way to get more done in the morning is to give yourself more time. Here are some tips on waking up early even if you’re not a morning person. Personally, I like to wake up at 5 AM to arrive at work at 7:30 AM. This gives me plenty of time to work out, cook/eat breakfast, shower, and get ready for work at a fast but not rushed pace.
- Remove things from your morning routine: If you tried to wake up earlier and found that it just doesn’t work for you, consider removing things from your morning to-do list. I would treat this as more of a last resort if you can’t get things to work or if you are too busy, but it should be a consideration. Start with extra things like working out or checking your phone while you eat breakfast until you can find a better balance.
3. Find someone to hold you accountable for following through.
You will find that having somebody else to hold you accountable is one of the most effective ways to get back on track with your morning routine. I talk to my mom every morning and tell her about what I did that morning and what I plan to do after work. Just this little bit of accountability is enough to help me want to focus and stay on track (or get back on track) with my morning routine.
Another option is to get into using an app with friends that can track something about your mornings. I love to use Strava to track my workouts. This helps me stay accountable and get that morning workout in since I know my friends will see that I completed or did not complete it.
Here are a couple of benefits of having somebody to keep you accountable:
- Knowing that you have someone in your corner that is rooting for you to complete your morning routine.
- Inspiring others to create and implement a great morning routine.
4. Start with a simpler, shorter morning routine.
If you are struggling, consider that the problem could just be trying to do too much, too quickly. We have all been in a situation where we try something new and find it to be too hard. Sometimes this happens because we are trying to make too big of a change too fast. This could absolutely happen with a morning routine too.
If this sounds like you, try to simplify your morning routine. Once you get used to the simpler morning routine, start to add things in gradually. Here are some suggestions for ways to simplify your morning routine:
- Set a wake-up window instead of time: Instead of deciding that you have to wake up at 6 AM to get your routine done, try to decide that you will wake up between 6 and 6:30 and adjust your routine accordingly. This will allow you to be more flexible with your morning routine and thus make it easier to follow.
- Be okay with missing parts of your routine: Simple morning routines are flexible, which may mean missing some parts of your routine occasionally. Being okay with that will help you get back on track with your morning routine since you can at least still complete parts of it. Try to shift the parts you have to skip to the afternoon if you can!
- Give yourself enough time: If you are struggling to complete your routine and want to simplify it, the best first step is to make sure you have enough time. Maybe you are just trying to do too much in too short a period of time. If you try to wake up earlier or go into the office later, your morning routine can become more relaxed and easier to complete.
{ Related post: The Complete Morning Routine Checklist with Easy Steps that You’ll Actually Want to Follow }
5. Don’t put too much pressure on yourself to do the EXACT same thing every morning.
Your morning routine does not need to look exactly the same every day of the week. For me, weekends have a different and constantly shifting routine. This depends on plans, the difficulty of the work week, and the weather. Doing the exact same thing every day can lead to burnout and eventually giving up. Allow yourself to have some flexibility in your morning routine and be okay with changing things up every once in a while.
Of course, there will always be staples of the morning like breakfast, showering, and making your lunch. But if you are also fitting workouts into your schedule, try to vary those. Maybe Mondays are for running, Tuesdays for the gym, Wednesdays for sleeping in a little extra, etc. You should totally add variation to make your routine more fun and easier to complete.
{ Related post: 5 Insanely Simple Morning Routine Ideas that will make Your Life Easier }
6. Make sure you’re setting yourself up for success every evening.
One of my favorite things to do before bed is to set myself up for the morning. In my case, this means filling up my water and setting out my clothes for the gym, getting my lunch/snacks packed for the day, and setting up all the tools and spices I need to make breakfast.
Basically, it is all about getting yourself ready for the day while you have time in the evening rather than in the morning. This is one of the best possible ways to improve your ability to complete your morning routine. Getting a head start in the evening gives you more time in the morning without changing your routine.
You may think, why would I do that since that just means staying up later? Technically you are correct, but I want you to think about it in a different way. Instead of framing it as staying up later, just remind yourself that this stuff has to get done. Now is the best time to do it if you want to get that morning routine done. Give it a try!
{ Related post: 4 Easy Ways Your Nightly Routine can Drastically Improve Your Morning Routine }
7. Decide on your morning priorities.
Some people want to put on a full face of makeup in the morning. Some people want to bike 10 miles in the morning. Some people want to watch the sunrise with their coffee in the morning. Whatever it is that you want your morning routine to be, you should own it and achieve it. You don’t need to follow what other people say you MUST do every morning. Instead, decide what you like to do and what makes you happy and stick to that. Every person is vastly different, and their morning routines are different too. Decide what your priorities are and stick to those. You will find that your morning routine will become much easier to complete.
Those are the effective tips to make your morning routine feel WAY easier and more attainable. Try them out if you’re struggling to stick to your morning routine and comment on how it goes!
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