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The Real World Benefits Of Establishing A Morning Routine

Routines can often be seen as boring, especially for young adults. But having routines has a string of benefits, none more so than having a morning routine. Keep reading to find out more.

 
 

What Is A Morning Routine?

 

Chances are, you’ve experienced what it’s like to get out of the proverbial wrong side of the bed, feeling lacklustre and maybe even grumpy. A bad start to your day has a long-lasting knock-on effect that takes a while for you to fire on all cylinders, if you even reach that state.

 

The way we decide to start our day will work as the foundation for the rest of the day, affecting our motivation, general wellbeing, and productivity (Tatarintev and Rudenco, 2024). One way to avoid that is to not use your snooze button for one, and the other is to have a morning routine.

 

A routine is something you can tap into that provides comfort not only to children but also to adults. This is because we all feel secure and more confident when daily activities are predictable and familiar, which is something a morning routine allows you to do (Office of Head Start, n.d.).

 

Your morning routine is about choosing something that works for you as an individual (Alger, n.d.) because there’s no point in creating a routine that you don’t actually want to do. As such, I often suggest starting with the basics and then building on that later on, so you can habit stack.

 

So maybe save adding stuff like a morning run or meditation until you’ve got your fundamentals locked down, like the sequence you’ll follow when waking up. For example, in what order you’ll get up, wash, clean your teeth, go to the toilet, and have breakfast. Once that gets locked in, you can then try adding your more idealistic activities to your morning routine (Kritz, 2024).

 
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The Benefits Of A Morning Routine

 

Sleep

Having a morning routine is an essential part of having a good sleep routine. You can’t really have the latter without the former, and it’s not just me saying that. According to the American Heart Association (n.d.), having an effective morning and a good sleep routine will help us wake up feeling energised and ready for the day, rather than sluggish.

 

Lowes stress

Having a morning routine will help lower our feelings of stress, which is just what you need to start the day with.

 

Depression

Mornings can be particularly difficult for someone experiencing depression, compounding the lack of motivation and desire to move that most people might experience (Kritz, 2024). Thus, a morning routine helps us get through such challenging and uncertain times because they’ve become so habitual that we don’t need to think or be motivated to do them (Office of Head Start, n.d.).

 
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Decisions

According to Greenstein (2017), the key to an easy morning is to keep the first waking hour as consistent as possible, daily. This will prevent us from struggling with having to make decisions when we’re at our most energy-depleted. No one wants to start their day with decision fatigue, and having a morning routine will help avoid that.

 

Otherwise, from the moment we wake up, our mind has to deal with all the things we need to do, which is inefficient and overwhelming (Holton, 2023). Avoid all that by performing the same basic routine in the morning every day, in the same order.

 

Cognitive functioning

According to the Queen’s Gazette (2022), having daily routines and regular habits supports our cognitive functioning, which frees our mind for other things, such as being creative. One such routine that is easy to establish and works as the foundation for our day is having a morning routine.

 

The picture is split in two, with the top image being of a woman drinking coffee. The bottom image being of a man just getting out of bed. The two images are separated by the article title - The Real World Benefits Of Establishing A Morning Routine

 

Beyond Your Morning Routine

 

Now that we’ve talked about the benefits of establishing a morning routine, why stop there? While variety is the spice of life and adds more fun to our daily lives, it doesn’t offer you that comforting feeling that is associated with routines. Creating routines can help us overcome the mental barriers that often get in the way of living a better quality of life (Knights, n.d.). Therefore, the following is a suggestion for other routines you might want to establish at some point.

 

Eating routine

We can all benefit from creating an eating routine, which can be done by creating a food schedule and meal planner.

 

Work

Many of us can benefit from an end-of-work routine to help with maintaining a healthy boundary between work and our personal lives. Establishing a basic end-of-work routine can be really beneficial. For example, you might want to end your work day by checking your work emails or updating your to-do list. This will help prevent you from ruminating on work-related things. An end-of-work routine can be especially important when working from home.

 

Sleep routine

Nothing complements a morning routine like a sleep routine. And it’s not that difficult to start working on, as you can copy and paste most of your basic that routine into your sleep routine, and then add some additional sleep hygiene elements, such as not using a screen an hour before bed. These two combined will greatly increase your odds of a better night’s sleep and a more productive day.

 

Self-care routine

Although this one is often overlooked, it’s nonetheless important for our quality of life, and for avoiding burnout. So try to set aside regular time each week to look after yourself, engage in a hobby, or socialise. Your body will thank you for it.

 
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Summary

 

Routines play a valuable role in our lives, allowing us to reduce the mental load our minds have to deal with, which our minds love. Our brains love an energy-saving shortcut like this. One of the best routines we can create for ourselves is a morning routine. Such a routine can help make the hardest part of our day, getting up, go by with much less fuss. It also sets us up for a better day ahead. Not to mention how it can help manage our mental health issues as well.

 

If you already have a morning routine, then why not consider creating other useful routines, such as an eating schedule, an end-of-work routine, a self-care routine, or a sleep routine? These are all routines that you’ll certainly see a benefit to having. Whatever routines you decide to work on, let me know in the comments section below how they went.

 

If you’d like to hear more about my experience with creating a morning routine, and why I desperately needed to create one, then check out my article on my members’ site by clicking here.

 

As always, leave your feedback in the comments section below. Also, please share your experiences with creating and maintaining a morning routine in the comments section below. Don’t forget, if you want to stay up-to-date with my blog, you can sign up for my newsletter below. Alternatively, click the red bell icon in the bottom right corner to get push notifications for new articles.

 

Lastly, if you’d like to support my blog, please find the PayPal and Ko-fi donation payment options below. You can also become a member of Unwanted Life. For more information, check out the membership options here. Until next time, Unwanted Life readers.

 

 

References

 

Alger, K. (n.d.). The power of a morning routine. The Body Coach. Retrieved from https://www.thebodycoach.com/blog/the-power-of-a-morning-routine.

American Heart Association. (n.d.). How to Establish a Wake-up Routine for a Good Morning Every Morning. American Heart Association. Retrieved from https://www.heart.org/en/healthy-living/healthy-lifestyle/sleep/how-to-establish-a-wakeup-routine-for-a-good-morning-every-morning.

Cherry, K. (2022, August). The importance of maintaining structure and routine during stressful times. Verywell Mind. Retrieved from https://www.verywellmind.com/the-importance-of-keeping-a-routine-during-stressful-times-4802638.

Greenstein, L. (2017, August). The Power of a Morning Routine. National Alliance on Mental Illness. Retrieved from https://www.nami.org/complimentary-health-approaches/the-power-of-a-morning-routine.

Holton, L. (2023, January). 10 Science-Backed benefits of a morning routine. myVA360. Retrieved from https://myva360.com/blog/10-science-backed-benefits-of-a-morning-routine.

Knights, K. (n.d.). Daily Routines and How They Help You Feel Happy & Healthy. Professional Academy. Retrieved from https://www.professionalacademy.com/blogs/the-power-of-daily-routines-and-how-they-help-you-stay-happy-and-healthy.

Kritz, F. (2024, October). Does having a morning routine help depression?. Everyday Health. Retrieved from https://www.everydayhealth.com/hs/major-depression-resource-center/britts-morning-routine-to-manage-depression.

Office of Head Start. (n.d.). The Importance of Schedules and Routines. Office of Head Start. Retrieved from https://eclkc.ohs.acf.hhs.gov/quienes-somos/articulo/importance-schedules-routines.

Queen’s Gazette (2022, March 18). What you do every day matters: The power of routines. Queen’s Gazette. Retrieved from https://www.queensu.ca/gazette/stories/what-you-do-every-day-matters-power-routines.

Tatarintev, D., & Rudenco, I. (2024). Best morning routine for boosting motivation, productivity and health. Technical University of Moldova: Vol. II, 751–753. Retrieved from http://repository.utm.md/bitstream/handle/5014/28016/Conf-TehStiint-UTM-StudMastDoct-2024-V2-p751-754.pdf.

12 thoughts on “The Real World Benefits Of Establishing A Morning Routine

  1. Morning routines… I have one. Only a few months old and not much to it but it helps create a sense of control over the day ahead

  2. Thanks for this. I do have a morning routine and when I deviate from it, it affects the rest of my day. I also have a bedtime routine that helps me slow down and settle into sleep mode. I truly believe these routines are important to our wellbeing.

  3. One of my favorite topics! I started a morning routine literally during one of the darkest times in my life. It was a way to have control over SOMETHING. Over myself. It completely changed the way I live and has become such an important part of my life. Thanks for sharing your insights on this I agree with everything you said.

  4. I have a very good morning routine, I need to for my own balance and wellbeing but I definitely can confirm the benefits are amazing. Great post. Morning routines are sometimes overlooked.

  5. Thank you for this post. I do think having a healthy morning routine is important to start your day and get through the week. These repeated daily gestures allow us to function optimally. One element of my morning routine that I need to revisit is looking at my phone as soon as I get up to see my notifications. I think I need to do a digital detox on this point. Thanks again for these wise words of advice.

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