How to come up with a Morning Routine

Hello, and welcome back to my blog!

I haven't posted in a while, so... yeah. I thought I would update you guys with how to come up with a morning routine — very important for college — and an example of my summer morning routine.

1. Assess your motives for creating a morning routine. Do you want to create a morning routine to make time to workout? Are you making a morning routine because you have anxiety and want to make time to work out? Are you making a morning routine to make more time for blogging, YouTube, etc.? Possibly you are making a morning routine because you want to make more time to eat. You could even be making a morning routine to be able to plan and get prepared for the day because you are that type of person who just gets up late and rushes out of the door.

For me, it was a combination of all of those. I made a morning routine because I am an introvert who also has anxiety and wanted to make time for relaxation and alone-time in the morning to ponder and think. I wanted to be able to practice meditation and stretching myself out because I am also a slow-riser from bed — I love my bed, guys! I also wanted to make time for scripture reading and time with God, as well as doing homework if I needed to. I also wanted more time to blog and get my life together and plan for the day.

2. Look at the benefits of a morning routine. So, I'm a huge researcher — I never dive into anything without doing tons of research beforehand to gain knowledge and assess. For my natural hair journey — which I will talk about in another post — I researched months beforehand with Youtube, BlackHairInformation, NaturallyCurly, and BlackGirlLongHair among others for tips on how to take care of my natural hair the right way and styles to do before I went ahead and big chopped in October 2014. I've been natural since then and love my hair! I did the same thing before going on to create a morning routine.

HelloPeacefulMind.com

* helps to breathe + unwind

* helps to undo behavior of running late

* less stress b/c you are doing everything you need to as incorporated by your routine

* gain more time in the morning b/c of not thinking of what to do next

* less likely to forget something

* gives spare time for self-care + self-love and just time to focus on oneself, which is crucial as you get older w/ more responsibilities (work, kids, etc.)

* more time to cook instead of buy food outside -> healthier

TheFitExec.com

* helps to set tone, pace, and energy for the day — If you wake up in a rush and running late, you will feel like you are in a rush the entire day.

"It means waking up with purpose and with intention to have things go your way."

* According to studies, morning people are more like to be "cooperative, driven, and productive." It makes sense that many business executives have morning routines b/c those words definitely describe them.

* helps you to plan and get everything you need done so by the end of the day, you can truly relax.

VeryWellMind.com

* dealbreaker for having productive days.

"Particularly in the professional fields of sales and leadership, the development of a solid morning routine can be a dealbreaker in terms of productivity and success."

"Although not all of us are in sales or a leadership position at work, we are all designed to be leaders of our own lives."

* helps us to feel more productive and confident

*helps us to start our day with ""confidence, peace, and a positive attitude"

* helps us handle tasks and challenges w/o stress + with peace of mind

* Stress (esp. in the workplace) has been studied and proven to be just as bad as secondhand smoking. Crazy, right?

"A sense of peace and confidence in our day can help us maintain positive emotional health and help us to become much more resilient during times of stress."

* reduced stress = better relationships with our loved ones (friends, fam, etc.)

* helps to prioritize time => increase productivity

* develop self-efficacy

"Having a morning routine helps to set the stage for better prioritizing, more effective time-management, and greater productivity. All of this, in turn, is likely to have a positive impact on our self-efficacy."

* practice stillness in a hectic world to make us feel more grounded

* helps to plan to fuel properly with healthy food and not quick junk

* review all tasks and prioritize to maximize effectiveness

With all these benefits, why not create a morning routine?

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HOW TO CREATE A MORNING ROUTINE

1. Set a time to wake up. Look at how much time you wanna have before going to classes (for college students) or before the bus (high-school students) to relax, unwind, rise, and prepare for the day. It doesn't have to be the same time actually. It is mostly just based on what you want to do in the morning before going to school. Not only then should you set a time to rise, but you should also set a time to sleep in order to get at least 7 hours of sleep every night, which will help foster creativity, productivity, and alertness in classes and make you a super student!

For me, during the summer, I like to wake up between 5:00 and 5:30 to be able to wake up as the sun rises. It's so important for me to be able to watch the sun rise and hear the birds chirping and be able to connect with nature and God.

2. Plan for your day the night before. This is more in the night-routine category, which I will make another post for; but if you have planned what you wanna do in the morning, it also helps to set what time you want to wake up. If you have more to do in the morning, you will be forced to wake up earlier to get them done. This also helps to reduce stress in the morning because you will know how your day will run when you rise.

This was helpful for me last summer when I was studying hardcore for my SAT test while also participating in Marching Band Camp — ugh, Hell Week — and having to use public transportation, which can take like 50 minutes. I would use the Moovit app to check the latest time I had to go to get to school on time. I would study in the morning and when I came back. I was also able to plan when to eat because it's easy for me to forget to eat.

3. Come up with playlists to use if you like music in the morning. Some people like pop music to get their blood pumping and everything. I personally love acoustic music because it helps me ease into the morning, as well ambient/yoga music for when I stretch out and meditate or write poetry to get my day started in a calm manner and flow my creativity. I like acoustic pop when I am blogging like this to also foster creativity. I listen to calm and peaceful church music when I read and study my scriptures to help me focus and invite and feel the Spirit. I like to turn up my ""Morning Workout" playlist by Spotify on Spotify when I workout like run or lift weights. I like to turn on my AfroPop, K R+B or KPop,, or my American R+B and Rap music when I'm getting ready and dressing or just stick to Spotify's ""Morning Calm" playlist depending on how I feel. When I'm working on studying or homework, I use my jazzy playlist, "Happy Vibes" Playlist, Brain Fuel playlist, or another playlist. Music is very important to me in everything I do in the morning.

4. Stop looking at your phone or watching news first thing in the morning. It sets your day off rough! Also, it can cause you to waste soooo much time in the morning! The time that you are wasting on your phone could be spent working out or writing poetry or a blog post. You don't need that social media, booboo!

5. Decide what you want to do in your morning routine. If you don't want to eat in the morning b/c it makes you sick, then don't. Really. If you want to meditate. put it in there. No one can tell you how your morning routine should go, although I highly recommend eating and meditating in the morning. But it's all about what sets you up for the day. If you like to study in the morning, do it! If you don't, then don't. If you like to write, do it! If you like to work out, then do it! It's all about what rejuvenates you and sets you up feeling secure, prepared, and confident to leave your house/dorm for the day.

So going back to this article, some things Rob recommends in a morning routine are cold showers for more alertness, meditation to help relieve anxiety, journaling to put scrambling thoughts on paper and clear the mind, affirmations to raise self-esteem and confidence for the day, and reviewing goals and checklists — how will you be productive if you don't know where you're headed?

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My Morning Routine

Who me? Don't mind this. This was me at the end of Sophomore year being a fool with my friends.

1. Get up. I usually wake up about 15 minutes before my 1st alarm. I rise and set my bed right away around 5:30Am. It is so important to lay your bed as soon as you wake up, which I learned from AP Psychology class. By doing this, it psychologically pushes you because you have actually accomplished something and have done something effective for the day. It also keeps you from forgetting and also giving you a tidy view — tidy view = tidy mind, right?

2. Short bathroom stuff. I use the restroom and only splash my face with cold water to wake me up. I also brush my teeth to get rid of toxins + bacteria from overnight; I do calf raises while I do this for extra exercise. Only after brushing my teeth do I allow myself to drink water and take my vitamins. I also prefer warm water with lemon squeezed in to get rid of further toxins. Bougie, I know.

3. Ground myself. I usually get to this part by 5:40AM, which is when my second alarm rings. I stretch out my entire body to also help ease me into wake-up mode — I'm a slow riser. Then I meditate for a few minutes until my shakiness of breath stops — anxiety is a killer.

4. Spirituality. Reading my scriptures usually takes between 5 to 30 minutes depending on how much I want to read. I also pray after reading my scriptures to connect with God. I used to forget this when I was younger and still sometimes do. It's so important for me personally because I realize that when I do this, my day goes a lot smoother, and I'm more self-assured.

5. Thoughts + Creativity. I write in my journal and blog or make poetry depending on what I'm feeling. Check me out on Wattpad by the way! It is so important for me personally to have time to just be creative and musical and channel my inner artist before I switch to geek-mode. I had to put this in. By the time I'm done with this, it should be like 6:30 AM.

6. Workout. This usually takes like 30 minutes. I alternate between lifting weights or running outside. But more recently, I just lift because I walk with my mom on Saturdays for like 2 hours on one of the trails around where I live. We walk for like 6-8 miles, which is a lot of cardio already for a slim gal like myself, so I'm trying now to focus on lifting during the week.

7. Dress up. By the time 7:00AM rolls around, I should be done. I take a slow or quick shower depending on whether I wanna exfoliate, shave, etc. Then, I get out, dress, and do my makeup. I should be done with all this by 7:30AM.

Looking at my schedule, I may either have to be quicker in order to attend 8:00 classes or just have to go with 9:00 classes and beyond. I definitely don't want a class that starts later than 4:00pm, so we will see how my routine will change. I will update you on if anything changes.

Thanks for reading, and good luck on developing your morning routine!