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A Morning Routine Checklist: Daily Habits to Help Conquer Your Day
If you’re not a morning person, practicing these morning habits on your morning routine checklist may be challenging at first. However, with a little practice, you’ll be ruling your day in no time!
Your perfect morning starts by getting up earlier than you are used to. Did I lose you yet? Excellent! But I’m sure you already knew that. Maybe you’re doing it already but checking social media or email causes your morning to get away from you. That’s me. I get up super early to write for at least 30 minutes before my daughter wakes up and the mom duties kick in. However, sometimes I get distracted.
I have to be very strict with what I include on my morning routine checklist or my morning will get away from me. Maybe you’re like me. If that’s the case, I hope this list of morning habits for a successful day will help you!
My Morning Routine Checklist Journey
I set up a morning routine checklist over a year ago. I read a book by Hal Elrod called The Miracle Morning: The Not-So-Obvious Secret Guaranteed to Transform Your Life (Before 8 AM) because I was searching for some structure to my day. It was one of the best books I read about a morning routine and morning habits.
At about the same time, I listened to the audiobook Make Your Bed: Little Things that Can Change Your Life and Maybe the World by Admiral William H. McRaven.
The key takeaway is if you make your bed in the morning (aka a little thing), you accomplish something even if you feel like you got nothing done all day. Yes, a “little thing” like making your bed can give you this feeling. So if the dirty pile of clothes never made it into the wash, that new recipe didn’t get made, or you didn’t find time to work on your Cricut projects to sell if at least you made your bed, you accomplished something!
These two sources were the kick in the pants I needed to start my morning routine checklist. I knew I would be happier the rest of the day if I did this. Guess what? I can honestly say that after over a year later, it works! I used a morning routine checklist to help accomplish one of my biggest goals…to qualify for the Boston Marathon at age 50! Check out Habits 5 & 6 to see how these two-morning habits helped me reach this goal.
Download your free copy of my morning routine checklist (including a bonus evening checklist) if you want to get your day started right.
1. Plan Your Day the Night Before
Sometimes this first-morning habit on your morning routine checklist is hard to complete because it occurs before you go to bed the previous night and you may be really tired. However, I find that this may be the most important one of them all!
My nighttime ritual is making sure the kitchen is clean. That means putting away all the dirty dishes in the dishwasher, turning it on, and wiping down the counters. I clean the pets’ dishes so they are ready to go in the morning, set up the coffee, and write out my to-do list. Usually, I add to my to-do list in the morning. However, if I just do a brain dump before bed, I sleep better.
In addition, since I work from my kitchen island, I make sure everything I need is ready for me when I come downstairs in the morning.
I work from home so I don’t have to worry about what to wear most mornings but if I did, I would figure this out the night before. If I’m working out before anyone gets up, I put my workout clothes in the bathroom so as not to disturb anyone.
2. Get Up Earlier
I know you know this, but as far as morning habits go, getting up earlier is crucial. I’m a morning person so this one isn’t hard for me but it may be for you. Right now I’m getting up at 4:30 a.m. so I can do some writing, and exercise before my daughter comes downstairs at 6:30.
If this is tough for you, just try getting up a little earlier every day for a week. Then it won’t seem so bad. Try to embrace the darkness and stillness of the kitchen, a home office, or another quiet place in your house.
I started with my alarm set at 5:45, then moved it to 5:30, then to 5:00, and eventually set my alarm for 4:30.
If you’re a coffee drinker, set your machine to start brewing 15 minutes before you get downstairs (I set mine for 4:15). If you’re in the market for a new coffee maker, I highly recommend this Hamilton Beach Coffee Maker. I purchased it in November 2016 and it’s still going strong! Not only does it make a whole 12 cups of coffee, but you can also use the single brew function to make just one cup.
3. Read an Inspirational Passage
As my inspirational passage, I’ve chosen to read from a devotional book called Jesus Calling – Enjoying Peace in His Presence by Sarah Young. There is a devotion for every day of the year. This was given to me by a friend a couple of years ago and every time I see her, I thank her for this gift.
The book itself is small and the passages are very short. I find them extremely meaningful. Not only that, many times I’ve found that the devotion for the day is exactly what I need because it fits with what is going on in my life.
PIN MORNING ROUTINE CHECKLIST: 7 EFFECTIVE HABITS TO TURBO-CHARGE YOUR DAY!
4. Write in Your Journal
After reading my devotion for the day, I journal in The Five-Minute Journal (this journal isn’t currently available but The 5-Minute Guided Journal is very similar). I love this little hardback journal because it’s an easy way to boost your happiness and increase productivity in your day in about five minutes!
The journal is broken up into two sections: a morning routine section and a night section. It also includes a quote for the day and a weekly challenge. An example of a weekly challenge would be: Throw out 3 items that no longer spark joy for you.
The morning section includes 2 questions and a space for your daily affirmations:
- I am grateful for…
- What would make today great?
- Daily affirmations. I am…
The nightly challenge leaves space for you to write 3 amazing things that happened in your day. It also asks how you could have made your day even better.
5. Read Your Positive Affirmations
I have my written positive affirmations on a sheet of paper I keep in my journal. I typed them on the computer and printed them out. Some of these affirmations I’ve had for over a year and some have changed as I’ve accomplished them, such as race (running) goals.
As I stated above, the five-minute journal includes a small space for daily affirmations, however, I wanted to write more.
Some of my affirmations include:
- I am healthy and strong and capable of accomplishing anything I set my mind to.
- I am joyfully crossing the Boston Marathon finish line in 3 hours and 38 minutes on April 20, 2020.
- I am a successful blogger bringing new and helpful information to my readers on a regular basis.
I read my affirmations aloud every morning. This enables my ears to hear them.
According to Jack Canfield, America’s leading authority on success and personal fulfillment training and co-author of the Chicken Soup for the Soul series, there are 8 guidelines for creating effective affirming statements. They are also included in his book, The Success Principles. They are:
- Start with the words “I am.” These are the two most powerful words in the English language.
- Use the present tense.
- State it in the positive. Affirm what you want, not what you don’t want.
- Keep it brief.
- Make it specific.
- Include an action word ending with –ing.
- Include at least one dynamic emotion or feeling word.
- Make affirmations for yourself, not others.
When I was training for the 2018 Philadelphia Marathon, my goal was to qualify for the 2020 Boston Marathon (the Philly Marathon was in November–too late to qualify for the 2019 Boston Marathon). To qualify for my age group, I needed to complete the marathon in 3:55.00. My best marathon time was 4:06.
My affirmations included this statement:
I am going to run the Philadelphia Marathon in November 2018 in 3:54.59.
I read this along with my other affirmations every morning during my training period of 3 months. After reading this, I visualized how the race would go. This brings me to the next morning habit, visualization.
6. Practice Visualization
After reading your affirmation statements, close your eyes and spend time visualizing doing and or being the things you have written down.
According to a post published on Success.com, New York University researcher Tali Sharot and her colleagues published a study in one of the most prestigious academic journals, Nature, that revealed the more detailed our visualization, the more we actually begin to feel the specific emotions of the future state at the neural level.
By envisioning the joy we’d feel upon getting a promotion, for example, we actually get to “pre-experience” that joy now. And that, in turn, provides us with the motivation and direction we need to make that future happen. The more vivid the visualization, the more real it feels.
Envision the Joy
I can agree with this finding. I visualized everything about the Marathon finish. I was familiar with the course so I knew what those last miles looked and felt like. However, being new to “visualization,” I really only concentrated on that last quarter of a mile leading up to the finish.
In my mind, I could see the finish line and the clock. I could read what was on the clock. I could feel the relief and joy of crossing the line with a Boston qualifying time. I even visualized what it would feel like to tell my family and friends.
My daughter was performing in her high school’s musical the afternoon of the marathon. My family was coming to the show. I visualized how happy and proud I’d feel telling them that I ran a qualifying time.
A Picture’s Worth a Thousand Words
The image of me happily telling them was so real, that when I was in the last miles of the marathon and I thought about slowing down, I immediately knew I couldn’t. That there was no way in hell I wasn’t going to achieve what I set out to do because the disappointment of NOT doing it was so great and the vision was too real. Even writing this now, I can still remember that exact moment.
When I had the finish line in sight, I used up every ounce of energy I had to achieve the goal that I visualized every day during the 3 months of training.
Not only did I do it, but I also beat the qualifying time for my age group by almost 5 minutes!
I suggest making a vision board if you’re new to visualization or need more help in making your vision really resonate with you. There are vision board books like #FutureBoards: Learn How to Create a Vision Board to Get Exactly the Life You Want, to help you get your vision clear. These vision board printables from LoveJenell are great to add to your physical board. Or you can create a vision board online using the free version of Canva, an online design tool.
7. Exercise
Another habit that should be included on your morning routine checklist is some sort of exercise. I prefer to work out in the morning but only after I’ve had some coffee!
If you have small children, then you know it’s much easier to get this done when they’re still sleeping. However, including them in any of your workout activities can also be fun.
When my son was little, I’d meet my friend for a jog in a park with our kids in jog strollers. We got some much-needed social time while exercising and getting the kids some fresh air!
Exercising in the morning is great because it sets the tone for the whole day. TotalWellness touts that the ultimate solution to staying motivated might be by making exercise a habit right after you get up in the morning. You’ll feel more accomplished, and confident, and enjoy many health benefits.
Even if you only have a few minutes, try to do something. I really like the 7-minute workout app. If you’ve never tried it, download it and give it a try. It doesn’t disappoint and you can repeat it as many times as your schedule allows. Here it is in the video format:
7-Minute Workout
In addition, Personal Training with Jackie: Xtreme Time-Saver Training exercise DVD (an oldie but a goodie) is an excellent full-body exercise routine that will kick your butt! There’s nothing like maximum results in minimum time to give you the incentive to work out knowing you don’t have to rearrange your whole day to fit it in.
FREE Morning Routine Checklist
Below I’ve added a free weekly morning routine checklist plus a bonus evening routine checklist for you to download.
I designed it to start on a Sunday. Just fill in the date of the Sunday you want to start and write in the morning and evening habits you want to track.
I like the weekly format because you may find (as I did) that you will master some of the things on your list by the end of the week and you won’t forget to do them. For instance, I find that I enjoy a clean kitchen in the morning so much that I don’t need to add a “clean kitchen” to my “in the evening” checklist anymore. On the other hand, habits like “floss teeth” might stick around on the checklist week after week!
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