25 Ideas For a Simple Morning Routine to Kick-Start Your Day

A consistent morning routine can set you up for the day ahead and help you get physically and psychologically prepared for whatever that day has in store. Here are 25 ideas for a simple morning routine to kick-start your day on a positive, productive note.

WHY IS A MORNING ROUTINE IMPORTANT?

Have you noticed how that first hour or so in the morning can pretty much determine how the rest of your day will go, or rather your attitude to your day?!

“The first hour of the morning is the rudder of the day.”

Henry Ward Beecher

• If you wake up late, you’re more likely to be irritable and stressed from rushing around and this can continue into the day. Everything might seem more difficult that day, more of a challenge and you’ll feel down, overwhelmed or fed up.
• If you wake up a little early, you’ve got time to get things done at an easier pace. You’ll be more on top of things, better prepared and possibly more organised. Your day will feel easier, you’ll be more receptive to good things that happen and better able to deal with any challenges.

Aside from your mornings often setting the tone for the rest of your day, a morning routine is really helpful in preparing you physically and psychologically for the day ahead.

HOW TO ESTABLISH A SIMPLE MORNING ROUTINE

Your morning routine doesn’t have to be complicated. In fact, the more complicated it is then perhaps the less likely you’ll be to follow it through consistently, day after day.

Before we look at some simple morning routine ideas, here are 4 little tips to help you put your own simple morning routine in place:

1. Start Slowly

Below I’ve given you 25 ideas to include in your own morning routine. You don’t need to do them all, just pick and choose what suits you. Start with one or two of the most appealing suggestions and see how you go with them over the next week. You can always add more into your morning routine if you have time and inclination.

2. Habit-Stacking

When we’re creating new routines, sometimes it’s helpful to build on little daily habits that we already have in place. This process is called habit-stacking from the book Habit Stacking: 97 Small Life Changes That Take Five Minutes Or Less by S. J. Scott. To learn more about how it works take a look at this article from jamesclear.com.

3. Create a Plan

Make the most of your time by having a plan. The plan can be flexible and can be different for the weekdays and the weekends.

Be clear on what you’re going to be doing the next morning before you go to bed the night before. When you wake up, try not to get side-tracked by anything else and waste your time or you won’t get the maximum benefit possible. Perhaps jot down some ideas in a notebook to keep you on track!

You could also get out the things that you might need in the morning, the night before (for example, a coffee, journal and your work-out clothes).

4. Get Up, Not Just Wake Up!

Waking up is one thing but you actually have to get out of bed to complete your morning routine! Put your alarm clock out of reach so you have to get up, even if you don’t feel like it.

25 IDEAS FOR YOUR MORNING ROUTINE

Here are 25 ideas for activities you could include in your own simple morning routine. Pick and choose one or two to get started and see how they work for you. You can build more in when you feel comfortable…

1. Drink Water

Drink water to help rehydrate you after you’ve been sleeping all night. I like hot water and lemon but I also drink tea. That first cup of tea, enjoyed in peace and quiet, whilst everyone else is still sleeping is the best cup of my day!

2. Meditation

Practice meditation to train your mind to focus and redirect your thoughts. Morning meditation sets you up for the day when that day is likely to push and pull you in different directions.

Meditation has many health benefits including reducing stress and anxiety, promoting better sleep and improving cognitive function. What better way to start your day with a peaceful, mood-boosting meditation?!

YouTube is a great source of inspiration for some guided meditations if you have trouble staying focused by yourself.

3. Yoga

I’m not too keen on exercise so I prefer to knock this off my To Do list early. I also find that stretching first thing in the morning eases my body into the day and gets rid of the niggling stiffness that’s built up over the night.

I love Yoga as a means of focusing my mind as well as stretching and building strength in my body and it’s perfectly suited to my mid-life body!

I particularly like Yoga with Adriene for her gentle, inclusive approach with different flows for different areas of your body.

4. Mindfulness

Mindfulness has improved my mental health hugely. I’m prone to anxiety and my HSP personality is easily overwhelmed by busy life.

Practicing mindfulness has given me a toolbox of resources that I can use to calm my anxious mind. This includes being more present in the moment instead of anticipating problems or worries in the future, and the useful art of equanimity (feeling grounded and even-minded even when life around is difficult).

The morning is a great time to explore your own mindfulness activities whilst the home is quiet and your brain isn’t overloaded by your To Do list.

5. Exercise

Take some exercise to get those endorphins flowing and give you an energy boost for the day. As I mentioned earlier, I don’t enjoy exercising so I find it helps to get exercise out of the way first thing in the morning!

I like to walk on the treadmill and make a start towards my 10,000 daily steps and I usually listen to a podcast whilst I walk for maximum productivity!

6. Social Media

Social media can be a wormhole for many of us, a huge waste of time and unhelpful source of comparison and envy. So, I include this idea for your morning routine with caution! You may even decide to ignore this tip completely and stay off your phone first thing.

However, I’ve found that allocating a few minutes to catching up with social media just in the morning means I’m less likely to be tempted to waste more time on it or get distracted during the day.

Even more so if my screen-time settings tell me that I’ve got no time allowance left for later in the day! This just means that I can use my phone for more productive things than scrolling social media.

7. The News

Update yourself on the news so you know what’s going on in the world. I personally avoid watching the news last thing at night because I find it difficult to switch off and then can’t fall asleep. Reading the news in the morning gives me time to process it properly throughout the day.

8. Read

I love reading but often find that my busy day does’t give me the time or mental space to sit quietly and enjoy my book. I sometimes even find that I’m not taking in what I’ve read and read the same paragraph or page a couple of times! Does this happen to you?!

If reading is important to you, why not read a chapter of your favourite book as part of your morning routine before the day and its demands come calling for you.

9. Listen

Listen to a podcast for information or inspiration. I love podcasts because I can listen whilst I’m walking or, later in the day, when I’m making dinner. These are examples of when multi-tasking is a benefit!

10. Get Outside

Take a walk and enjoy the calmness of nature. Look around you, breathe in the air and enjoy listening to the sounds of nature waking up.

Getting outside is also a healthy habit to encourage as it’s good for our physical and mental health. The morning sun and brightness signals to our bodies and brains that the day has begun and contributes to a healthy natural circadian rhythm, our body clock. This, in turn, influences hormone production and healthy sleep cycles.

To learn more about this, check out this article on the 9 benefits of morning sunlight.

11. Positive Affirmations

Affirmations are positive statements of intent, repeated often. They work on the principle that the more we say something, the more we train our brain to believe it to be true and to be open-minded in making our beliefs a reality.

Positive affirmations are based on positive self-talk for a positive outlook. Try these 60 positive daily affirmations to start your day with an abundant and positive mindset. There’s a free printable you can get with this article too.

12. Practice Gratitude

Gratitude is a powerful mindset shift to help us focus on the good things in our life right now. We can build on and prioritise them instead of wasting time, energy and effort in chasing plans, dreams and goals that we think might bring happiness but often don’t in the end.

More than this, a gratitude practice can be a helpful tool to improve your life by analysing what’s working well in our lives and what needs development or improvement.

If you find yourself repeating things in your gratitude lists then this might be a sign that they’re important and meaningful to you. Could you make even more time and space for them in your day and life?

13. Be Proud

Write 5 things you’re proud of yourself for and stick them on a post-it note on your fridge or bathroom mirror so you can be reminded of them throughout the day.

14. Your To Do list

Write a short, strategic To Do list for today. Keep it simple and focused on things that you really have to do. Don’t make it a list of things to remember, or to do next week or some day.

And, speaking of To Do lists, you might like to consider your ‘silent to do list’. Everything in your home and life sends out messages about what it needs you to do, think, action. What’s on your ‘silent to do list’?

15. Self-Care

Have a shower, wash your hair, apply some make-up and enjoy taking care of yourself. Make self-care a daily habit that you do consistently. Mornings can be a great time to do this if time allows, before the rush of the day begins and other activities take priority.

16. Clothes

Choose your clothes for today with love and care. This is much easier when you declutter your clothes and simplify your wardrobe. A simplified wardrobe was a game-changer for me in the mornings. I could easily choose an outfit, safe in the knowledge that whatever was in my closet was clothes that I loved to wear, felt good and comfortable in. Here are some more capsule wardrobe tips which might help you too!

17. Sort Lunches

Make the packed lunches.

18. Prepare

Get the school bags ready, permission slips, PE kits, keys and anything else that you mustn’t forget as you leave home for the day. Some of these you might find easier to do the night before.

19. Dishwasher

Unload the dishwasher and put everything away. Remember to keep the kitchen counter as clear and clutter-free as possible!

Loading and running the dishwasher every evening after dinner has helped cut down on the mess in our kitchen. I make sure it’s finished before bedtime and then unload it every morning. This is just one of my favourite household routines to simplify homemaking and make my life easier.

20. Prep Dinner

Prep the dinner for tonight. I like to get a head-start on dinner as early as possible so I’m not leaving everything until the end of the day when I’m tired, hungry and in a rush.

This is where meal-planning can be really helpful so you know what’s for dinner each evening and that you’ve got all the ingredients you need. I also have some other tips on how to enjoy making dinner each night, instead of it being a hassle or yet another thing to add to your To Do list!

21. Your Inbox

Catch up on and action your emails. Decluttering your inbox regularly is a great way of making this quicker and easier!

22. Declutter Your bedroom

Make your bed, tidy your bedroom, put your clothes away and let in the light. Here are some tips on how to declutter your bedroom and why it’s important.

23. Morning Pages

Journal your first thoughts of the day by writing three pages of whatever comes into your mind before your mind gets distracted by anything else. Read more about the Morning Pages practice by Julia Cameron.

24. Work

Knock out some work (if you work or can work from home).

25. Eat That Frog

Do your biggest, most urgent or most important task first and feel the weight lift from you. That important task is your biggest frog and best eaten first! Based on a quote by Mark Twain and developed into a book of the same name, Eat That Frog by Brian Tracy.

RELATED POSTS AND MORNING ROUTINE TIPS

• If you struggle with getting up earlier, especially if you’re not a morning person, you might find my post on how to get up earlier helpful!
• Read more about creating a bedroom as your sanctuary for better relaxation and sleep the night before.
• Learn more about simple daily habits to make life easier and help your day go more smoothly.
• 20 ways to make school run mornings less stressful if you’re juggling busy mornings with kids who need to get to school.