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Have you ever wondered how a simple change in your morning routine could magically change your entire day? We all have heard about The 5 AM Club: Own you morning, elevate your life by Robin Sharma. The book teaches how to establish a morning routine to focus on a task and achieve it easily.

Have you ever felt that the whole day is formed according to how your first ever routine starts? If yes, then you are right.

Our morning routine is of utmost importance in starting our day. It helps to brighten our day, productivity, mood, and overall well – being.

In this blog, I will describe how I start my morning routine.

• Identify your goals and intentions
• Start small
• Prioritize self care
• The importance of waking up early

1) Identify your goals and intentions:

Let us first define the goals and intentions behind setting the morning routine. Let me ask you few questions.

Why do you want to make your morning routine?

What motivates you to create a morning routine?

Is your primary goal to be more productive or to improve your mental and physical health?

Until you find a justified answer, deciding and implementing what you should do in the morning will be difficult.

Follow these steps to identify your goals:

A) Self – reflection:

I have trouble getting up early in the morning. I usually feel tried when I wake up. So ask yourself, “Do I feel exhausted in the morning?” “Or do I have trouble getting up early in the morning?” “Or have there been changes recently in my life? It is essential to understand this, so that you know in which areas you need to improve.

B) Set clear goals:

My goal is to improve my mental health and wake up without getting tired. What is your goal? If you want mental clarity, you can add meditation, journaling, or walking for 15 minutes in nature to feel thee breeze of fresh air. If you want to improve your physical health, you can start doing morning exercise of stretching.

C)Align with your values :

Create a routine according to your values. For example, of you find personal growth very important, you can add reading or self – improvement activities to your routine.

D) Setting intentions:

I intended to ace the morning productivity. Ask yourself again and again, what your intention should be. How do you want your morning to feel?

When you identify your goals, when you set intentions for yourself, and when you know what you want, you will be able to make your routine more focused and effective.

2) Start small

Focus on one or two habits at a time.

The biggest mistake I made when starting the morning routine was implementing too many things at once. To achieve everything perfectly in one day – meditating, working out, journaling, eating a healthy breakfast, and so on. But this didn’t work for me. And that’s when I started with one thing at a time.

So, I decided to start small.

Avoid overwhelming yourself at first. Add just 1 or 2 habits your routine, like: Getting up early in the morning, making a bed, and drinking detox water or warm water with lemon. This simple habits helps to align with your productivity.

5 – 10 minute meditation that helps to calm your mind, improves focus, and improves mental health.

“Our life is what our thoughts make it.” 

-Marcus Aurelius in book meditations

Light stretching or walking in nature helps to energize the body without much effort. Research shows that doing yoga for 30 minutes helps to improve general wellness by relieving stress, supporting good health habits, and improving mental/emotional health, sleep and balance.

Don’t chase perfection; focus on consistency.

3) Prioritize self care

The main purpose of creating a morning routine is not just to be productive or to ace a day; self-care is equally important. When you take time out in the morning for yourself, you start your day with positivity and the best version of yourself.

The meaning of self-care can be different for everyone. For me, the meaning of self-care is doing the proper skin care and listening to spiritual songs.

Here are some effective and simple ideas that you can add to your routine:

Meditation or Mindfulness for just 5 – 10 minutes can help to control your thoughts and calm your mind. You can also try guided meditation apps.

B) Journaling :

Write a to-do list, affirmations, gratitude, thoughts, or just write how you want to feel today, but write in the present tense.

For example, Positive Affirmations: Talk to yourself lovingly in the mirror. “I am capable”, “I can achieve my goals”, “I am best version of myself” – these simple lines can help to create a positive mindset.

C) Physical self-care:

Physical self – care such as stretching or light yoga, helps to increase blood flow and boost energy levels.

Doing skin care like washing your face, applying good serum to glow your face, moisturizing, and applying skin care can make you feel self-love.

D) Emotional and spiritual self-care:

Whether you are spiritual or not, being thankful, praying, or practicing gratitude is a powerful habit to start the day.

Here is another favourite quote of mine for being thankful to god.

“When you arise in the morning, think of what a privilege it is to be alive, to think, to enjoy, to love …”

― Marcus Aurelius, Meditations

E) Disconnect from your phone:

Instead of checking your phone as soon as you wake up and procrastinating, spend sometime with yourself is more peaceful. It will give you confidence and in this way you will be able to spend day very well.

DO NOT THINK OF SELF-CARE AS A “LUXURY”; IT IS YOUR DAILY BASIC NEED .

Only when you take care of yourself, only then are you able to give 100% to other things – be it work, studies or relationships.

I know, I know a lot of people will say that we don’t have time to build the habits to take of ourselves.

The secret of a successful morning routine is not just what to do but when and how to do it is important.

Time management is the skill that helps you to make the limited time of the morning as productive as possible.

The importance of waking up early:

Waking up before others is one of the huge success, and this is what makes you different from others. You get peaceful and distraction-free time.

There are many benefits of waking up early:

• You get more time for yourself.
• You can calmly plan your day.
• You can get the fresh breeze, pollution free air, & quiet atmosphere.
• You can watch the sunrise and fall in love with yourself, with your life.

Here are some of the tips I followed, which helped to create my successful morning routine.

TIP: If you still wake up late, don’t aim to wake up at % am. Gradually shift your wake-up time 15 – 20 minutes earlier.

Create time blocks

This means creating a fixed time duration for every activity.

Example of a time – blocked morning routine include:

6:30 AM – Wake up

6:30 AM – 6:40 AM Freshen up + hydrate

6:40 AM – 7:00 AM – Light stretching / yoga

7:00 AM – 7:15 AM – Journaling affirmations or gratitude

7:15 AM – 7:45 AM – Get ready + Prayer

7:45 AM – 8:15 AM – Healthy breakfast + Plan your day

Such blockers give you clarity, align your tasks, and help to create focus on every task.

“Remember: Time management means working smartly – not too much, just effectively. When you learn to control your morning time, your whole day becomes productive.”

It is best to always track your progress, and here is how I do it to track my progress.

1. Use a habit tracker app or in which you can tick daily whether you followed your habit today or not. I have used one of the templates from Pinterest and customized it. 
2. Keep a streak stream – like, did you do it continuously for 5 days? 
3. Do a weekly reflection – what worked, what didn’t and why? And how can it be made better?

When you start small, you don’t feel overwhelmed, and gradually, you mould yourself into building new habits. Then, gradually, it becomes easy to add more habits.

Everyone’s morning routine is different, unique, so do not compare yourself with others. The most important thing is consistency. Celebrate small wins like getting up early one day, meditating one day, etc.

Last but not the least, building a morning routine isn’t about being perfect – it’s about being intentional with your goals, be consistent. 

Be patient, stay consistent, and design a morning that fuels your best self. 

Ending this blog with the saying

“The way you start your day determines how well you live your day.”

– Robin Sharma.

With love and a stethoscope, 

Diksha shah 

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