Morning routines are the new popular self-development hack. If you can put in place a great morning routine, it’s likely you will have an amazing day.
How you start every single day has an extremely important impact on how the following hours of that day will play out.
If you wake up feeling tired and lethargic, you will probably end up having a slow and unproductive day.
However, if you wake up feeling energetic and ready to attack the day, chances are you will probably have a good day.
So how do we start the day properly?
We put in place very specific morning rituals that we will do every day to help set us on the right path
In this post, we will look at 7 totally unique morning routine ideas for you to consider using.
We’ll also explore:
- 3 Benefits of a Morning Routine
- What a Morning Routine Should Look Like
Let’s jump in.
3 Benefits of a Morning Routine
Before we jump straight into the morning routine ideas, it is crucial to understand some of the key benefits associated with a morning routine.
Without knowing the benefits, it’s going to be hard to drag yourself out of bed every morning.
Knowing the benefits will help to build the habit and make it something you do every day, not just when you feel like it.
Here we will explore 3 key benefits, however, this is by no means a definitive list.
Build a keystone habit
Following a morning ritual every day can lead to it being the keystone habit that triggers a series of other positive habits in other areas of your life.
Some other common habits that come along with forming a morning routine are eating smarter, exercising more regularly, and being more productive.
By forming a morning routine, you can essentially be forming up to 3 new habits in one go.
Better mood
Setting the intention of waking up early and with a real purpose often leads to being in a better mood throughout the rest of the day.
It allows you to have total clarity on what you intend to do each morning, which often spills out into the rest of the day.
It’s common for people who have just started a morning routine to report that their general mood increases very quickly.
Increased time
Often, following a morning routine, means that you will need to start waking up a bit earlier than is normal.
At first, this may seem counterproductive, as it will probably be hard dragging yourself out of bed earlier.
However, as you start to notice the positive benefits of following a morning ritual, it means you will start looking forward to it, and you may start waking up even earlier.
What Should a Morning Routine Look Like?
Everyone has a different view on what a morning routine should consist of.
However, you really need to find something that suits you. And more importantly, it needs to be something that you enjoy. If not, you will find it a struggle getting up every morning.
You will probably have to experiment a little bit before you find the routine that works for you.
Everyone is different and everyone will have something they prefer doing.
Sometimes it can be useful to start small and build up over time. For example, you could start by dedicating 20 minutes each morning to your routine.
As you get used to waking up earlier and performing the routine, you could slowly increase it to 30 minutes and so on.
Before you know it, you will probably be dedicating an hour to your routine every morning.
Be quick to mix things up too, if you really aren’t feeling something, change it up quickly as you don’t want to get bored and lose momentum.
7 Unique Morning Routine Ideas
The purpose of this post is to show you some morning routine ideas that you might not have come across before.
If you have read any other morning routine articles, you will see a common theme, they suggest meditating, or running, or reading.
Whilst they are all good morning routine ideas, we want to provide some fresh ideas.
Right, let’s take a look.
Try some calisthenics
Calisthenics is a type of exercise that mainly works your large muscle groups. All with hardly any equipment and mostly just your own bodyweight.
It’s extremely good for creating strength in your core and can be done absolutely anywhere.
You don’t need expensive gym equipment, just the motivation to get up and do it.
Brush your teeth with your weak hand
Bear with us on this one, I know you are probably scratching your head thinking what are they talking about.
It may sound strange, but it is a method that the famous brain trainer Jim Kwik uses in his morning routine.
The idea of it is to build new neurological pathways in your brain which helps to fight off cognitive decline.
Much like we exercise the rest of our body, it’s important we do the same for our brain to keep it fit and healthy.
The Wim Hoff Method
Wim Hoff, otherwise known as the iceman has a breathing and cold water routine you can follow.
As soon as you are awake, sit in a meditation pose.
Then do 30 power breaths (inhale through the mouth or nose, then exhale through your mouth in quick bursts).
Next, you hold your breath until you are gasping for air.
Then take a really deep breath and hold it for 10 seconds.
Repeat this 6 times and then take a cold shower.
I know what you’re thinking. That sounds like hard work. However, it has lots of benefits such as more energy, focus, and reduced inflammation.
Learn to speed read
If you enjoy reading books, then you are probably like most people who want to try and read more and more.
However, you are limited to how quickly you can actually read. This is where you practice speed reading.
Brain trainer Jim Kwik teaches how to speed read and claims he can double your reading speed.
Imagine being able to read double the amount of books!
Read inspiring quotes
By reading some inspiring quotes first thing in the morning it can really help to set the path of your day.
It helps to get you motivated straight away and will focus you to be more productive.
Depending on what it is you want to achieve that day, read some inspiring quotes on that subject.
For example, if you know you have got a lot of intense work to do today, read some inspiring productivity quotes.
Watch the sunrise
How often do you watch the sunrise? Probably not that often right.
Whenever you do watch the sunrise how good does it feel? Pretty good right.
Make it a part of your morning routine. It’s an amazing way to start any day, and it will make you feel really alive first thing in the morning.
If you have a window in your house where you can see the sunrise, make a cup of coffee and watch the sun come up.
Alternatively, take a walk to a nice spot where you can see the sunrise and take a flask of coffee with you.
Re-write your goals multiple times
Comic writer Scott Adam used this technique to become one of the most successful comic strip writers there has been.
Writing your goals down every morning and multiple times helps bring your goals in front of your mind every day.
Doing this transforms the way your brain works, and every day you will want to take action to achieve the goals you have written down.
In Summary
As you can see from the list, these aren’t your usual morning routine ideas.
Hopefully, they have given you some food for thought and there are a few in there that you would like to try out.
Our suggestion would be to add one, maybe two, to your current routine and try that for a week or so.
Don’t try to do them all at once as it will probably be quite hard to keep up with. Also, you want to try and find the ones you really enjoy.
Lastly, remember there is no perfect morning routine. You will need to experiment and find something that works for you.
Start small and slowly build it up, 20 minutes when you first start is a good amount of time to aim for.
Don’t be afraid to change things up. You may even find you like doing something for a month or so but then you want to change things up. That’s totally fine too.
It’s your morning routine, you can do what you like.
