Five New Morning Habits I’ve Introduced This Year

You won’t be surprised to hear that this isn’t the first time I’ve written about morning routines and morning habits.

I used to be obsessed with reading the morning habits of successful people over on Career Girl Daily.

It’s taken me a very long time to create morning habits and a routine that sticks that I actually look forward to. Here’s what my morning habits looked like in 2018.

I read The Miracle Morning a month ago and didn’t find the book very useful, however, it’s only since reading the book that I’ve adapted morning habits that I actually stick to.

Submissive messaging? Maybe. Anyway, I always like to share what I’ve learnt, so here are five morning habits that I’ve introduced to my morning routine which has made a great improvement to my life.

Related Morning Habits blog post to read: How Successful People do Mornings

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5 New Morning Habits I’ve Introduced

These are the five new morning habits I’ve introduced into my life and that are changing my mornings for the better.

1. Waking Up Earlier

Pretty obvious, right? Well, it’s harder than it sounds. Especially when working from home for 9 months and your commute is 30 steps from your bed to the dining table.

To stop yourself from getting into a slump and slouching over your laptop first thing in the morning, set yourself a target to wake up 30 minutes earlier than you have been, for an entire month.

Then do the same the next month, waking 30 minutes earlier again. Repeat the process until you wake up naturally at your desired time.

For me, I spent December waking at 7.30am, even on weekends. This January I’ve been waking at 7am every morning. I’ll be extending this to 6.30am in February and I think that’s going to be where I stop.

The more time that you give yourself, the more you find things to do during that time. The more time you give yourself, the more life you give yourself. Maybe I’ll check back in again in April and be waking up at 5am, who knows.

2. Reading Every Morning

This is probably why I look forward to my mornings so much. And in order to get up earlier than you want to, you will need to give yourself something to look forward to – think of it as the carrot and stick approach.

In December, I was waking at 7.30am and spending the first hour of my day still in bed but reading. It’s what helped me read 78 books in a year, and I always felt a lot better after getting out of bed having read 50+ pages of my book.

Reading every day is a habit I’ve introduced to my morning routine and one that will be staying. This month, as I’m waking earlier at 7am, I’m giving myself only 30-45 minutes to read in bed before going on to do something else with my morning before starting my work day.

And before I even pick up my book in the morning I start by…

3. Making a Cup of Coffee

It’s probably not the best advice to promote drinking coffee first thing in the morning but don’t we all do it anyway? There’s no hydrating before caffeinating over here sir.

Turn your alarm clock up, get straight out of bed and head for the kitchen. Make yourself a cup of coffee and bring it back to bed and snuggle up with your current book.

Here is a list of the books I read in December for some inspiration.

I found that turning my alarm clock off and picking up my book straight away involved me heading straight back to snoozetown after two lines on the page. Getting up and making that first cup of coffee however, wide awake and alert to read 50 pages.

The coffee really does make the difference!

4. Writing and Journaling

This was one of Hal Elrod’s tips in his Miracle Morning book, but not one I ever took on board until this month.

Before starting my working day, I now sit at my laptop and write a few lines about things that I’m grateful for, what I want to achieve that day and anything nice that happened to me the previous day.

I enjoy the habit of writing in the morning and putting some thoughts to keyboard.

Writing is meant to be therapeutic, it helps to clear the mind and also helps you to process the thoughts running wild inside your brain.

Set ten minutes aside in the morning to write and you’ll feel all the better for it. Here are some prompts to help:

• Today I’m grateful for…
• Today I’m planning to…
• Yesterday this happened…
• I’m excited for…
• I love waking up early in the morning because…

5. Working on Myself

Getting up a lot earlier gives me more time to work on my own projects. I can write some blog posts, update my blog, create Pinterest pins, posts for my Instagram or spend time interacting with people on social media.

Working a 9-5 job and having a blog that I like to post on three times a week doesn’t leave me with much free time, so the more time I can gift to myself, the better.

I’ve also got a few new projects lined up for 2021 so I’m going to really have to stick at waking up earlier every day to be able to make them happen.

So, if there are things you want to work on or create but ‘don’t have the time,’ make time. Yes, really, you can create time by waking up earlier. And you’ll feel great for it, believe me.

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