The way you start your day can affect your whole day. Rise up, start fresh, and see the bright opportunity that’s coming. A good morning routine checklist can help you be productive. It’s the successful people’s habits on starting the day.
Successful people have a variety of different morning habits. What they do have in common, though, is that they’ve put in place a morning routine checklist that helps them to focus their energies and be productive throughout the day.
Lots of books have been written that focus on the habits of successful people. Podcasts, websites, and seminars help individuals to adopt the habits of these high achievers. If you’re looking for an area to start developing healthy habits, your morning routine may be a good place to start.
Even not all successful people do all of this morning routine checklist all the time, but these habits are shared by many of the most successful individuals. Here are the six-morning routine of highly successful people.
1. Meditate or sit silently
Number one in the morning routine checklist, meditate. A significant number of successful people start their day with meditation. Meditation or sitting silently can help you to lower stress levels, focus on what matters, and reflect on the day to come.
When you start your day with meditation, you can increase your overall well-being. By starting your day this way, you set yourself up for a productive and successful day. Meditating allows you to start the day grounded and can provide you with a calm that stays with you throughout the day.
There are a lot of ways you can practice silence or meditation. Some people like guided meditations, which you can find through apps, on YouTube, or in podcasts. These guided meditations give you something to focus on, which is good if you’re new to meditation.
Others like to spend a few minutes alone to quietly reflect on the day ahead of them. They may do this while sipping their coffee or sitting still in bed.
Some individuals benefit by having a notebook nearby to write down things that come to mind so they can deal with those things later.
“Meditation is like a gym in which you develop the powerful mental muscles of calm and insight.”
– Ajahn Brahm
2. Get enough rest
One of the best things you can do each morning is to wake up feeling fully rested. Make sure that you go to bed early enough each night to allow you plenty of time to rest before you need to get up in the morning.
A good night’s rest is the foundation for a successful day. It’s true. Getting enough rest is on the list of the morning routine checklist.
When you don’t get enough rest, you won’t be at your best. The best morning routine in the world won’t help you if you don’t get enough sleep.
Many successful people have a morning routine checklist that takes an hour to complete. If you need to wake up earlier to accommodate your morning routine, it’s important that you get to bed early enough to get plenty of rest.
When you get enough sleep, you’ll be ready to get the most out of your morning routine. Before you can think about being productive, you need to make sure you are meeting your basic needs.
“Sleep is an investment in the energy you need to be effective tomorrow.”
– Tom Roth
3. Make your bed
A lot of people recommend starting the day by making your bed. It’s a compulsory one in the morning routine checklist. When you make your bed every morning, you start the day by completing one task.
Sometimes the momentum you gain from completing that one simple task is the push you need to complete other tasks. When you accomplished something, even if it’s just making your bed, you set yourself up to successfully complete more tasks throughout the day.
The best part is that if you don’t complete anything else, at least you’ll have a neatly made bed to return to when it’s time to go to bed again. Having your bed neat and your sleeping area comfortable will also contribute to you getting enough rest.
4. Exercise in the morning
Exercise is another thing on the morning routine checklist. When you take time to exercise in the morning, it helps you to wake up and feel more focused. Although it takes energy to work out, working out can also give you energy for the rest of your day.
Exercising in the morning doesn’t have to be something long or strenuous. You can do some jumping jacks, a few stretches, or a short yoga routine. Even if your workout only lasts five minutes, you still benefit from it.
Some people prefer to go for a job, take a long walk, or go to the gym. If you’re just getting started with a morning workout, these things may not be good options because they require more of a commitment.
When deciding on a morning workout routine, pick a workout that works for you and that you know you’ll stick with. For a start, you may choose a five-minute workout until you build up endurance for a longer workout.
If you have physical limitations that prevent you from having a full workout, learn a few stretches that you can do each morning. You can do some stretches from bed before you even get up to start your day. Even simple stretches can give you energy and improve concentration.
“The only bad workout is the one that didn’t happen.”
– Anonymous
5. Plan your day
Successful people don’t become successful by accident. As part of their morning routine checklist, most of them take the time to plan their day.
You can use a paper planner, an app on your phone, or your calendar to plan out your day. The format doesn’t matter as much as your ability to commit to planning the same way each day.
Before you plan your tasks for the day, look at your schedule to see what commitments are already on your schedule. Appointments, meetings, and other errands may be at a fixed time. If you have a meeting at three in the afternoon, you know you can’t use that time to finish a project.
After you’ve blocked out the time you’re spending on fixed commitments, determine how much time you have to get things done. Create your to-do list for the day based on what needs to get done and how much time you have to be productive.
Your daily to-do list should be reasonable, but challenging. It isn’t reasonable to expect that you’ll get ten hours of work done in three hours. So don’t schedule your day like you expect that to happen.
You also don’t want a to-do list that is too light, because you want to challenge yourself to be productive throughout the day.
Personally, I like to write two to-do lists. The first list includes two or three items that you need to complete that day. The second list includes more items that I can work on if I finish up the other items with time to spare. That way, I don’t have to spend time throughout my day deciding what I’m going to do next.
“By Failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail.”
– Benjamin Franklin
6. Create a morning routine that works for YOU
The most important thing to keep in mind when making your morning routine checklist is that it’s a morning routine that works for you.
Successful people create morning routines that work for their specific needs. While some may spend time cooking a big breakfast, others may spend that time reading a book.
Your morning routine should be something that gives you energy and helps you focus throughout the day. It should equip you to be productive.
For some people, that will mean spending more time working out. Others might find that reading a book over breakfast helps them to mentally prepare for the day. Still, others might enjoy using their morning time to catch up on listening to podcasts.
What matters is that your morning routine is one that helps you to be the best, healthiest, and most productive.
While the other five morning habits above are helpful, it’s okay to eliminate them if they aren’t giving their intended result. Highly successful people have taken the time to figure out what systems and habits help them to be high achievers.
Your morning routine checklist might take time for you to develop. It’s okay to try things and decide later that they don’t work for you. As you learn what habits are helpful and which ones aren’t, you’ll be able to create a morning routine that helps you to be your best self.
Conclusion
A morning routine checklist can help you to be successful, productive, healthy, and happy. While there are some building blocks that are used to create a good morning routine, what matters is that the routine you create is in place and followed consistently.
Your morning routine is not going to develop overnight. While I’ve listed the six-morning habits, it might help you to focus on one or two until you can do them consistently.
