5 Tips to Starting and Keeping A Morning Routine

I learn something interesting with every client I work with. Sometimes, it is new tidbits of info that don’t really matter but thoroughly interest me. Other times, I get something truly of value. This is what happened when I started working with Luna Sundara. Because of my work with them, I started, and then realized the value of a morning routine.

For years, I have known that I need one. I tried Hal Elrod’s SAVERS for a few months and it never became a true habit. When my big guy was about a year, I was really good about yoga, meditation, and affirmations in the morning. He would wake up around 630 or so and we would get outside and play, and I would do my routine. It was often interrupted but always nice. Then I got pregnant, and tired, and sick, and … well… the benefits of just a few more minutes of rest seemed to outweigh the benefits of a morning routine.

Fast forward a year, and I was feeling incredibly scattered. Between work and my kiddos, I was almost always feeling behind and had a harder time than usually trying to figure out what to do next, even when I didn’t have a kid on my lap. As all you mamas know, toddlers and productivity are pretty much mutually exclusive unless you have a really good system.

One of the Luna Sundara Pinterest boards is rituals. For this board, Pinterest suggests a lot of morning routines. I knew this was the answer to some of my scattered-ness. A morning routine to gain clarity and start the day fresh and productive.

I knew that I likely couldn’t commit just yet to a SAVERs like morning. It used to take me over an hour, and while I loved it, that just isn’t it right for me right now. Getting up earlier is not something I am willing to do at this time in my life – when Bobber starts sleeping through the night, I’ll revisit this!

My Current Morning Routine

But, I still needed to re-start a morning routine. So, I started a quick one that I call it “movement, meditation, and musings” (I love alliteration!). I do a quick yoga routine, sometimes with the baby, sometimes without him. I meditate (again sometimes I’m holding him or rocking him to sleep, sometimes he’s still asleep or already napping). Then, I write.

I set a timer for 25 minutes (for the why on 25, click here) and write. I do not edit. I do not make myself stick to the same topic. I do not even ask myself to write about something work related (I have written letters to my little ones, thank you notes, even a series of tweets). I just write what I think about. Sometimes, I stick to one topic and almost complete a post (with edits scheduled for later – when I time block that out). And sometimes I write the start of five or six posts with a lot of jumping around. 

When the timer goes off, I put my computer away, get dressed and know that if nothing else goes right (or planned) that day, I have at least gotten a few things done and have moved my body a bit.

My mood has improved, I have a little more clarity each day (especially in the mornings), and I have seen my productivity increase. If nothing else, I am a tiny bit more fit, and I have the start of about 27 blog posts. 

Sometimes, my “morning routine” gets interrupted so many times that I finish it in the afternoon. Sometimes it is done by seven. Most of the time, I start it right before I get my toddler off to school and before putting my little one down for his first nap and finish it while he’s napping. I jump in the shower and start my day a little more relaxed and accomplished than I did before starting my morning routine. 

It is doing exactly what morning routine people rave about. 

5 Tips to Starting and Keeping a Morning routine:

1. Commit to it

As I mentioned, sometimes my morning routine doesn’t get done until later in the day. I get interrupted so many times that I don’t get to it in the morning. And that is ok for this time of my life. In a few years, I will have two little kids that sleep through the night (most of the time, I hope), who don’t want to snuggle with me in the mornings. I will be able to get out of bed a little before they do and have an uninterrupted routine. For now, I love those morning snuggles. I love being there the moment they wake up. So, I don’t get out of bed before them. I just commit to a routine as the routine happens. 

If this means writing and saying the words out loud while looking into my baby’s eyes at eleven a.m., that is what it means. It isn’t exactly what the productivity folks have in mind, but it works for this season of our family’s life. 

Just commit to a routine, and stick with it. If it means setting alarms do it. If it means getting up earlier, do it. Do whatever it takes to stick with it.

2. Forgive yourself

Yes, I just said commit. But be flexible. There are always going to be days when your routine is not going to happen as you planned. Just can’t. A sick kid, family in town, a very long night leading to a late start.

Do your best to get it done, but forgive yourself and jump back in tomorrow if you can’t. I am the kind of person that used to let one bad day mess up my routines. “I didn’t get to the gym yesterday either, I don’t need to today…” for weeks. Just commit and do your best, but forgive yourself and do better tomorrow if you can’t. This is a mantra of mine for so many areas of my life these days.

3. Modify when necessary

I only commit to about ten minutes of yoga in the morning. Sometimes, twenty. But the other day, my niece and nephew were over and I wanted to play with them, so I did four sun salutations, a two-minute meditation and no musings. I called it a success. 

If you can’t do your full routine, try a modified version. You still get the benefits of the routine. And more importantly, keeping up the habit keeps up the habit.

Also, allow it to evolve. Since I’ve started mine, the timing has continued to change as has the order. I have lengthened the meditation portion as I have gotten better at it. I used to write until I got to a certain amount of words, but now I just do a timer. My goal is to add a bit of reading in the next few months. If we end up taking a walk in the morning, I’ll skip yoga.

It is important that it works for you. Obviously, you want to create a habit, but a habit is only good if it serves you. Allow your routine to evolve so it continues to make your life better.

4. Find a routine that challenges you but isn’t overwhelming

You can always add to it later. If you are overwhelmed by your morning routine, you likely won’t stick to it. (see above re: my failed commitment to SAVERS during pregnancy). Don’t decide that from now on, you are going to work out for an hour every day before your kids get up and then spend 20 minutes meditating and another 20 reading self-improvement books. For most of us, starting out like that is a bit unrealistic, not to mention discouraging.

Start small and add to it. Start by getting up just a few minutes earlier and doing a quick meditation or taking a walk. Make it doable and expandable. Add to it when you can. For me, my morning ritual isn’t about testing my limits but more about starting my day well. Overextending myself is not a great way to start my day.

I will get back to the full routine at some point, but for now, my current routine is the best I can do, and is working for us as a family. 

5. Keep track

I use the Insight Timer app to keep track of meditation and yoga and paper planner to check off my musings. I love the “milestones” on Insight Timer and seeing my musings checked off each day. It motivates me to keep going when I have 10, 15, 20+ days in a row. And it is especially motivating on the days when I know I will be short on time or my schedule is off.

By keeping track, I have stayed consistent. I am now on day 51. I know it is certainly enough time that I know it is a habit and have seen the results.  

Do you have a morning routine? Have you noticed a difference in the way it makes you feel the rest of the day? What do you do and how do you stay consistent?