You don’t need to browse a gazillion sites to find the best morning routine ideas for adults. Adulting is already hard.
Having to sift through a list of 100+ ideas is just a huge waste of time. You’re better off rolling over and going back to sleep.
So how do you find a productive morning routine that works?
The answer is simple: you study the habits of highly productive people.
Yes, that’s really all you have to do. Once you figure out their secrets, you can steal them and make them part of your morning routine.
Now, you probably don’t have the time to find and study productive people. After all, getting out of bed is already a struggle.
Thankfully, all the hard work has been done for you.
In this post, you’ll learn what the most productive people do every morning.
So grab your favorite brew and let’s get to it.
7 Best Morning Routine Ideas for Adults
After researching and analyzing the habits of 250+ highly productive people, these were the most common morning routines among them.
1. Avoid the snooze button
Raise your hand if your morning routine often starts with the phrase “just five more minutes.”
Keep it raised if you also smash the snooze button and roll over to count more sheep.
To you, that might seem funny and harmless. But to a highly productive person, it can have a significantly negative impact on their life.
Why? Because that small routine has the potential to become a dangerous habit.
It’s the type of habit that makes you oversleep, repeatedly late for work/priorities, and constantly tired throughout the day.
That’s why most people act like zombies in the morning and find themselves rushing to get stuff done in the afternoon.
Productive people don’t have this problem. They use alarms to avoid oversleeping. If the alarm wakes them up, they turn it off, get out of bed, and begin their day.
If you want to do the same, start by setting a 6-8 hour alarm. If it wakes you, don’t hit snooze. Just get up!
Soon your body will adapt and you’ll find yourself waking up before the alarm feeling totally fresh and energized.
2. Show appreciation for what you have
How often do you wake up and feel grateful for what you have? Your family, your pets, your friends, your life, etc.
It sounds crazy but it’s something that most people take for granted. Everyone just assumes they’ll keep waking up every morning.
But they hardly stop to think, “I’m blessed to have another day to live.”
Why? Because the average person wakes up with a million things on their mind. And most of it is negative stuff like worrying about money, bills, being late, etc. It’s pretty sad.
On the flip-side, productive people understand that being grateful for what you have can benefit your life.
Just a tiny dose of positivity can change the way you interact with people or even perform at work.
You can express gratitude for virtually anything in your life. For instance, hearing your kids’ voices, feeling the sunshine on your face, or being able to open your eyes and see the world.
This one simple exercise can have a tremendous effect on your attitude and perception for the rest of the day.
So take a moment to appreciate something every morning while you still can. You won’t regret it!
3. Meditate to clear your mind
This may seem like a silly morning routine, but it isn’t.
Some folks think meditation involves sitting cross-legged and chanting affirmations. Yes, a few people like to do that. But productive people do things differently.
You see, morning meditation is all about calming your mind in preparation for your daily activities. This sharpens your focus and improves your productivity.
So how can you adopt this routine?
The first step is to find an activity you like that makes you feel chill. Then you want to spend some time doing that activity to get your mind ready for the day.
Here are some examples of how productive people meditate:
- Reading
- Stretching
- Running/walking
- Working Out
- Deep Breathing
- Praying
- Journaling
- Sitting in a quiet space
Once you find a meditation activity, add it to your morning routine and commit to doing it every day. After a while, it will become a regular habit.
4. Eat a healthy breakfast
Having breakfast is the most important thing you can do in the morning.
Unfortunately, millions of Americans choose to skip it. And those who are always rushing out the house (i.e. late), usually end up in the fast food drive thru line.
Obviously, productive people rarely experience either scenario. They understand the importance of a healthy breakfast.
Without breakfast, your body will have nothing to replace the energy spent during sleep. And your morning will feel like a drag.
Even if you grab coffee and/or fast food, those are nothing more than a pick-me-up. They won’t give you the essential nutrients as say a healthy smoothie or a bowl of oats and some fruit.
Now this is the part where people say, “there’s no time to make breakfast.”
But that’s just a bullsh*t excuse. You can totally make time by planning for it.
Look, no one is saying you have to make a feast. You can easily find tons of quick breakfast recipes online.
The important thing is that eating a healthy meal after you wake up will fuel your morning productivity.
5. Plan your day wisely
If you’re like everyone else, 24 hours doesn’t seem like enough time to get stuff done.
But to productive people, 24 hours is a finite resource that needs to be fully utilized as efficiently as possible everyday.
That’s why managing time is so important to them — especially more than money.
Unsurprisingly, productive people tend to be successful in life. The A+ student, the star athlete, the musician, the CEO, etc. All of them have one thing in common…
They follow a meticulously planned daily routine.
Some use digital tools, others prefer physical planners, and the real ballers hire assistants to manage their daily to-do lists.
As a result, they can accomplish more in 24 hours than most people do in a week. And you can too. But first you need to get a grip on your time.
Start by analyzing your days, then schedule your priorities accordingly. Use your phone/computer’s calendar or buy a daily planner.
Try to stick to your schedule and tweak it as you go. Eventually, your productivity will gradually increase.
NOTE: Your time is finite. Unlike money, you can’t make more of it. So be mindful how you spend your most valuable and limited resource.
6. Do your most important tasks in the morning
After planning your day, the next step is to take action on your most high-level tasks.
Productive people don’t waste time browsing social media or checking emails in the morning.
They immediately tackle that one major task that deserves their attention. Otherwise, it will just get pushed aside and probably forgotten as the day goes on.
Focusing on your important tasks in the morning actually makes sense. That’s because you enter a peak state of clarity after waking up, meditating, and eating. This makes you energized to start working on projects you’d likely procrastinate on.
You’ll also get a much better dopamine hit from completing those tasks rather than reading emails or tweets.
So whether you work from home or at the office, start your workday by focusing on your biggest tasks first.
7. Let your morning routine energize your day
You don’t need an energy drink to get through the day. The hard work you put in is enough fuel.
Those early morning wins will help you stay positive about the rest of your day.
That’s why highly productive people pack so much into their mornings. It’s energizing, and gives them sustained productivity throughout the day.
Now, this doesn’t mean you’re free to dick around in the afternoon!
It actually means you’ll feel good knowing that you’re less likely to be rushing late in the day, trying to catch up on incomplete tasks.
Ultimately, you should be able to reflect on your efforts and see that you successfully utilized every hour of your day.
Final Take
As you can see, this list isn’t like most morning routine ideas for adults.
It’s simple and actionable. You can start using it right now to increase your productivity.
BTW, you’re not going to master these routines overnight. It’ll take baby steps. You’ll probably miss a few days, and some days may be harder than others.
The important thing to remember is that you’re working to develop good habits. It took years to grow the bad ones, but they can definitely be replaced. So be patient.
Stick to your routine and be consistent. It’ll pay off. And you’ll eventually have a super effective morning routine.
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