What do Oprah Winfrey, Steve Jobs and Tim Ferriss have in common? They each have been known to adopt healthy morning rituals into their daily routines to jumpstart their days. As we all know, how you feel and what you do when you wake up and start your morning routine can dictate how the rest of your day goes.
Whether you’re getting up at 6 A.M. and heading to work, or you’re rolling out of bed at 11 A.M. and immediately logging onto your work email, it helps to have a consistent morning ritual.
Just ask CreativeLive co-founder, Chase Jarvis how seriously he takes his morning ritual.
In the morning, you need to get into a good headspace, satisfy your body, and have clarity about the important tasks ahead of you. If you don’t, you’re going to find it difficult to stay productive and alert until your workday is finished. Even if you’re a night owl and not necessarily a morning person, find a way to adopt a few daily rituals into your mornings instead of hitting that snooze button.
Let’s take a look at five of the best morning rituals you can undertake, to help ensure that you’ll have the capacity to work hard throughout your day.
1. Eat a Healthy Breakfast
You can never compromise on breakfast. It’s going to give you the energy you need to not only be focused all day long, but it’ll also keep you from overeating at lunch and dinner.
Eat within an hour of waking up, and prepare foods that carry health benefits. According to Prevention, you need foods that are rich with fiber, Vitamin D, calcium, and omega-3’s, because this combination keeps blood sugar and energy levels steady. Some options may include whole wheat pancakes with flaxseed, cream of wheat with walnuts, cranberries, and syrup, and a broiled egg, tomato, and spinach sandwich.
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2. Reach for a Bottle of Water
Dehydration can give you a headache and make it hard for you to concentrate at work. When you first wake up, you should drink about four glasses, or 640ml of water, according to The Mind Unleashed. Along with curing dehydration, water gives you an energy boost. Before you drink your first cup of coffee or tea, try some water.
3. Move Your Body
Exercise gets your endorphins going, which means that you’re going to have more energy during the day. According to Huffington Post, if you work out in the morning, you’ll have better mental clarity for 4 to 10 hours.
When you first jump out of bed, you should do an activity that serves as a neural morning primer, according to BodyBuilding.com. This is a small workout that you only do for five to 10 minutes, and the goal is to alert your nervous system, get your blood flowing, and introduce oxygen, which will get your brain going.
Your neural morning primer needs to include a static stretch, and at least one movement like lunges or jump squats. You want to do something that will get your heart rate up make your breathing labored. If you want to focus on building up or slimming down certain parts of your body, the neural morning primer is when you should do these critical exercises.
4. Meditation Practice
Meditation can center you and help you focus. According to Foundr, it has the power to stimulate creativity, improve your memory, and decrease stress. If you’ve got a big day ahead of you, meditation may be exactly what you need to conquer your fears and anxiety.
If you want to combine meditation with your exercises, try yoga. If you want your meditation and exercise routines to be separate from one another, you can experiment with a number of different meditation techniques. Try taking a class (like Meditation for Everyday Life) or researching the various methods for effective meditation.
5. Create Your To-Do List
According to Mashable, only two percent of people can actually multitask. Don’t trick yourself into thinking you can drink a cup of coffee, talk to a client, and answer your emails simultaneously. You need to take your day one step at a time.
This is where a to-do list comes in handy. As soon as you get to your desk in the morning (you can try doing this the night before, too), do a “brain dump” and write down every single task you hope to accomplish that day. By making up your list, you won’t feel overwhelmed or disorganized. Instead, you can see what needs completed and then think about what you need to do to accomplish your goals.
Want more productivity tips and simple rituals you can add to your morning habits? Check out What the Most Successful People Do Before Breakfast and Organize Your Paperwork right here on CreativeLive.
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