Reclaim Your Mornings with A Personalized Routine
Whether your mornings are scheduled out by the minute or you go with the flow, you can probably benefit from making some adjustments to your everyday routine. Morning routines are important because they clock those small achievements right out of the gate and encourage consistency that helps you to tackle the rest of the day.
If you’re feeling out of control these days, there’s a way to reclaim one of the most important times of each day: your mornings.
Personalize Your Routine
Operating at the executive level means intense, super early mornings, right? Not necessarily. Just because the typical routine once looked like a 5 a.m. wake up and workout followed by a grapefruit, coffee, and a newspaper during the Wall Street era, doesn’t mean it has to stay that way. We challenge you to counter the productivity stereotypes to find what works best for you. Take the time to really learn what your body and mind likes and needs and use that as a baseline to set your plans. If you’re someone who likes to exercise in the morning, brainstorm different workout options you’ll stick to. If you need a balanced breakfast before heading to the office, have a few go-to meals on hand. If you need to spend your morning puttering instead of sprinting, block out your calendar. Don’t set yourself up to fail (or burnout) by trying to be someone you’re not. The best routine is all about finding and doing what truly works best for you, what gives you the most energy, and sets you up for success.
Timing is Everything
Your mornings might feel like an endless battle deciding what to do with the limited waking hours before the work day begins. This struggle can be traced back to the night before. According to the CDC, over one third of adults surveyed in the U.S. said they don’t get the recommended amount of sleep. The solution to this is not one-size-fits-all. If you’re consistently waking up exhausted, try a week with your alarm clock set an hour later. If you barely make it to the office on time, plan to wake up earlier to add some leisure to your mornings. If your most creative hours begin at 11 p.m., try to use pen and paper instead of a blue screen to capture your prime energy without sacrificing healthy sleep hygiene. One adjustment we can all make is to manage our cortisol awakening response, or the surge in the stress hormone’s secretion during the first 30 to 45 minutes after you wake up. Incorporating various habits like adequate sleep and exercise can balance your cortisol levels throughout the day, biologically helping with productivity. Like many things in life, you must strike a balance between what you want to do and what is best for you. With trial and error, you can reclaim control of your time and build momentum that takes you throughout the rest of your day.
Structure, Not Schedule
Once you’ve experimented with different habits, it can be tempting to create a precise schedule of your most optimal morning routine. While there are benefits to giving yourself structure, you don’t need over-scheduling to have a successful morning. In fact, this kind of rigidity can lead you to feel rocked by unavoidable changes that might otherwise fuel your anxiety. If you’re someone who frequently travels for business or has inconsistent meeting times, try making a list of various morning routines that can be mixed and matched depending on your needs. One method to assist with these transitions is to avoid decision fatigue via self-regulatory behaviors. Try creating a rough outline of your morning the night before — lay out your workout clothes, put a new coffee filter in the machine, or prep for tomorrow’s meetings. Eliminating these simple decisions from your morning will give you more time to use however you see fit. As an executive tasked with making high-quality decisions, you should aim to be in a state of flow — the experience of being completely concentrated on the present moment. Your mornings can dictate if you feel behind and off track or if you feel accomplished and ready to make progress. Be intentional with how you spend them.
Whether you make a small adjustment or completely redesign your current mornings, this refresh will bring you a new sense of clarity and purpose — one that can be seen in your personal and professional lives.
