Richard Branson works out and spends time with his family. Julianne Hough pays daily gratitude and Steve Jobs asked himself daily, ‘If today was the last day of my life, would I want to do what I’m doing today?’.

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Morning routines are essential to many hugely successful people around the world, but what makes them special is they are unique to each and every person - there is no set morning routine that works for one person and another..

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Before we start, in case you’re not already convinced. Here are just a few of some of the major health benefits of a morning routine:

• Increased energy
• Reduced stress
• Clearer mind
• A sense of accomplishment
• Create momentum for the rest of the day
• Reduce depression
• A sense of structure to your day

The benefits really are endless and everyone will experience different positives depending on not only the individual, but also what you decide to add to your own morning routine.

5 steps to get help you create your own morning routine

This is completely up to you! No two people are the same, so everyone should have different morning routines. There is no right way about it, and usually a lot of experimentation is required to find that perfect balance! The list below will help you start to think about how you can create your own routine:

1. Start to think about things you are comfortable with doing.
2. Think of a goal that you want to get from your routine. It doesn’t have to be anything big, maybe ‘I want to feel more awake in the mornings’
3. Prioritise these tasks in an order that suits you (Lowest to most effort for example).
4. Ensure you have given yourself enough time to complete your routine
5. Experiment! After a while, you may want to introduce or get rid of certain activities depending on the day or mood for example. There is no pressure to stick to your first routine!
   
   

25 activities to add to your own morning routine:

If you’re looking for some ideas to add to your morning routine, then this list will help. We’ve split these out into two categories - body and mind. It’s important to look after both of these so we recommend picking a few from each category to get you started!

Body:

Cold shower

Exercise

Breathing exercises

Drink water

Stretch

Cardio

Weights

Intermittent fasting

Vitamins

Stay off social media and emails

Wake up early / at the same time

Smile

Take your dog for a walk

Mind:

Journal

Read

Coffee / Tea

Watch the sun rise

Pay gratitude

Puzzle/Suduko

Listen to music

Affirmations

Make your bed

Meditation

Write a to-do list

Draw / Paint

This list is limitless! Take a few of these and incorporate with your own activities and you’ll soon have a list of things that will benefit your body and mind, ensuring that you’re on the right path to a successful morning routine!

How can I keep on top of a morning routine and build consistency?

Morning routines can be difficult to stick to. A bad night's sleep, a stressful day at work or normally a few drinks can often throw your morning routine off course very quickly!

It’s important to accept this if it happens and instead of beating yourself up about it or giving up completely, recognise it, accept it and try to start again the next day.

After a few days or weeks you will begin to really see a shift in mood and productivity throughout the day when you complete your morning routine, and a lack of both when you don’t.

Here are a few tips we recommend on how to build consistency.

1. Even if you don’t want to do them all, try and do at least one
2. Have someone hold you accountable
3. Start with the easiest tasks first
4. Use the Routine app to create your own routine and help stay on top of things

“On average we have 25,000 mornings in our adult life. Make them count.”

What does the research say?

There is some fascinating research out there that shows that those who carry out a consistent morning routine, not only feel more energised but are more likely to be successful in their careers.

This Harvard research paper carried out a study with 367 university students, looking at how having a productive morning routine and feeling energised may affect their day-to-day activities.

The results showed that a much higher percentage of those who had been applying a morning routine agreed more with statements such as “I spend time identifying long-range goals for myself” and “I feel in charge of making things happen.”

Now this doesn’t say that if you don’t have a morning routine then you won’t be successful, but there is definitely a correlation between starting your day strong and taking that momentum with you throughout the day.

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Experiment with what works for you

You have to focus on what works for you and makes you feel good.

Think about why you want to have a morning routine.

Once you’ve started, you won’t want to stop

Talk about differences in when you do your routine and when you don’t

When will I notice a difference?

This is different for everyone and depends what activities you have in your routine! It’s important to say that having a morning routine will not solve all of your problems, but it will set you up to give yourself the best chance to win each day.

How long should my morning routine take?

It really doesn’t matter, there are no set times. As long as you set aside the time to complete your own routine then this can take anywhere from 5minutes to an hour or more!

How to set enough time aside for your morning routine?

This is the least fun of all, but getting into a healthy sleeping routine and consistently going to bed and waking up at the same time will massively help. Being able to get up in the mornings at a consistent time is the first step of everyone’s morning routine!

If you start work at 9am and know your routine will take 30 minutes to complete then it’s probably a safe bet to wake up at the latest of 8:15am or so to give yourself some time either side.

It’s all about trial and error, figuring out what works and what doesn’t for yourself. You’ll get there though!