Note: Some links in this post are affiliate links, and we will be compensated when you make a purchase by clicking through our links. Thank you. Read our disclosure + terms here.
My best friend and I were talking about what our dream day would look like and of course, that starts with our morning routine. After her and I talked about it, I really sat and thought about it.
What would my dream day look like?
And of course, I immediately went to ALL THE THINGS. I mean, I have kids, I have to get them to their activities. With kids comes illness and the flexibility to shift when I can.
So I asked myself: In my current life now, what would it look like?
That means, in all the busyness and all the kids' things, what would it look like with what I already had?
What would it feel like?
In An Ideal World
In a perfect world, I’d love to be a member of the 5am club and I’ve dabbled with it. But for this season of my life, it has to be different. And I have to be flexible. With our kids in activities in the summer and fall, I know I can’t be 100% consistent with waking up that early multiple times a week since there are some nights we aren’t even home until 10 or 10:30pm.
A non-negotiable for me is sleep. And if I don’t consistently get 7 hours of sleep a night – I’m a MESS. Which brings me back to creating my dream schedule in my current life.
If you do this with me, I know, your schedule will look COMPLETELY DIFFERENT than mine. And you’ll have different priorities than I do. That is 100% A-OK. My intention in writing and sharing this with you is to spark some ideas.
Sometimes we get stuck in things having to be a CERTAIN way and we forget that we can make a quick change. I was stuck in the, “I have to wake up at 4:30am” in order to lose weight, be successful, etc. And I realized that just isn’t true for me right now. It was a story I told myself because all the “successful” people say that.
However, I’ve been able to build a successful business without waking up at 4:30am. So I’m changing my story.
And it could be the same for you?
I have some friends that are night owls. To be honest, I’m definitely not that either. My brain is normally mush after 8 or 9pm. And I can’t be super functional at all. I mean, I’m alive and stuff LOL. I just mean that I can’t make any major decisions or have wonderful conversations or do too much personal development at that time. It’s like my wind down time on the nights we are at home. And on the nights we are at the ballpark, the most I’m doing is cheering for my kiddos and their teams.
One more caveat – this schedule will be used for MOST of Quarter 3. It is summer, so I am waking up a little bit later than normal. When school starts in September, I will get up one hour earlier.
How Do I Create A Morning Routine?
This is something I thought about too. When creating a morning routine, I really wanted to dive into creating healthy and consistent morning habits that would work really well for me.
I asked myself, “What are the non-negotiables I need in my morning for me to have a successful day?”
As I write this out, I think I will create an article on how I chose what a successful day would look like for me.
Back to the question at hand though.
Your morning routine should be personal and sacred to you. It doesn’t have to be uber magical or life changing. Butttt I promise, when you create it AND stick with it, it will actually change your life.
It can be super simple to create too.
What I did was ask myself these questions:
- How do I want to feel after I’m done with my morning routine?
- With the feeling/s that I want to feel, what activities help me to feel that way?
- What are my non-negotiables, no matter what, that I want to do in the morning?
- Outside of my workout, what activities will take me under 30 minutes to do? And that means total. Sometimes if I’ve had a rough morning or night – journaling might take a little longer. But I like having the ability to be done with it within 30 minutes.
For the non-negotiable question – I don’t necessarily LOVE meditating, but I know that my blood pressure goes down, I’m more calm and I feel more at ease. So because that is one of the feelings I want to feel, I know meditation is a non-negotiable.
For you to create your ideal morning routine, I would think about the questions above and journal around them and then list them out.
Also, remember, you’re not married to this. You can adjust this as you need to. And it’s not 100% perfect – it will be a work in progress.
And for me, it works in seasons. When my kids are in school in fall, my schedule changes. You can always adjust as you need to.
If I were you, I would journal on this and then come up with a “first draft” of your morning routine and test it out. Then adjust as you realize what works or doesn’t work for you.
My Morning Routine
After I went through that process, I knew I had to test it out and so here it goes! I hope it helps you.
Alarm will be set for 6:45am. In case you didn’t know, I’m a snoozer. So I hit snooze a couple times. My goal is to be out of my bed by 7:05am so I can be ready to go.
Once I’m out of bed, I’ll move to the living room. Of course I’ll get dressed in my workout clothes. Then I’ll head out to the kitchen.
First, because I’m just waking up, I’ll make my pre-workout drink. That normally takes about 10 to 15 minutes to kick in. While I’m drinking that, I’ll get my workout stuff ready.
Currently I’m doing LIIFT4 from Beachbody and I’m really liking it! I am starting to notice my body getting stronger. And I’m noticing that I’m getting more muscle definition on my arms. No buns of steel quite yet though – a lady can hope, right?
Once I’m done working out – I’m normally wiped and I don’t go right into the shower. I feel like when I do weightlifting workouts, I am letting out excess energy and that helps me to want to journal.
My intention with this morning extra time is to write out/journal anything I find that I’m feeling.
I’ll do EFT, which is emotional freedom technique or a simpler term is tapping. It really does help me get grounded and push things and emotions out that I don’t realize are still stuck inside.
I’ll do a 10 – 15 minute meditation. Most of the time it’s closer to 10 minutes because of my attention span.
Then I will shower and get ready for my work day.
Now with that said, work is a bit more sporadic in the summer because the kids are home. We didn’t make them go to summer school and they are doing a couple virtual camps, so it’s a lot of driving them around.
I like getting a solid 2 – 3 hours of work time done in the mornings before they start asking me to be the mom taxi.
Since I still manage Facebook, YouTube & TikTok ads for clients, what I’m normally doing is checking and updating ads, thinking through ad strategy for clients, etc.
Once I do that, then I am writing content (like this article) for my website and creating content for my brand new membership program that I’m launching soon.
Summary Of New Summer Morning Routine
For those who are like me who just like it listed out – here is a quick list view of my morning routine.
- Wake up at 6:45am, out of bed, dressed and ready to go by 7:05am
- Make my pre-workout drink and get workout weights ready
- Workout
- Write gratitude & journal around anything that is coming up
- EFT/Tapping
- Meditation/Hypnosis
- Shower & Get ready for the day
- Work
- Become mom taxi
All in all, it’s a pretty simple, yet amazing day. I do my best throughout each day to feel deep gratitude for everything I get to do (whether it’s for my clients or for kids).
It feels wonderful to talk to the kids on the car rides and it feels even more wonderful to take care of me before I pour from my cup for clients and the kids.
I notice a HUGE difference in my mood, productivity and life when I have some form of morning routine.
I want to hear from you – do you have a morning routine? How did you create it? I want to hear below!
