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Do you believe you’re “just not a morning person”? Have you tried to build the perfect morning routine checklist, but you never seem to wake up early enough to follow it?
Does your morning routine include hitting snooze twice, rushing to get dressed, and hastily eating processed food while you commute to work, raging at every other commuter because you’re already late?
If you have kids, your morning is likely even more chaotic.
Or maybe you’re passionate about personal improvement. So, you created a morning routine checklist that involves doing squats while you brush your teeth, taking a cold shower, and chugging a disgusting green juice powder. Despite following all the right self-improvement tips, you dread your mornings.
Here’s how to completely revamp your approach and join the 5 am club. I can speak to this topic because I was a night owl my whole life. But a few years ago, I embraced slow living and designed a morning routine checklist that helped me get my life together. And actually look forward to my mornings. This is how I did it.
Cut Out Time-Sucking Activities
If you audit your morning routine, you’ll discover quite a few time wasters. These keep you rushing and perpetually late in the morning. Here are some common ones to eliminate:
- Checking your phone. Don’t get sucked into bad news, pointless social media scrolling, and certainly not your work e-mail.
- A multi-step beauty routine. Simplify your beauty routine to create room for a slow, calm morning.
- Too many healthy habits. This sounds counterintuitive but hear me out. I collected lots of healthy habits I was “supposed” to do in the morning (workout meditation, hot lemon water, etc.). My life changed for the better when I eliminated most of them. Stuffing your weekday mornings with every healthy tip you’ve read is a recipe for stress.
- Buying coffee or breakfast out. Invest in a way to make great coffee at home. It will save you a shocking amount of time. (I am in love with my Nespresso machine and milk frother.)
- Figuring out what to wear. Simplify your closet and create a capsule wardrobe.
- Sitting in bed after your alarm goes off. Once you build a morning routine checklist you actually enjoy, you’ll have much more motivation to jump out of bed and start it.
The goal of cutting out these non-essential activities is to create space and ease in your morning schedule.
Add Activities You Love to Your Morning Routine Checklist
Many of us feel like we can’t do things we love in the morning because we’re “wasting time” or we’ll be late for work. But the slow living approach to mornings is completely different.
If you dread most of the activities in your morning routine checklist, you’re going to languish in bed until it’s so late that you need to rush out the door.
Instead, build in activities you enjoy. Yes, you’re allowed to do things you like before work in the morning! Here are some ideas:
- Read a book while you drink your coffee
- Do a gentle yoga routine
- Eat your favorite food
- Make yourself a decadent latte
See the Ideas section below for more suggestions for enjoyable activities to add to your morning routine checklist.
How to Start Earlier
Waking up early helps keep your morning calm. An early start and a simple routine mean you can move through your routine slowly and mindfully.
As I said above, I was a night owl until my mid-thirties and assumed it would never change. But I ended up turning it around completely. I love being up before my toddler and setting a calm tone before the chaos begins. Three things made a huge difference…
- Building things I loved into my morning routine checklist (reading, writing, a delicious latte)
- Eliminating things I dreaded (HIIT workout, fighting with my hair, digging through an overstuffed wardrobe to find an outfit)
- Improving my sleep hygiene (being disciplined about going to bed at a specific time, reading a book instead of scrolling, avoiding caffeine after noon, setting the lights low and winding down for an hour before bed)
Tips to Set the Tone for Your Morning Routine Checklist
Setting a calm and peaceful tone helps you enjoy your slow morning. Here are some ideas to create the perfect slow living atmosphere in the morning:
- Keep the lights low. For example, I love lighting candles and using my Himalayan salt lamp.
- Tidy up the evening before so you wake to a calm space
- Wear something cozy – slippers, a robe, etc.
- Light a scented candle or use an aromatherapy diffuser
- Open the windows to let in fresh air
- Eat something before you drink any caffeine. This prevents the energy spike and crash.
- Use your favorite dishes for breakfast
- Eat and drink seasonally. For example, in the fall, make a pumpkin space latte. In the summer, put fresh strawberries on your yogurt.
- Create a morning nook – a cozy corner with a comfortable chair, soft lightning, a blanket, and a surface to eat breakfast and/or write.
- Arrange tools for your beauty routine in a beautiful way, so it feels like a ritual, not a chore.
A Quick Note for Parents
I’m guessing any parents reading this are skeptical. You might be saying this whole idea is impossible for you because your kids wake up at 6 and immediately start high-speed chaos.
My honest recommendation is to wake up an hour earlier than your kids. If you follow the tips above, you can join the 5 am club! Because you’ll actually be looking forward to your morning instead of dreading it.
Imagine how calm and patient you’d be with your kids if you started your morning slowly instead of letting their yelling wake you up.
Ideas for Your Morning Routine Checklist
You don’t need to jam all these ideas into your morning routine checklist. Pick a few.
If you like variety, you can do a slightly different routine each day of the week.
- Make yourself a latte or tea latte
- Read a chapter of a book for pleasure
- Pull a tarot card and journal a paragraph about what it means for your day
- Write last night’s dream and ponder its meaning
- Do a 15-minute gentle yoga routine
- Do a short breathwork exercise
- Take a short walk and a listen to the sounds of nature
- Sit by a sunlit window and set an intention for your day
- Listen to music and make your favorite breakfast
- Watch the sunrise with coffee. (Even better with your pet on your lap!)
- Write 3 things you’re grateful for
- Write your top priority for the day
- Do a 10-minute meditation
- Write morning pages – a brain dump to clear your mind
- Play nature sounds and answer a journal prompt
- Do something creative – draw, write – whatever you enjoy. Don’t tell yourself it has to be “good.”
- Jot a to-do list for the day. Make it simple, not aspirational.
- Mindfully observe your body. Notice what’s achy and stretch intuitively.
- Review a list of your goals for the year to sharpen your focus
- Stare at your vision board and daydream about the life you’re creating for a few minutes
- Watch a YouTube video from a creator who inspires you
- Review your goals for the week and choose a couple to accomplish today
- If you’re religious, read a passage of scripture
- If you’re spiritual, create a mini altar with a crystals and herbs representing how you want to feel today
- Care for your houseplants
- Make a simmer pot dedicated to the mood you want to create today
What Do You Think?
What’s on your morning routine checklist? Have you tried any of the ideas above? I’d love to hear your experiences in the comments!
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