A perfect morning routine; Is there anything like that?
Maybe for many of us, the perfect morning routine is waking up with the alarm, taking a shower, getting ready for work, eating a healthy and nutritious breakfast before 8 a.m., and then reaching your workplace on time.
But in reality, we have already hit the snooze button many times. We roll out of bed in a hurry to get ready for the day and then threw together anything edible for breakfast to gulp down on the way to work. We are stressed and disorganized even before the start of our day.
When your morning routine is simple, it serves as an anchor of simplicity and an organized day. A minimalist morning routine streamlines your morning activities to focus on the essentials. It cuts out the unnecessary and creates a calm, focused start to your day.
Embracing minimalism doesn’t only eliminate daunting tasks from your morning, but rather allows you to intentionally choose tasks and practices that can set the stage for a day filled with purpose, productivity, and well-being.
How Can a Minimalist Morning Routine Reframe Your Day?
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1. Creates a Blank Slate
A minimalist morning routine ensures enough room that allows for change.
A morning routine with minimal tasks doesn’t sound productive, but it has the potential to create a base for your entire day. For those people whose daily routine keeps changing because of their work nature, a minimalist morning routine provides a blank slate for a morning. Apart from your basic daily chores, you can add or take things to your routine as per your needs and work demands.
2. Setting the Stage for Mindfulness
With a minimalist morning routine, you can focus on the essentials and eliminate the unnecessary clutter that can cloud your mind. By starting your day with intentional acts and simplicity, you let mindfulness create space and clarity. And this mental clarity directs your day with a sense of purpose and motivation.
3. You Get to Set Your Day’s Tone
The way you start and spend your mornings is how you set the tone for the rest of your day.
The simplified and minimalist morning rituals reduce overwhelm in morning hours and cultivate a sense of calm that will take over your day from there. A minimalist morning routine gives you space to create a positive mindset and an actionable plan, which becomes the base of your productivity.
4. Streamlining Your Decision-Making Process
A minimalist morning routine simplifies your choices. When you have already decided on which tasks to do and simplified choices like what to wear or what to eat for breakfast, it enables you to preserve your cognitive ability for activities that require deeper focus and attention. planning ahead also reduces your stress and decision fatigue, which frees up mental energy for more important tasks throughout the day.
5. Creates a Peaceful Start
When every morning you don’t wake up to a routine that is packed with obligatory tasks and pilled work, your mind is more at ease.
Leading your routine with an unhurried pace, allows you to gently ease into your day. See this as putting your brain into neutral. Your state of mind affects your mood and actions. So a minimalist morning routine that is easygoing and efficient, calls for a peaceful start to the day.
Simplify Your Day by Minimalist Morning Routine Guide
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1. Do Something Mindless or Mindful
For many people, their morning routine isn’t similar each day. Some days, they have fewer obligations, and some days, they have all the work descend upon them, making their mornings stressful from the start.
But before diving into your day, try doing some basic activities or mindfulness practices that need less mental effort. These low energy activities help put your brain into neutral. I found that when you start your mornings with simple chores like sweeping your deck, going for a slow walk or a ride, or gardening, puts your mood in a good spot.
Starting slow makes you more calm and your mind more productive. And without getting caught up in your daily chores, you can become more efficient at performing your tasks.
2. Simplify Your Grooming Routine
A minimalist morning routine extends to your grooming routine as well.
When it comes to getting ready in the morning, few people struggle with their wardrobe choices.
Simplifying your wardrobe can remove decision-making and reduce clutter as well. A simple grooming routine without unnecessary fuss streamlines your morning, giving you much-needed time to spend on other tasks.
Instead of sifting through a plethora of options, opt for versatile, timeless pieces for easily mixed and matched, allowing for comfortable yet stylish ensembles.
3. Declutter Your Mornings
Mornings are considered as the most important part of our day. This is where we all are supposed to make important decisions for the day ahead, create a to-do list, and get all the tough tasks out of our way.
But why burden yourself with this much overload right after you wake?
When we wake up in the morning, our brain is more vulnerable. And when you try to accomplish too many tasks at once, the mental stress of completing chores sooner will exhaust you even before your day starts. Since the stress level in a few people is higher after waking up in the morning, it can make you even more anxious and on edge.
So try to do only the necessary chores and keep a flexible morning routine, because Keeping a minimalist morning routine will always work in your mental health favor.
4. Avoid any Digital Contact
Almost every one of us is attached to our phones. As per the Reviews.org survey, 71 percent of people tend to check their phone 10 minutes after waking up.
I think we easily make excuses to check our phones every morning. We rationalize things like, ‘What if there is an emergency’, or ‘I might miss an important notification’ and we start scrolling through notifications thoughtlessly.
But if you open your phone and get a problem email, or any issue you need to solve, it will unintentionally set the tone for your day. You will not feel so calm then.
Our brain is quite sensitive a few hours after we wake up, and during those hours, instead of spending time on a calming and minimalistic routine, if you use technology, it can spike the cortisol level in your body, which can make you more stressed. So try putting off checking your phone right after you wake up.
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5. Take Things Your Own Pace
Every person’s daily routine is different, and you can’t fit everyone’s morning routine into one template.
Because let’s be honest, most of us can’t follow the same routine every day. For some of us, our mornings are simple and repetitive, and for some, their work demands are different every day, so their routine also keeps changing.
You can’t simply bind yourself to a rigid routine in the name of being more productive and disciplined. Rather than following a step-by-step everyday template, I like to follow a few anchoring rituals regularly and keep my morning open for other tasks.
Keeping your morning minimalist will allow you to make adjustments to your needs. So, keeping it simple is the key.
6. Don’t Overdo With Good Habits
Have you heard the term ‘too much of a good thing can be bad’?
Since the way we go through our morning sets the tone of our day, most of us believe we should run our mornings doing all the good stuff, and follow most successful people and influencers’ everyday routine. But, doesn’t it start to feel forced at some point?
I’m not implying that we should let the most important hours of our day just fritter away, but rather not follow blindly and overstuff our mornings by copying what others do. Like writing a journal, reading a personal development book, doing meditation, making yourself a healthy breakfast, walking in nature, cleaning your house, making a to-do list, and sticking to your morning routine. Sounds tiring, right?
You don’t have to cram in all of these tasks in your mornings only. We all have our duties and responsibilities to follow every day, and it’s okay to find time to perform them later in the day as long as they contribute to your progress.
My Ultimate Minimalist Morning Routine for a Productive Start
For the most part, my morning routine is pretty simple and minimalist. As a freelance writer, my home is my workplace. However, I often struggle to keep myself motivated and productive. Considering how I spend my mornings significantly impacts my mood and productivity, I like to follow through with a routine that doesn’t feel forced and stressed, yet it is efficient and adaptable at the same time.
1. A Peaceful Start
Mornings are the foundation of my entire routine and also the source of my productivity. So, I always make sure to give myself a calming and stress-free environment to wake up to.
After doing light stretches in the bed, I shower, hydrate myself, get dressed and after having a hearty breakfast, I transition to the next phase of my mornings.
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2. Transition to Mindful Parts of Morning
Following through with mindfulness rituals has truly helped me ground myself and prepare me for the long day ahead. Before it, my morning routine was all over the place. There wasn’t any productive order or rewarding structure to it. I would simply wake up and do whatever tasks come my way. This reactive routine kept me stressed for a very long time.
After making mindfulness a part of my morning routine, things started to fall in order. I was more relaxed than before and could calm my chaotic mind to make necessary adjustments to my day.
For me, mindful activities are simple, like taking mindful walks, just sitting and taking everything in, or practicing gratitude. But this simple act enables me to cultivate a peaceful mindset that carries throughout the entire day.
3. Make a List of Top 3 Thing
After practicing mindful rituals, which give me a calming base, I move on to the productive part of my mornings.
Usually, I don’t bother with making a top task list. My morning routines are pretty repetitive, so I always follow my everyday template, but when there is too much workload, or somehow I have managed to pile up my work, I always see the need to make one.
From my pending tasks, I choose the top 3 important tasks I must complete immediately. I don’t like to make a mile-long list that turns me into a stress ball. Cramming your mornings doesn’t make sense to me, so I like to make a list with only very pressing issues. Also, 3 is a pretty small number, therefore it keeps me going and motivates me to complete my work sooner.
4. Creating a Productive Workplace
Before I jump-start with my work, I organize and clear my desk of unnecessary items to create a clean and focused workplace. It doesn’t matter if you are working from home or heading to the office, creating a minimalist, clutter-free workstation is essential for a more focused and productive start.
Embrace the Minimalist Morning Routine
A minimalist morning routine isn’t about deprivation; it’s about creating a sense of calm and efficiency in your mornings.
Incorporating fewer but meaningful practices in your morning regimen creates a more intentional lifestyle that will keep you stress-free and set you up for a productive day.
