Create Morning Routines for Your Well-Being

As moms, mornings are the busiest, and the most frantic part of the day. 

But if mornings are also when you are at your best, spending it on others’ requirements and needs can feel limiting to all you can achieve in a day. 

 

A morning routine can help

There is some wisdom to the line ‘Well begun is half done’, quoted by Aristotle. 

When we start anything strong, we feel encouraged by the progress we’ve already made, and energized to finish the rest. 

One of the ways to build a habit is to make it a routine part of your life. 

Routines have another benefit – they can help you organize your time and mindspace through the day. 

Morning routines are particularly powerful, because for most of us, this is the time our mind is the clearest and when we feel most energetic. 

A great morning routine is like the warm up sequence before a workout. 

Warming up helps you get the best workout you can and reduces chances of muscle cramps and injuries, and helps you move closer to your maximum potential. 

Similarly, a good morning routine sets a brisk momentum for the day, helps you tackle challenges better, and keeps you going even if you stumble.

More than maximizing output, it will get you closer to your maximum potential. 

As Brianna West says in her book, ‘When You’re Ready, This Is How You Heal’:

Your maximum potential is creating a life that is peaceful and meaningful to you. It is doing less, but better.

How to set up a morning routine, in 3 steps

As moms, our days are not blank slates, to fashion how we like. 

We probably have a routine in place already, though it might be driven by others’ schedules and needs rather than our own.  

So we might have that much room to make big changes. 

But we can still set up, and follow, a successful morning routine that gets us into a positive and energetic mindspace for the rest of the day. 

Most people think that becoming productive involves something big, a drastic change from how we’re doing things right now. 

James Clear says in Atomic Habits:

Too often, we convince ourselves that massive success requires massive action… It’s so easy to … underestimate the value of making small improvements on a daily basis. 

Step 1: Think about what you’d like to do with your mornings (if you could) 

Ask yourself what gives you joy, and what energizes you. 

Then, start small. 

Step 2: Try the 2-minute rule

James Clear suggests the two-minute rule, which goes like this:

When you start a new habit, it should take less than 2 minutes to do. 

So ‘read before bed each night’ can become ‘read one page’. 

He explains how powerful starting with 2 minutes can be.

People often think it’s weird to get hyped about reading one page or meditating for one minute or making one sales call. But the point is not to do one thing.

 

The point is to master the habit of showing up.

Step 3: At the end of the week, evaluate and recalibrate  

You can check your Routines Streak in the Insights section of the MAMMA-MIYA app. 

 

It’s okay if you haven’t done all that you’ve planned.

The idea behind a routine is a gentle nudge, a tap on the shoulder, to do something that is important to you. It’s to set in motion a way of living that most reflects yourself.

So even if you manage to do your morning routine once in a while, you’re making progress.

Here’s another quote Brianne West’s ‘When You’re Ready, This Is How You Heal’:

“Getting to your maximum potential means creating a daily routine that makes you feel most like yourself, where your activities, commitments, and decisions reflect your values, and what your future self would thank you for doing.” 

Don’t worry if it doesn’t work right now

You want to sit with our morning cuppa for 30 minutes, but you might not have the time. 

Or you might be waking up multiple times in the night to nurse an infant, pacify a restless toddler or to take care of a sick child. At these times, you’re in survival mode, catching sleep or a meal or a shower whenever you can. 

Sometimes, just getting through the day itself is an achievement. But if you want to do more, you can start as small as you feel like. 

What if you’re not a morning person? 

As a mom, it’s hard enough getting through mornings without a hitch. But if you’re not the type who feels productive in the mornings, it makes the most hectic part of your days even harder. 

For some of us, our peak hours might be later in the day.

As this article says, “Different people have different circadian typologies, or chronotypes, that shape when they feel alert, and how energized they feel at different times of the day and night.” 

Include a meaningful activity during your peak hours, and remember the 2-minute rule. 

 

Think about being productive and being present, at the same time

It can be tempting to use a morning routine to get even more errands or chores done. 

Smashing through your task-list might make you feel efficient, but if it leaves you feeling drained and exhausted, you might not be able to keep the pace going day after day. 

The solution is to find ways to feel fulfilled while you’re being productive. Maria Popova of themarginalian agrees that this is far easier said than done, but worth reaching for, nevertheless:

The equilibrium between productivity and presence is one of the hardest things to master in life, and one of the most important. 

When you are able to incorporate more things in your life that matter to you, you can get closer to the life you want to live, while fulfilling all your other roles and priorities.