A peek inside my morning routine!

A step-by-step look inside my 9-years strong morning routine

Morning routines are a great way to start your day on a positive note and, when running smoothly, they can make your whole day more productive.

I’ve been interested in successful people’s morning routines for as long as I can remember. Over the years, I’ve discovered a method that included everything I wanted as far as routines go and I’ve been practicing the same routine for the past 9 years.

Today’s post is a peek inside my morning routine. Let’s dive in!

Since 2014, I’ve been on a personal development journey that brought me to discover podcasts and self-help books.

In one of the podcasts I’ve listened to, the host interviewed a man called Hal Elrod who was talking about his morning routine, the now very popular Miracle Morning. Hal explained that hitting the snooze button is like hating to wake up, yet doing it over and over again.

That was my ah ha! moment! I was snoozing like crazy and I dreaded mornings. But when I heard Hal describing my habit, a lightbulb went on and I decided to revisit my mornings and try the Miracle Morning.

So here’s how I spend my mornings nowadays :

1. Wake up

My wakeup time varies.

During the week, I get up at 5:30, and on the weekends, at 7. The first thing I do upon waking up is, yes, go to the bathroom, and while I’m there, text my accountability partner to let her know that I am awake and ready for my Miracle Morning.

We do that every day and knowing that she is waiting for my text to get started motivates me not to hit the snooze button.

2. Hydration

Next, I pour myself 500 ml of cool water and take my medication. I want to drink coffee later on, so I want to make sure that I rehydrate from the past night beforehand. I also take vitamin D and a multivitamin to help supplement my keto diet with electrolytes.

3. Meditation

The next step in my daily routine is to sit down with the Insight Timer app and set a timer for 15 minutes. I try to focus on my breath and keep thoughts at bay for a little while. I like to do the Silence SAVERS from the Miracle Morning first thing because my mind is still clear.

4. Coffee

Of course, I like to pour myself a nice cup of coffee to kick things off! My favorite is an americano that I make with my espresso maker in my favorite cup. I do the next step in my routine while sipping two cups of these.

5. Reading

This is by far my favorite SAVERS and it’s the one I spend the most time doing every morning. I like waking up early especially because it gives me time to read before going to work. I read mostly self-help books and productivity manuals. My goal is to read 100 books this year, a goal that I crushed last year, reading 150 total, thanks to my morning routine. I spend around an hour reading every morning.

6. Journaling

I shared quite a few times on the blog my love of journaling. I keep two notebooks, one in which I keep a diary of what’s going on in my life and the lessons I learn along the way, and the other is a gratitude log in which I write, longhand, some nice thing that happened to me the day before and one thing I am proud of. Once a year, I reread my old journals and distill the lessons I’ve learned into a nice summary I keep in Notion. This takes me about 5-10 minutes each day.

7. Visualization and affirmations

This is, quite honestly, the step that I am the least comfortable with. To help me, I’ve created a virtual vision board that I keep in Notion. I also made a list of affirmations, one for every one of my goals, and I read them out loud every morning. Going through my vision board and affirmations takes approximately 5 minutes each day.

8. Exercise

The last step of my Miracle Morning is a quick workout. Using bodyweight exercises, I rotate through 3 routines. Arms on day 1, Abs on day 2 and legs on day 3. Each routine takes about 10 minutes and I feel like I strengthen my whole body alternating the 3.

9. Getting ready

When I’m finished with my Miracle Morning, it’s time to get ready for work. I dress, comb my hair, put on a bit of makeup and brush my teeth. (I like to do that after I had my coffee for the freshest breath getting to work). I set up my work bag and pull out my lunch from the fridge and I’m ready to go. Before I leave, I feed the cats and kiss my hubby goodbye and I’m out the door.

You may have noticed that I didn’t include breakfast in my morning routine. I’ve been doing intermittent fasting (IF) for the past several years and I love it! I eat my first meal at noon and my last meal at 7 at night, which gives me a 16-8 fasting and eating window. IF is the perfect companion to my keto diet, as I tend not to be hungry most of the time. It gives me more time in the morning to do my SAVERS.

I’ve been practicing this morning routine for the past 9 years now and I feel like it’s the perfect combination of exercise, personal development and goal setting. I couldn’t imagine my life without it!

Do you have a morning routine? What did you include in yours? Let me know in the comments below, I’m curious to know!