Summer Mornings on the Front Porch

What is your morning routine? When the weather is warm, I love to get up early, workout or do yoga or go for a bike ride and then have a cup of coffee on the porch. When I have the opportunity to sit on the front porch with a cup of coffee, I often get several visitors – squirrels, blue jays, cardinals and even the odd little bunny rabbit. Take a moment every morning and breathe and enjoy your morning routine. What is the importance of a great morning routine?
1. Prepare Yourself for the Rest of the Day
How you spend the morning will influence the rest of your day. If you start feeling rushed or lazy, expect that sensation to remain with you. A morning routine, however, gets you on track from the moment you wake up and puts you in the right frame of mind.
2. Increase Your Productivity
With a morning routine, you start the day right. You spend every moment of your time on something valuable and productive from the moment you wake up.
3. Feel in Control
When you have many commitments, it can feel like you’re rushing through one task to the next. Your day starts to control you, rather than the other way around. A morning routine may cover just a small part of your day, but it could be a step toward helping you regain control.
4. Lower Stress
Stress often occurs when you feel like you lack enough time to complete all your responsibilities or you worry about what needs doing next. When you have a routine, you always know exactly what you should be doing and what follows. You can complete your entire routine without even thinking. Plus, you’ll know that you have enough time to finish everything without rushing.
5. Develop Healthy Habits
It may be tempting to hit the snooze button or to stay in bed with your phone instead of getting up immediately, but these habits waste your time. When you have a routine, it’s much easier to avoid bad habits and to develop healthy ones. You may start eating a substantial breakfast, practice mindfulness, or even make time to exercise in your morning routine. Such healthy habits will carry over into the rest of your life. You may well find that you start eating better, exercising more often, or wasting less time on your phone in general.
6. Boost Your Energy Levels
The reason many people hate mornings is because their energy levels are low early in the day. A great thing about a morning routine is that it can increase your energy, especially when you give yourself no time to be lazy and dedicate all your time to your scheduled activities. If you want an extra energy boost, include a high-intensity workout, meditation, or a cold shower in your morning routine.
7. Improve Relationships
Developing a morning routine is most important for improving relationships with the people you live with. When your family or roommates know your schedule for the morning, they can work around you. There will be no disputes about who gets to use the bathroom and no problems with two or more people trying to share the kitchen at the same time.
8. Combat Forgetfulness
When you have the same routine every day, it’s much more unlikely you’ll forget something. Without even thinking, you’ll go through the motions of getting ready for work. The chances are slim that you’ll arrive to work and realize you left something you need at home. There will also be a lower risk that you forget to do an important chore, like taking the trash out or closing the door to your bedroom to stop your dog sleeping on your bed.
9. Improve Your Confidence
When you’re calm and collected, you naturally feel more confident. Plus, better time management will mean you accomplish more, which can also improve your self-esteem.
10. Learn to Be Flexible
Your morning routine is just the beginning of your schedule. It’s normal that things won’t always go exactly as you hoped, meaning you’ll need to adapt. Sticking to your morning routine as often as possible is great, but you’ll also need to learn to be flexible if something unexpected happens. Learning to adapt your morning routine around such events will train you to be flexible in other aspects of your life.

Written by Pam

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