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The 5 Reasons Your Morning Routine Is Stressful & Super Simple Ways To Fix It (What I learned)

    And for the last 2 years, I have been trying to create a productive morning routine. And where do we all go to find that routine? Read a blog/article or watch a video. My favorite is YouTube videos. They are inspirational. You can see how others structure their day. And it helps you get a visual image of how peaceful your day can go. There have been times I have failed and have succeeded. I have given up for months at a time due to it causing me stress. I have also tasted the happiness of being consistent.

    After trial and error, these are my 5 reasons your morning routine isn’t working for you:

    1. Copying and Pasting Do Not work

    After watching or reading inspirational routines, you might make the mistake of taking other people’s morning routines and copying them exactly. The exact set of tasks & in the same order and time.

    But this is unfortunately a formula for quick burnout. You might have challenges with certain tasks due to how much time you have and how long it can take you.

    Example & Lesson Learned: Waking up and making your bed

    you hear the suggestion to make your bed as soon as you wake up. This might not be realistic for a lot of people. I am one of them. My husband almost always wakes up after I do. I am not going to make him get out of bed just so I can make it.

    And since mornings are so limited — there might be days when we have to rush to start work and won’t have time for it. Hence it wasn’t a realistic ‘first thing to do’ task for me. It actually stressed me out. It was just another thing on my chores list.

    But later, when I started working from home and my office space is in the bedroom, making the bed became an important task for me.

    So realize morning routines should be a routine for YOU. It should be based on what you need, its limitations, and your life. So tweak it & switch up the recommendations as you need.

    2. Doing too much

    A lot of articles you read or videos you see are the ideal version. Maybe things you can do on the weekends, not on weekdays. They are packed full of ‘good ideas’ but does that mean you have to do every single one to be productive? the answer is no, please don’t. Doing too much is another way to burn out fast.

    Example: Reading in the morning

    Based on what I read in articles and watched in videos, I felt like reading was very important & needed to be on my list. I planned to read at least 10 pages in the morning for it to feel real. This added an extra 30mins to my routine (on top of 30mins doing other parts of my routine). I could not have a routine that lasted a whole hour! This caused me stress. If I woke up later, I would skip my morning routine because I knew I didn’t have an hour to waste. And while I would be in the middle of reading, my anxiety increased because I had to start working soon & I haven’t even eaten breakfast yet.

    What I learning about doing too much

    I eventually realized this was not the way to go. So I ended up going was keeping reading on the list. But since I noticed the time was the problem. I now put on the timer and stop it when it reaches 30mins. This is the length of my morning routine.

    Whatever amount of pages I read by the time the timer went off, was it. Since most of my morning readings are nonfiction, I focused more on internalizing & understanding what I read (even if it’s 3 pages). I focused on reminding myself to remember the lessons throughout my day & how to apply them.

    To help you on this journey, take this instant access FREE MASTERCLASS to learn how to reduce burnout and stress by over 50% using habit systems. You will find well researched and practical solutions to live a more balanced and fulfilling life.

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    3. Time you wake up

    What can really mess you up is the time you wake up. If you wake up an hour before your work meeting or if you have the assignment to complete, spending 30mins relaxing & taking care of yourself (doing your morning routine) is NOT happening. It is just not.

    If your body is out of sync, there are some people who have no problem waking up early, is to setting an alarm. Track when you are going to sleep & when to wake up – so you can train yourself to wake up early enough to comfortably fit into your routine. When I say comfortably, I mean it. Don’t plan to wake up at 5am & then wonder why you are so cranky — are yawling at 11am — or want to take a nap at 1pm. Prioritize how much sleep you get.

    4. Write it down

    This is a major problem. Your brain can only hold so much information. Don’t stress out. Especially if you are doing too much and copy-pasting 10 ideas from an ideal morning routine you just saw.

    I find there are 3 ways to do this.

    • Make a to-do list
    • List every task you have on your mind
    • Then used a planner to order it based on priority, time, and date.

    5. Technology

    What is the first thing you reach for when you wake up? Most likely your phone for social media, email, or news. Then your tablet or laptop. So as soon wake you wake up you are flooded with information. Going immediately from being proactive to reactive. Meaning your emotion or state of being is at the mercy of what pops up on your phone that day.

    Example: Phone by your bedside

    I have tried putting my phone in another room or at least across the room — basically not by my bedside so it is the first thing I reach for. Did they work? NO! After a week or so, it is back by my bedside.

    My solution to this problem was to turn off notifications & delete apps I knew were the problem. Because it wasn’t my phone that was the problem — it was what the phone put in front of me when I woke up.

    Conclusion

    Often times productivity is not about adding but about removing. Use this five to consider what has been blocking your productivity. By removing the unessential, you are able to focus on what really matters.