Morning Routine List: How to Use a Morning Routine to Enliven Your Day

OVERVIEW: This guide explores methods for establishing morning routines to provide a sense of meaning, increase creativity, reserve mental energy, and support healthy development. This guide includes a morning routine list with powerful ideas to start your day.

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Have you had those mornings where things seem to flow naturally?

If you want to experience mornings like this more deliberately and frequently, you’ll like today’s guide on morning routines.

Let’s dive in…

What are Routines?

Routines are repetitive behaviors that help us preserve energy.

Psychologist Roy Baumeister’s research indicates we possess a finite supply of mental energy or willpower.1Roy F. Baumeister, Willpower, 2012. This willpower is highest in the morning and declines throughout the day. Psychologists call this decline in willpower ego depletion.2Hagger MS, et al. Ego depletion and the strength model of self-control: a meta-analysis. Psychol Bull. 2010 Jul;136(4):495-525. doi: 10.1037/a0019486.

Every decision we make expends mental energy and therefore reduces willpower. Herein lies the power of planning and having a morning routine.

Routines allow us to tap into the power of what psychologists call automaticity.3Logan, G. D. (1990). Repetition priming and automaticity: Common underlying mechanisms? Cognitive Psychology, 22(1), 1-35. https://doi.org/10.1016/0010-0285(90)90002-L It’s the ability to do a task without occupying the mind with the details it requires.

For example, you probably don’t think about brushing your teeth before bed. This became a conditioned behavior in childhood. Now you do it without deciding.

Walking, driving, and speaking are all examples of automaticity. It’s the result of learning through repetition and practice.

Many productive and creative individuals follow specific morning routines for the same reason.

Morning Routine List Examples

Examples of a regular or “mundane” morning routine might include:

  • Hitting the “snooze” button on your alarm,
  • Getting out of bed,
  • Going to the bathroom,
  • Making coffee,
  • Getting dressed,
  • Checking updates on your phone while you drink your coffee, and then
  • Heading off to work.

Many people have a morning routine that looks something like this. It wasn’t established consciously but by necessity.

We’ll explore more “creative,” life-affirming, and engaging morning routine ideas below.

How Long Does it Take to Establish a New Morning Routine?

Keep in mind that starting a new morning routine takes mental energy.

Initially, you repetitively remind yourself to perform the act.

For example, if you want to start recording your dreams as a morning routine, keep your journal and pen by your bedside. Use the journal as a visual reminder to record your dreams as soon as you wake up.

Through consistent repetition of any behavior, automaticity eventually kicks in.

How long does it take for a practice to become part of your morning routine?

You may have heard it takes a certain number of days to make positive change and establish a new habit—like 21 or 30 days.

Some research suggests that the real number is closer to 66 days.4https://www.spring.org.uk/2023/01/form-a-habit.php

In my experience, however, it’s closer to 3 weeks or so, depending on the complexity of the habit and my level of internal resistance.

Morning Routines List: 21 Powerful Ideas

So what are some morning routines you can experiment with?

There are many options. The key is to find whatever works best for you and be flexible in changing your approach.

Here’s a morning routines list you can explore:

1 – Tune Your Breath

“Tuning your breath” is a powerful ancient practice based on proper breathing principles.

Building these breathing principles into you will support other morning activities listed below.

2 – Practice Sitting Meditation

Watch your thoughts for a few minutes each morning. Cultivating inner observation can give you space from your mental drama.

See this guide for basic sitting meditation instructions.

3 – Take Cold Showers

Wim Hof popularized this powerful morning routine. Not only does a cold shower increase immunity and reduce inflammation, but it’s also invigorating.

Cold showers help alleviate depression and elevate your mood.5Shevchuk NA. Adapted cold shower as a potential treatment for depression. Med Hypotheses. 2008;70(5):995-1001. doi: 10.1016/j.mehy.2007.04.052.

4 – Try Spontaneous Journaling

Capture your stream of consciousness on the page—without judgment or criticism. It’s a powerful morning routine that can help increase spontaneously, clear your mind, and increase your creativity.

5 – Shake

Shake your body vigorously. This is a fast way to change your mental and emotional state, making you more present in your body.  For inspiration, Youtuber Elliott Hulse offers numerous stretches and exercises in this 8-minute video. (Shaking is one of them.)

6 – Practice Zhan Zhuang

Zhan Zhuang translates to “standing like a tree.” It’s a powerful ancient method that gets you rooted in your body.

It’s highly effective once you learn the basic principles. It can be used as a grounding morning routine.

6 – Exercise or Go for a Quick Jog

For many high-performers, this morning routine is a must. Get those endorphins pumping.

7 – Pray

Morning prayer can be a moving morning routine. Connecting with your Higher Self via prayer can be a powerful morning practice for some individuals.

8 – Paint, Draw or Dance

Any form of creative self-expression can be used as a form of morning routine. Psychiatrist Carl Jung found that his patients all engaged in self-expression at a certain stage in their individuation process.

9 – Practice Centering Exercises

Connect with a deeper part of yourself, bridging the conscious with the unconscious. All eleven exercises in this guide on how to center yourself can easily become part of your morning routine.

10 – Try Affirmations

Affirmations are positive statements stated with emotional energy that can influence your mental and emotional state. I don’t generally advocate affirmations unless you’re very early on in your self-discovery journey.

In my experience, this type of mental conditioning stays at a very surface level and is ineffective over time.

11 – Explore TRE

TRE stands for trauma release exercises. I cover this topic in my guide to releasing repressed emotions. Trauma release exercises are designed to trigger spontaneous shaking thereby releasing stored emotional trauma.

13 – Use the Bow Technique

Dr. Alexander Lowen’s Bow technique is from another system similar to TRE called Bioenergetic Analysis. Here’s a video tutorial on how to perform The Bow. It’s an excellent stretch to do each morning.

14 – Perform Conscious Stretching

Any form of stretching done with your full attention where you slowly sink your awareness into your body can be used as a morning routine. If you know any qigong stretches or yoga postures, you can use them as morning practice as well.

15 – Make Funny Faces

Make funny, scary, or weird faces at yourself in the mirror in the morning. Not only will you be stretching the muscles in your face, but you’ll also change your mood. Try it. It works.

16 – Release and Relax Your Jaw

Similar to making funny faces, you can also do specific exercises to release and relax jaw tension. This morning routine has loads of physical benefits as many of us unconsciously store emotional tension in our jaw region.

17 – Walk Barefoot Outside

This can be a powerful morning routine. Rooting yourself to the earth is a wonderful technique for coming to your senses, restoring your energy, and calming your mind—without any effort. This guide illustrates exactly how to ground yourself.

18 – Smile

Smile for a minute—even if you don’t feel like it. Research shows it will still elevate your mood.6Ekman, P., & Davidson, R. J. (1993). Voluntary Smiling Changes Regional Brain Activity. Psychological Science, 4(5), 342-345. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9280.1993.tb00576.x

19 – Go for a Mindful Morning Walk

An early morning walk with a meditative intent—with or without shoes—can also be part of a wonderful morning routine. You can pay attention to your breath as you walk. Or, you can simply stay fully present with your surroundings, focusing on various aspects of nature.

Of course, this isn’t an exhaustive morning routine list. Hopefully, it has inspired you for future experimentation so you can find what works best for you.

20 – Drink a Glass of Water

A room-temperature glass of water helps rehydrate you from your night’s rest. Plus, it helps purify the kidneys.

21 – Work on an Important Project in a Dedicated Time Block

We’ll cover this particular morning routine idea in detail below.

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We’ll cover more ideas for your morning routine list below …

Mourning Routine Example: How to Use Morning Routines to Foster Creativity

Now, let’s take a look at how to put the above morning routine list into action.

Psychologists who study creative people—from Abraham Maslow to Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi—illuminate inner and outer conditions for creative work.

The internal factors include the individual’s mindset, capabilities, and attitude. The external factors include the person’s environment and psychological safety.

Creativity requires mental energy so you can focus without distraction.

It flows best when your overall mood is light and playful; it is impeded when you’re overly serious, angry, depressed, overwhelmed, or stressed.

Your creativeness ignites when an impulse to express and contribute something arises within yourself.

Creativity flourishes under these conditions. So how do we set up the conditions for greater creativity regularly?

Let’s see …

A Creative Morning Routine Starts The Night Before

Because every decision we make expends energy, there’s good reason to start your day with a basic plan.

So before we address your morning routine, focus on the night before.

The purpose of an evening routine is to set yourself up for a fruitful morning.

The main idea is to define your goal or intention for the morning. You want to wake up with a clear vision of what you will invest your time in and the outcome you’re looking to produce.

Step 1: Right Down What Needs to Get Done

Not sure what to focus on the next day? No problem.

First, capture everything you need and want to do tomorrow—big and small. This is a therapeutic exercise in itself. It can become a useful daily routine.

All of these to-dos, concerns, and ideas are floating around in your head already. Writing them down helps clear your mind.

Second, scan your list and see what jumps out at you. What’s most important?

Don’t just focus on what’s urgent; focus on what’s most important to you.

Ask entrepreneur and author Gary Keller’s big question:

What’s the ONE THING I can do such that by doing it everything else will be easier or unnecessary?

Essentially, write what you will focus on in the morning. Perhaps you will write an important letter to someone; complete a book chapter, article, or blog post; practice a new skill, score a new piece of music; or outline a new project. Whatever it is, write it down.

Now, visualize it. See yourself creating it, getting it done, and enjoying the process.

Finally, commit to completing or making measurable progress on this project in the morning.

Step 2: Evoke the Subconscious Mind for Creative Solutions

Let’s say you’re working on a project. You already know what you will focus on in the morning.

But there’s a problem. Perhaps you’re wrestling with a difficult decision or something isn’t clear. Maybe it’s a plot issue in a novel you’re writing. Or a marketing message that isn’t hitting the mark.

Your conscious mind is stuck. But your subconscious has the answer. To receive this answer, ask your subconscious mind before sleep.

You’ve written what you want to accomplish. Now, ask thoughtful questions. This is one of my favorite creative problem-solving techniques because it’s highly effective once you get comfortable with it.

Dreams are bridges from your conscious mind to your subconscious/unconscious. When you ask these questions right before going to sleep, you present these requests to the subconscious.

Step 3: Set Up Your Creative Space

Finally, before you go through the above questions, straighten up your workspace and/or bedroom area to eliminate additional distractions in the morning.

If your workspace isn’t in your home, get in the habit of straightening things up at the end of the day. In most cases, it takes only a minute or two. A cluttered workspace evokes a distracted mind.

Okay, so the night before:

  1. Straighten up and organize your workspace.
  2. Establish your goals for the coming morning.
  3. Make requests to your subconscious mind.

Finally, make sure you sleep well. The quality of your sleep greatly affects your ability to think and create.

The earlier you go to sleep, the earlier you arise. The earlier you rise, the fewer distractions you’ll have.

Step 4: Capture Your Ideas in the Morning

New connections form throughout the night as the brain processes the information from the prior day.

If you pose questions to your subconscious before bed, you’re likely ready to receive the answers.

Take out your journal and begin automatic writing. This, again, can be a powerful morning routine. Recall the questions and write whatever ideas come to mind. Don’t judge or evaluate these ideas. For now, just capture them.

Next, have a glass of water. Sleep dehydrates your body. If you hydrate first thing in the morning, you’ll possess greater energy reserves while you work and reflect.

Add some lemon to the water. It helps detoxify your body and boosts your energy. Plus, it’s loaded with vitamin C.

Now, how do you feel? If you’re fresh, awake, and enthusiastic about your creative project, jump right in. You’ve got it from here. If you are unenthused, scattered, or grumpy, pause. If you try to work in this state, you’ll likely produce poor results.

Additional Ideas for Your Morning Routine List

We just highlighted more ideas for your morning routine list, including:

  1. Writing down your goals
  2. Clarifying your “One Thing”
  3. Ask your subconscious a question before going to sleep
  4. Organizing your workspace the evening before
  5. Going to sleep early
  6. Getting high-quality rejuvenating sleep
  7. Capturing your ideas in the morning
  8. Ensuring that you feel refreshed

What’s outlined above is just an illustration of how you can combine principles of routines to inspire creative results.

I’m not suggesting you do this type of thing every day, but if you integrate these principles into your morning process, it can be rewarding.

morning routine list

Set the Conditions for a Productive Morning Routine

Now let’s review four important elements for a productive morning routine.

1 – Use 90-Minute Creative Time Blocks

Humans aren’t machines. We can’t sprint endlessly. Instead, as CEO of The Energy Project Tony Schwartz points out, we’re designed to pulse—to spend energy and then renew energy.

How long should you focus on your creative work? Based on the ultradian rhythm, Schwartz suggests only 90 minutes.

This is consistent with performance researcher Anders Ericsson’s 1993 famous study of young violinists.7https://www.nytimes.com/images/blogs/freakonomics/pdf/DeliberatePractice(PsychologicalReview).pdf He found top violinists practice in the morning in increments of 90 minutes or less with breaks in between.

So try to block off at least 90 minutes if you’re using creative morning sessions. These creative time blocks are incredibly effective if you’re committed to accomplishing great work.

Honor this time as if it was a meeting with someone you perceive as important.

2 – Eliminate the Usual Distractions

As of 2023, a shocking 89 percent of smartphone users check their phones within the first 10 minutes of waking up.

If you want to be highly productive and creative in the morning, avoid touching your phone as long as possible.

Reading emails, news, or social media updates puts you in a reactive state. Creative work requires focus. Distraction is the enemy of focus.

In a creative state, you are absorbed in your work. It takes time to enter this state of absorption, flow, or what Maslow called a peak experience.

Based on this study of 414 programmers from 10,000 programming sessions, it takes a programmer between 10-15 minutes to start editing code after resuming work from an interruption.

So consider what happens when you’re getting disrupted by emails, texts, and other notifications as you work.

If you receive a notification once every 10 minutes, you’ll never have the opportunity to become absorbed in your work.

Despite the common myth, productive people don’t multitask when they create.

So avoid touching your phone until after your morning routine. Also, put your phone on airport mode and remove all automatic notifications on your computer.

3 – Leverage the “Zeigarnik Effect”

Did I say you don’t want to be interrupted?

Well, there’s one time when that’s not the case: at the end of your creative sessions before you finish your work.

Why? Your unconscious mind seeks closure. It’s why popular television series often use cliffhangers to keep us hooked.

Psychologists call this the Zeigarnik effect, named after Russian psychologist Bluma (Wolfovna) Zeigarnik.

In Pre-Suasion, psychologist Robert Cialdini points out how you can use the Zeigarnik effect to prevent procrastination and improve productivity.

Whenever possible, leave your project unfinished. Resist the temptation to push yourself to completion.

This strategy works. It creates a natural gravitational pull to sit down and work on the project again.

When you look forward to doing creative work, there’s less resistance to contend with.

4 – Establish a Professional Rhythm for Morning Routines

Creative individuals often believe creativity comes only when the Muse speaks to them.

But professional creatives don’t wait for the Muse to come.

What separates a professional from everyone else is that professionals do the work consistently.

They establish habits, routines, and rituals that support the creative process. And, for the most part, they stick to them.

Experiment with the process highlighted above. It can work wonders once you make it your own.

Recap: How to Use This Morning Routine List

To reserve mental energy and willpower, use morning routines.

The morning routine list above provides ideas for you to experiment with.

Here’s a recap of the morning routine strategy highlighted above:

  • Straighten up your workspace in the evening.
  • Decide what want to accomplish the night before.
  • Ask your subconscious before bed.
  • Block off time in the morning for your creative project.
  • Get a good night’s rest.
  • Get up as early as you can.
  • Keep email closed. Close all notifications.
  • Don’t touch your phone until you’re done. Keep your phone in airport mode.
  • Elevate your mental and emotional state using one of the many available morning routines.
  • Focus on what you’re creating for around 90 minutes.
  • Allow time to renew your energy when you’re finished.

Finally, please don’t try to do the above morning routines every day. There are parts of us who benefit from routines and other parts who revolt against them.

The key is to establish a morning routine you enjoy and then be flexible and change it as needed.

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