7 Ways to Increase Your Productivity by Making the Morning Work for You

We know, we know. The snooze button is oh so tempting, just another 10 minutes, and another 10 minutes. While it may feel restful to keeping hitting snooze, it’s actually a bad habit to keep. By waking up earlier and having extra time in the morning, you’re able to start your day off on the right foot, peacefully.

Here are 7 morning habits everyone should keep:

Wake Up Early
The first step to a great morning of course is to give yourself time, which for most will mean waking up early -- and not to get straight to work. Wake up and give yourself at least an hour to get your day started BEFORE you dive into your email. This is time for you and your family. You’ll be able to watch the news, read a book, workout, make breakfast and not feel rushed as you head out the door.

Make Your Bed
This one may seem silly, but the military trains their men and women to make their beds each day for a reason. Naval Admiral William McRaven explains: “If you make your bed every morning you will have accomplished the first task of the day. It will give you a small sense of pride and it will encourage you to do another task and another and another.” The idea is to have a morning ritual, one you will complete first thing in the morning to give you a sense of accomplishment each and every day.

Leave Your Phone Behind
Like most of us, you could probably be connected and working on something at all hours of the day, but it’s time to stop. As you develop morning habits leave your phone out of them. If you jump online or check your inbox first thing in the morning you may start to feel stressed, which is what we’re trying to avoid. The stress can wait until you walk out the door, for the time being focus on waking up and taking care of yourself.

Eat Breakfast
Your body needs fuel to run, so you need to feed it! It’s like mom always told you, breakfast is the most important meal of the day! We’re not talking about bacon and donuts here. You need to eat a balanced breakfast full of healthy carbs, like oatmeal and whole grains, protein and nutritious fruits and veggies. Work on making time to eat breakfast at a table and enjoy it, instead of simply grabbing something while you run out the door.

Exercise
As you get used to waking up earlier try adding in a little bit of exercise to get your blood flowing. If you’re naturally an early riser then you can add a full blown workout to your morning no problem. For those of us who fight the alarm, try something simple like a daily squat challenge, a brief wake-up yoga routine or a quick walk around the block. Exercising in the morning will help you wake up, boost your immune system and reduce your stress.

Practice Gratitude
While it’s important to have goals to strive towards, it’s also important to appreciate what you have now. Spend just a few minutes each morning thinking about what you are most thankful for. Practicing gratitude will help you develop a positive attitude and approach problems with optimism instead of pessimism. If you have a hard time staying focused, write down the things you are grateful for in a notebook, you’ll be surprised how quickly you fill it up!

Embrace Silence
We live in a loud world and sometimes it’s hard to even hear the thoughts inside your head. During your morning routine try to spend even just 5 minutes in silence. This can be while you make and eat breakfast, while you practice gratitude or just while you make your bed. It will feel uncomfortable at first but after you develop the habit you may find yourself wanting silence more often. This will also help to keep you calm and destress, which in turn helps you stay healthy and focused.

It may be hard at first but developing a morning routine will help you stay successful in the long run. Everyone needs to recharge to be successful. What are some of your favorite morning habits?