A Morning Routine For People Who Don’t Believe In Morning Routines

It’s 12 past noon, and I’ve been struggling to write an article since 11 am. I should have written and published one by now. But with tens of tabs and a gazillion distractions (the biggest being my love self-esteem), I have nothing yet. Not the productive Monday I’d have liked for today to be. So, true to how I deal with everything in my life, I start looking for reading material on ‘how to be productive’. Sure enough, I find things I already know: exercise, meditate, make a to-do list, don’t check your phone, etc, all pointing to one thing: have a morning routine.

This is a trope we’ve heard in countless different forms. We are told that every successful person has a morning routine — they start their day early, they exercise and make sure they don’t go online for the first hour or so of their day. From Oprah to Elon Musk, to Komal Pandey, every famous person is almost obliged to have a morning routine. [add links here]

At some point, I have tried all of these tips. Needless to say, not everything works for everyone, and I’m nobody special. For me, the only thing that has stuck is yoga. Days I start with yoga generally end up being better than days I don’t. I feel more confident and less bloated, and I think this is where my productivity stems from.

To be productive with your day, you need to be:

In a good mood

Physically agile and comfortable

Well-rested

That’s literally it. There’s no higher spiritual vibration, or whatever, that you need to strive for. Meditation or journaling or yoga are not superior than running or listening to your favourite song. Waking up at 5 is no more noble than waking up at 7.

The trope of ‘morning routine’ is misleading. If you fail to stick to, or feel better after following the 7 morning habits of successful people, you might end up feeling like a failure at some level. You now have another thing to add to your ever-growing list of ‘I can’t do this’. It’s dangerous to idealise someone else’s morning routine. All you need to achieve in your morning routine is: a good mood, a comfortable body and a well-rested mind. Let’s what this would mean:

A good mood

You want to fill your morning with activities that uplift you, and not make you question your self-worth. This could be journaling for some people, and gardening for others. It could be making a cup of coffee for your partner, or could mean that you want to have your morning cup of coffee before anybody else in the house wakes up.

If you are actively cultivating a good mood in the morning, you also want to avoid activities that spoil your mood. So yes, given this, it would make sense to not check social media or work emails first thing in the morning.

A comfortable body

When animals wake up, they usually stretch before they start their day. Your muscles tend to tighten up while you’re horizontal all night. A stretch in the morning will help you loosen up those tight muscles, and in the long-term, prevent muscle and joint pain. But other than this, do what makes you happy while it also keeps you fit.

Productivity is a long-term game. To stay productive, you have to stay healthy. To stay healthy, you have to make a routine of exercise and healthy diet. There’s nothing inherently more beneficial about a morning workout than an evening workout. So, no, anything more than 15 minutes of stretching doesn’t have to be a part of your morning routine. You can go lift weights in the evening. But, the reason people emphasise on this is because usually as we start our day, we get busy and tired, and it becomes harder to work out in the evening.

Well-rested

This one’s simple. Get enough sleep! If you slept at midnight, waking up at 5 will not benefit you just because there’s some theory that 5 am is the golden hour of productivity. No, sleep is golden to well-being and optimum functioning. So, be well-rested, and get enough sleep!