A simple morning routine to curb anxiety & set the tone for a productive day
by Stephanie Eckelkamp
Are mornings straight-up torture? If you’re one of those people who hits the snooze button a minimum of 3x before painfully peeling yourself out of bed, stumbling into the shower, then guzzling down a coffee before racing to work (or to your first Zoom meeting), then you’re so not alone—but you’re not doing yourself any favors.
We get it. Sometimes you’re in a stressful job and you don’t exactly wake up rearing to go to work. But staying in your safe little down comforter cocoon now is only going to cause problems later. Mornings have a way of setting the tone for the rest of the day—and when you’re a hot mess express from the get-go, you’re priming yourself for a frantic, disorganized, anxiety-ridden day. This is why productivity experts and career coaches love a good morning routine.
A simple morning routine is a great way to give you a sense of balance, control, and confidence before you jump into your to-do list. Done consistently, morning routines can also help take some of the mental stress out of your mornings—since you literally don’t have to think about what comes next. They don’t have to be complicated or time-consuming either. The only semi rule is that your morning routine leaves you feeling better than you did before.
Need a little guidance on where to start? We’ve created an energizing, mood-boosting, and productivity-priming morning routine. Tweak this (or even build upon this) as needed to suit your specific needs and goals.
1. Wake up early (and be selective with your alarm sound!)
The first step to more zen mornings is making sure you have some time to actually devote to yourself. So no sleeping in! Consider what you want to accomplish in the morning then work backwards and figure out a realistic wake-up time. Start shifting your alarm clock 15 minutes earlier every morning until you hit your desired wake-up time.
Speaking of alarm clocks: those puppies can make or break your morning. Just think about how violated you feel when a blaring beep, beep, beep wakes you from your peaceful slumber. So, do yourself a favor and select a relatively gentle alarm sound. Recent research suggests that harsh alarm tones may actually be associated with increased levels of morning grogginess, while melodic alarms seem to improve alertness (who would have thought?!). Natural light alarm clocks are also a great way to gently wake yourself up with gradually increasing brightness.
2. Do some breathing exercises before you get out of bed.
If you need a moment between your alarm clock sounding and you actually getting out of bed, do a 5-minute breathing exercise before you even peel back the sheets. This can be a great way to ground your body and your thoughts, reduce stress, and even build a little energy. According to Ayurveda (one of the world’s oldest holistic healing systems, developed in India), your breath and mind mirror each other—so regulating and slowing the breath may help calm the mind and focus the mind. It doesn’t have to be anything special either—some basic diaphragmatic breathing will do the trick:
Place one hand on your upper chest and the other just below your rib cage, on your stomach. This will allow you to feel your diaphragm move as you breathe.
Breathe in slowly through your nose so that your stomach moves out against your hand. You can imagine ocean waves rolling into shore.
Hold your inhale for a couple seconds, or as long as is comfortable.
Tighten your stomach muscles, letting them fall inward as you exhale through pursed lips. Imagine waves receding back out to sea.
Repeat this for about 5 minutes.
This is also the perfect time to set a mantra or intention for the day. These can be great little confidence-boosters or anxiety-tamers, and they don’t have to be anything woo-woo either. Some simple-but-effective examples include: Action conquers anxiety; progress not perfection; it will get done; everything I need to succeed is within me; I accept myself as enough; I won't be afraid to try difficult things; I will do my best today to achieve my goals; there’s a reason I’ve gotten this far. (Check out more empowering mantras from successful women here.)
3. Get a dose of natural sunlight first thing.
Exposing your body to natural sunlight first thing in the morning—whether that’s getting outside for a few minutes to walk your dog or even just standing in front of a window—can help balance your hormones by decreasing the production of melatonin, the hormone that makes you sleeping, and increasing the production of cortisol, the hormone that gives you a boost of a.m. energy. Doing this consistently over time (along with getting to bed at a reasonable hour) will help optimize your body’s circadian rhythms so you have more energy in the daytime and are able to fall asleep easier at night.
4. Do some light stretching or squeeze in a quick workout.
If you’re not a morning person, then moving your body (even just a little) can rev your energy levels, curb stress, and boost mood. It can also be a great confidence booster—after all, starting off the day doing something great for your mind and body means you’ve already accomplished something big! And that, in turn, can have a positive ripple effect on productivity, focus, and your interactions with others throughout the rest of your day.
Here are a few good 30-minutes-or-less, no-equipment workouts to consider:
5. Have a shower brainstorm session.
Showers aren’t just great for scrubbing yourself clean post-sweat sesh. They create the ideal situation for great ideas (yes, shower epiphanies are real!). Research shows that you’re more likely to have an unexpected great idea pop into your head when you’re doing something relatively monotonous, like showering, hand-washing dishes, or going for a jog. Basically, these activities allow you to switch into autopilot mode, which frees up mental space—allowing your unconscious mind to wander and generate creative ideas that might otherwise never surface.
Pro tip: Don’t go into your shower expecting to have an epiphany. Just relax and see what happens. You won’t come up with a million-dollar idea every day, but you are giving yourself more opportunities to come up with creative solutions to tasks at work.
6. Create a priority list over your morning coffee.
Make writing your daily to-do list more of a ritual by pairing it with your morning coffee or breakfast (it’s less painful this way, we promise!). Not sure where to start since you have so much on your plate? First, create a list that contains all your tasks in one place to give yourself a complete picture of the day. Next, highlight what’s important/urgent (different colored highlighters or pens are perfect for visually signalling something’s priority); and for important projects that aren’t necessarily due that day, create subtasks with their own deadlines so you don’t fall behind.
For tasks that are the most important, try to allot some time earlier in the day, and free of other distractions, to work on these so you can take advantage of your peak brain power. (Need more help prioritizing your daily tasks? Here’s how to avoid getting bogged down in the details and focus on what’s really important.)
Extra time? Read 10 minutes of a book (no scrolling Insta!)
If you’ve accomplished everything above and still have a little time before diving into work, spend a little time reading—like, a real book. After all, the rest of your day will likely be spent staring at digital screens. Plus, spending 10-15 minutes every morning reading a new novel or even some non-fiction not only gives you a little reward to look forward to, but it gets your brain operating in a way that may actually boost creativity.