Snoozing your alarm
Rolling back over for a quick snooze is very tempting – especially if it’s early, dark or cold! However, the short bursts of sleep you get after snoozing your alarm are often low in quality and actually make you more restless and groggy when you truly wake up. Start your day on a better note by hopping out of bed right away! If that seems impossible, consider sitting upright until you’re ready to rise.
Looking at your phone
Keeping your phone on your bedside table ready for you to pick up first thing in the morning can actually negatively affect your sleep hygiene. Waking up and instantly turning to your phone increases cortisol levels, and the blue light it emits can be harmful to your eyes. It makes your bed a less restful place as your mind begins to associate it with wake time – save your phone for when you get downstairs!
Checking social media
As tempting as it is to check your phone for work or life updates, it can be a very negative and unproductive start to your day. Not only can it disrupt your feelings if you find out some upsetting news, but it can also make you lose track of time and waste more of your morning. Consider setting yourself a 10 minute timer or, better yet, avoid it all together!
Not opening your blinds
Many think that waking up and instantly turning on your light 0r opening your blinds is a rude awakening, but it’s actually the most positive way you can start your day! It makes you feel energized and ready for the morning ahead as it signals to your body that its time for its daylight cycle. It prepares you to get moving, and the sunlight hits you with that all important vitamin D.
Leaving your bed a mess
Making your bed is not only find extremely tidy and productive, but it also mentally prepares you for the day. A freshly made bed is far less tempting to hop back into, and a fresh looking room does wonders for your mental health! Additionally, it ensures a better nights sleep the following night as your bed becomes a more inviting space. Unmade beds can collect dirt and crumbs, which make sleep difficult.
Drinking coffee right away
Having coffee in the morning is most peoples’ go to way to start the day and there’s nothing wrong with that! Just be sure to have a nice big glass of water before you do so. The body will have gone hours without a drink when you wake up, so its important to hydrate it with a proper drink first. There’s nothing better than some good old-fashioned H20.
Not eating breakfast
Many people don’t like eating breakfast in the morning – but you may want to consider doing it anyways. Your metabolism works faster on a morning, therefore its a good way to use your calories early on. It stops mindless snacking in the day and eating a slightly smaller meal in the evening is thought to be beneficial to digestion and sleep quality.
Not exercising
Instead of waking up and having a lazy morning, doing some exercise is a good way to keep fit and healthy. You don’t have to do an extreme workout by any means, just some gentle stretches often do the trick. Research states that morning is the best time to exercise as it releases all those feel-good hormones to set you up for the day.
Not creating a daily schedule
Not having a plan for the rest of your day after waking up can make you feel at best sluggish and easily-distracted, and at worst on-edge and anxious. Instead of scrolling on your phone, create a schedule of activities to keep your mind busy. You could even consider doing this the night before if you have time! Overall, it will make you feel less rushed as you can avoid frantic, last-minute plans.
Not having a sleep schedule
Not having a sleep schedule disrupts your day-to-day life. Sticking to a schedule is hard at first but, once your body gets used to it, you will start to go to sleep and wake up at certain times naturally. This makes it easier for you to wake up on time and avoid those lazier mornings. It’s a hard test of self-discipline but it’s absolutely worth it!
Rushing through your routine
Although workdays can feel like a race to get out the door on time, try not to rush through your morning routine. This leads to stress building up from early on in the day and also means that you’re more likely to forget something that you need later in the day. Take your time, and maybe get up 5 minutes earlier if you find yourself scrambling to get out of the door every morning.
Neglecting hydration
Drinking water is vital at all times of the day, but can be especially invigorating early in the morning. Research has shown that drinking sufficient water in the morning will provide you with the same amount of energy as your daily Starbucks. Plus, water is free and much better for you. Get chugging!
Not stretching
Okay, no one is saying you have to run 10k before work, if you do, good for you. If you’d rather exercise at a different time, at least try stretching in the morning; this will help get your blood flowing and help you do a quick check-in with your body every morning.
Starting with negative thoughts
The headspace that you wake up in every day sets the tone for the day. If you had a hard day yesterday or a rough night’s sleep, try not to let those negative thoughts and feelings linger. Today is a new day to have positive thoughts that positively benefit your day.
Overloading your schedule
Don’t wake up in the morning and agree to 10 meetings and lunch with a friend before you’ve even steeped out the door. Leave some space in your day that you can fill out as things progress so that you haven’t left yourself without a free minute for the entire day. It’s important that you take time to think and re-focus your energy.
Stressing over the day ahead
If you’re stressing before you’ve even gotten out of bed, you’re doing something wrong. You’re either overthinking everything or have stretched yourself too thin. Try taking a second in the morning to calm yourself down and remind yourself that you are capable of tackling whatever life throws at you.
Eating sugary foods
You know the way kids get sugar rushes and then crash after a birthday party? You’ll get this too if you eat too much sugar in the morning. Not only will you be super tired for the rest of the day, but you’ll also find that you are much hungrier throughout the day.
Neglecting personal hygiene
This one should be pretty self-explanatory, but you never know. No everyone has time for a full bath before work, but even if you wash the night before work, it’s always best to freshen-up in the morning. Wash your face and brush your teeth to ensure you’re ready for the day ahead.
Skipping meditation or mindfulness
If you’re someone who benefits from meditation or mindfulness exercises, the best time to do these is in the morning so that you set yourself up for the day. There are great apps out there that help you with ways to inject mindfulness into your everyday life, even your busy mornings.
Leaving dishes unwashed
It can be tempting to just throw your breakfast plate in the sink to wash when you get home from work, but we all know that you hate early-morning-you for doing that everyday. Leave your house as clean as you can so that you don’t have ores to do when you get in as well as cooking dinner.
Checking emails from bed
Give yourself time to wake up, don’t hop straight on your phone and start checking work emails. Karen from finance can wait, what’s more important is that you arrive at work full rested and ready for the day ahead! Lower your stress levels first thing and watch your day instantly improve.
Butting heads with household members
This one is tricky, because if you aren’t a morning person, you probably just want everyone to leave you alone in the mornings. However, try to avoid conflict early on in the day as it can leave your emotions off-balanced for the whole day. If you feel that you will be easily annoyed, try having breakfast/getting ready somewhere more quiet.
Putting off important tasks
If you have something that needs done in the day, it’s bets to do it in the morning. Tick the hard stuff off your list so that your day gets easier as you go on and only the enjoyable tasks are left. Who knows, you might even have some time left to spare?
Not taking time for skincare
Skipping skincare in the morning is a fool’s game. Not only will this make you feel fresher and help to wake you up; it will make you look less tired and feel more confident. Skincare is a vital step in the morning if you want to look and feel brighter.
Not speaking to anyone
It can be easy to just put your head down and fly through your morning. But remember, you probably won’t communicate with your loved ones again until the evening when everyone is jaded from the day. Try connecting with those who are important to you when you wake up to make everyone feel good for the day ahead.
Watching the news
The news is often filled with terrible stories that will just make you feel anxious or depressed in the morning. No one is saying that you should shield yourself from what’s going on in the world, but maybe try some calming music in the morning and graduate to the harder stuff later in the day.
Spending excessive time looking in the mirror
Don’t waste time focusing on your insecurities in the morning, by dwelling on these you will set yourself up for failure throughout the day. It’s important to feel confident in everything that you do and spending too long focusing on your imperfections will ruin that for you.
Choosing uncomfortable footwear
Those red-bottoms may make you feel like a boss when you put them on, but do you still feel like that after your hour-long commute? Why not wear your Nikes on your way to work but bring the killer heels in your bag so that you can slip them on when you get into the office? No one has to know.
Procrastinating
When you wake up in the morning, try not to spend time wallowing in the fact that you have so much to do that day. As hard as it seems at the time, just get it done! Try and smash the hardest tasks of the day earliest in the morning when you have the most energy so that you can tackle everything you need to do in a day.
Leaving clothes all over your room
This is one that everyone is guilty of. You don’t know what to wear to work, so you end up creating a mess in your room that looks like a shopping mall threw up. If you are frustrated about what to wear in the morning, try figuring it out the night before or folding the clothes before you leave so you come home to a tidy room.
Eating a heavy meal
There’s nothing wrong with fuelling up for a big day ahead, but certain foods will make you feel groggy and like you just want to go back to sleep. Try avoiding meat and carb heavy meals in the morning and instead opt for fruits, veggies and cereals.
Smoking
Smoking is bad for you at all times of the day, but especially in the morning. It lowers your blood pressure and can lead to dizziness, it also means that your clothes, breath and hands will smell for the rest of the day too. What a way to kill your early morning freshness.
Choosing an outfit you aren’t confident in
If you’ve bought a new outfit for work but try it on on the day and don’t like it, just go for something that you know works for you. There’s nothing worse than regretting an outfit choice once you’ve already left the house and this is just ten times worse when you know you have to wear it in work a day .
Choosing a complicated hairstyle
Look, you already have enough on your plate, you probably don’t need to try and pull-off that intricate braid that you saw on Pinterest last night. You don’t want to be walking round all day constantly fixing your hair or giving yourself a headache from an elaborate hairstyle.
Packing your bag last-minute
This is why you always forget your phone charger. Pack your bag the night before so that you know you can just lift it in the morning and walk out the door without any stress. It’s best to do as much as possible the night before to make your mornings super smooth.
Not meal-prepping your lunch
This is a surefire way to end up eating trash on your lunch break and spending money while doing it. Try buying some containers and making your lunch for the week ahead so that all you have to do is grab it out of the fridge along with any snacks for when you get hungry.
Not practicing affirmations
It’s important to gas yourself up in the mornings. Try reminding yourself that you are strong, confident and ready for the day ahead. If you go into your day with this mindset, you’ll be abele to pull off anything that you put your mind to. Try leaving sticky-notes with affirmations for yourself around your house too!
Listening to music
Your day is already likely to be full of noise and over-stimulation. If you find yourself overwhelmed at the end of the day, try having quiet mornings where you can focus on getting your senses accustomed to the noises of the day. It’s hard at first, but so worth it.
Taking work calls
You don’t need to take work calls in the morning, the office can wait! Also, remember that. unless you are on-call, you likely aren’t getting paid for these calls. Try being as unplugged as possible until you clock-in, that way people will know that you have boundaries.
Staying in bed on weekends
It can be tempting to stay in bed until midday on a Sunday, and if you’ve had a really tough week, maybe you should do it. However, if you do this every weekend, you might find that you end up wasting your days off and aren’t able to get any of your activities done.