As we are nearly all learning completely remote students this school year, finding the motivation to fulfill our days with productivity may come much easier to some than others. Not only were our entire lives drastically altered by the world’s current circumstance, the small bursts of normalcy, like a stable morning routine, may be just what we need to get ourselves out of the mental rut that COVID-19 has dragged is into.
Here, we will provide you with some methods to get yourself into a positive headspace for the day to come. The morning entirely sets the tone for a day, a good morning leads to an even better day to follow. We all have those days where we let the morning slip by, waking up in the mere afternoon for our 2 p.m. class, and following that with a nap.
We may spend our nights up late binge-watching Netflix or submitting that assignment that entirely slipped our minds, but the first step to creating a positive and concrete morning routine is allowing yourself to sleep. Not only does our body need proper rest to regularly function, but our hours spent asleep are when our brain detoxifies itself of the protein build-up of neurons. Your mind literally clears when you provide yourself with adequate sleep.
2020 is no longer the time of randomly drawn to-do lists that sit at the bottom of your back or build cobwebs in the note’s app of your phone. Most yearly planners have pages of the entire month and sectioned off space to individually plan each day. Not only does this aid in your time management, but it gives you a new task in the morning that doesn’t involve lying in bed on Tik Tok for your first two hours awake. Plan out school assignments, meetings for the week, your work schedule or even arrival dates of online packages, giving you a chance to reprioritize and reorganize. Whether it’s a planner, a manifestation journal summoning your ex, or a gratitude journal, you are not allowing yourself time for creativity and organization.
Other than checking for any urgent texts or emails, browsing all of your socials immediately after waking up may not be the best way to have a positive morning. Depending on your personal feed and general attitude toward some social media platforms can implement negative self-ideals into your head. Exposing yourself to that first thing in the morning, not only takes up precious time of peace and quiet that most of our mornings offer, but they subconsciously remain in your mind throughout the day. Try setting yourself another alarm, 30 minutes to an hour following your initial wake up alarm, that will designate when you will be able to go on your phone to browse social media after your wake up.
A great way to not only your intellectual mind up but also your physical body is incentivizing yourself with a non-school related book. If you need immediate entertainment in the morning that is usually provided by your phone, set your no phone timer and allow yourself to enjoy the entertainment that your chosen book provides.
The stillness and peace that the morning offers is like no other, especially if your roommates are late sleepers. Utilizing the time before class or a work shift to get in some extra cleaning, listen to a podcast you haven’t had time to catch up on or get in a workout lets you just one thing off your list before your regular days even commonly start. Not only will this make you feel more energized and motivated, but it will start a day of productivity and positivity off on the right foot.
The ice coffee that we get at the library Starbucks before sitting down to do hours of work is not the entirety of our productivity. That amazing caffeine rush that makes us feel unstoppable for a total of fourteen minutes may have more to do with the fact that we don’t have the right amount of food in our stomach and less with the fact that it’s “not enough espresso”. Caffeine enters your bloodstream on an empty stomach rapidly and does not provide us with long-lasting energy like food does. One way to slow down the release of caffeine into your bloodstream to maintain that energized feeling is by eating a complex carb, like oatmeal or avocado toast prior to your four shots over ice with almond milk.
Being the word that entirely encompasses stillness and tranquility, it can be very intimidating. Meditation in itself is a practice, so denying yourself of at least trying it because you’re not an immediate master, would really cut yourself short of some much-needed alone time with your thoughts. Meditating for only just to 2 to 3 minutes right after awaking is followed by so many mental and physical health benefits that when practiced consistently can begin to become one of the most looked forward to a portion of your morning routine.
