What is that very first morning routine you engage in once you wake up? Grab your phone and start from where you left off before you slept? Put off or snooze your alarm and get few more minutes of sleep?
For a worker who wants to beat early morning traffic, it could be rushing to the kitchen to boil some water for that hot bath.
Some go for that cold bath that wakes them up.
Whatever it is, you may be unknowingly following a morning routine that is making you less productive.
However, if you adopt our suggestions here for your morning routine, you will find that boost you need to start your day.
The first few things you do once you wake up, to a very large extent, determine the king of energy you bring into your day.
This Happens When You Wake Up
Once you wake up, some things are constant.
First in this level is your circadian rhythm or circadian cycle.
This is a natural, internal process that regulates your sleep–wake cycle.
Basically, it repeats roughly every 24 hours. So, it is like a routine that your body adapts to and it begins all over when you wake up.
Another thing that happens when you wake up in the morning is that you are dehydrated.
Essentially, this happens because you lose water all through your sleeping time.
Your body calls for it first thing in the morning.
Unfortunately, many persons have forced their body to cope with this morning dehydration. They have a habit of avoiding morning hydration. ‘It just won’t pass’, they say.
Furthermore, your brain is also at work, trying to balance your books from what it handled while you were asleep.
This is because, sleep helps clean the brain, according to a study (1).
What To Do As Morning Routine For Maximum Productivity
Here are some of the things that you have to do because they largely affect how your day will go.
1. Start Your Circadian Clock
Earlier, we mentioned that your circadian rhythm is a natural, internal process that regulates your sleep–wake cycle.
Naturally, it works with the sun.
One interesting thing about our body is that it follows the rise and fall of the sun.
No matter how hard you try, once the sun is up, your circadian rhythm changes.
In fact, sunlight fuels us, it starts us up and boosts our serotonin levels. It also makes us feel happy, and gives us energy.
Most importantly, sunlight tells our brains that we are awake.
The moment you interact with sunlight, it triggers this biological timer and it starts ticking towards 16 hours.
Yes! You have 8 hours for sleep and your body knows.
Unfortunately, for people who rise early with the aid of an alarm or an adjusted circadian rhythm, the sun is absent to help bring this start-up effect.
However, a sleep expert, Matthew Walker, in his book, Why We Sleep, says that while getting outside and absorbing sunlight is best, artificial overhead lighting is a close alternative (2).
So, if you wake up before sunrise, put on the light in your room. Having a low light up, could keep your rhythm in a confused state pushing it back.
This is one of the reasons you find it hard to sleep at night.
In fact, your eyes need light to help set your body’s internal clock. Early morning sunlight in particular seems to help people get to sleep at night (3).
This may be more important as you age.
You see, your eyes are less able to take in light, and you’re more likely to have problems going to sleep.
2. Kill Morning Phone Habit
Indeed, you could be one of those persons that quickly grab their phone to just see what is happening.
Hey! You are alive. And that is one big thing that is happening. Leave the phone for later.
Here is why you should keep the phone away.
When you sleep, your brain begins to organise all the information you gathered throughout the day.
The information is then made ready for use.
This is known as REM SLEEP. You see, your sleep time is when you do most of the learning.
According to studies, this process helps in cleaning your brain and making it ready for use in the new day.
But the moment you grab your phone in the morning, your brain begins to process new information dropping whatever is left of the overnight learning progress.
The best you can do is to grab a journal and write down ideas. Reason out solutions to issues and journal them. This gives the brain an opportunity to pull information.
Also, looking at your phone in the morning spikes hormones. Your dopamine and cortisol are at their highest levels in the morning.
Unfortunately, looking at your phone can spike these hormones, triggering an imbalance.
One of the very things I do to keep my phone from drawing my attention in the morning is to turn off the network.
A call or message could come in so early and make you grab your phone.
3. Workout A Little
Have you noticed that sometimes you drag your body out of bed.
You are not alone and there is a reason for this.
You see, the moment you sleep, a neurotransmitter called GABA is released.
This paralyses your muscles. To losing these muscles when you wake up, you need to move your body.
Do strength exercise and few other workouts that will losing your muscles.
These workouts have a way of telling your brain that you are awake.
4. Practice Deep Breathing
Also, you should add deep breathing exercise (breathing slowly – 5 times in one minute) to your morning routine.
Basically, this breathing exercise increases airflow to your brain and stretches out your lungs.
Air, is your most vital commodity and lung health is linked to overall mortality.
In fact, naturally, when you workout, your breath intake increases and this give your body a positive result.
5. Add Water To Your Morning Routine
Surprisingly, you loose a large amount of water while you sleep. This happens as you breath and sweat.
Reach for a glass of water and hydrate.
Most importantly, drinking water does not only quench your thirst. It also delivers nutrients to your cells, lubricates joints and helps monitor mood.
To make your water more interesting to take, add some lemon juice, apple cider vinegar, garlic tincture and even little sea salt.
These help replenish nutrients that you lose overnight and support healthy bacteria in your gut.