If breakfast is the most important meal of the day, then morning is the most important time of the day. It's said that if you lose an hour in the morning, you would be searching for it all day.
I like to start the day the right way, preparing for what the day has in store for me, and doing the things that make me feel calmer in the peace and quietness of the morning.
Waking up early is considered to be a habit of productive people and developing a productive morning routine can change the way you live and work every day.
Here are some things that I either do every morning or things that I really want to incorporate into my morning routine:
3. Pray
4. Give thanks
5. Meditate
6. Exercise
7. 1-Hour 'Screen-Fasting'
8. Declutter
9. Plan
10. Bullet Journalling
1. Feel Cleaner
Hygiene could not be any more important right now during this pandemic.
Though you don't really go out anymore and even if you do, you are always armed with a mask, but it's never wrong to care for your oral hygiene and have good breath.
I like to wash my face to get out of the drowsiness. Perhaps take a shower and start the day feeling cleaner and ready to take on the day.
2. Let in Natural Light
I just love opening up the curtains and letting in natural light during the mornings, so I always dream of having a home with many windows.
This is also the time when I check on my indoor plants which are right at the windowsill.
It almost symbolic of opening your mind and soul to rays of hope - hope that today is going to be great.
3. Pray
Take some time to reinforce your connection with the Almighty. It might never occur to us to pray anytime else in between the day during the hustle and bustle of work.
Mornings are the best time to do this, when there is just you, your God, and nobody else.
4. Give thanks
Feel grateful for having the opportunity to be around the people you love and be in the right conditions that allow you to do the things you enjoy.
Show gratitude because your achievements and the heights you have scaled hadn't occurred to you by mistake, but by your hard work and tough perseverance.
Start the day on a positive note, feeling glad that you have been blessed immensely.
5. Meditate
If there would be any time when you are not thinking about anything at all, then it would be while you are meditating because even in your sleep, your brain is remarkably active and doesn't take a well-deserved nap.
Meditation is extremely simple; all you have to do is sit down on a mat and focus on your breathing. The only thing you should concentrate on is your breathing.
But certainly, that will not happen all the time. The biggest mistake beginners do is trying to do it perfectly.
Key is not to prevent new thoughts from arising (because you can't control it), but to see the thoughts as 'clouds' that just pass by your mind.
Let whatever come up in your head but don't give any importance to any of them.
6. Exercise
7. 1-Hour 'Screen-Fasting'
Don't touch your phone for the first one hour of your day. It's a destructive habit to look at your phone during the precious time in the morning. Some of us literally do that first thing in the morning and that is something that you should be concerned about.
Scrolling through other people's social media feeds make you jealous of their happiness and does nothing to help you utilize the morning with something more worth your time.
Instead, devote that time for doing something for yourself, not for envying others' success on social media.
Don't check or respond to e-mails in the morning either. Make it a point that morning is your alone-time. Pick a time to check and respond to emails and messages maximum twice a day.
8. Declutter
Isn't it such a bliss to see the sight of a clean, tidy workspace?
It just incentivizes you to begin your work in an environment that isn't as distracting because of everything being all over the place.
I like to declutter my workspace in the morning because it would usually be disordered from the previous day's mess.
9. Plan
You don't wanna start the day without knowing what you're going to do. Make a checklist of the things that you are going to do in the day.
Prioritize according to importance and urgency. Having a blueprint of your day ensures that you are not just sitting at your desk, but actually doing some work.
I use calendar blocking to divide my day into 'blocks' of time so that I know exactly how my day is supposed to go by and if anything falls apart, I will have some back up plan. How to be More Productive and Save Time with Calendar Blocking ¦Time-management ¦ Productivity
As the saying goes, failing to plan is planning to fail.
10. Bullet Journalling
Bullet journalling is basically keeping a track of your day-to-day life. Your tasks, your feelings, your goals. It's everything in one journal.
This is a habit I really wanted to inculcate but I realized that it does take you to dedicate a sizable amount of time. But if you do have the time to do it, I would urge you to keep a minimalist bullet journal.
There are plenty of tutorials on YouTube that guide you through every step of bullet journalling. Here is one of them that I liked the most: Minimalist Bullet Journalling for Beginners - Pick Up Limes
Things to Keep in Mind
Don't suffocate your morning routine.
My mistake of stifling my morning routine ended up forcing me to reduce the load I had to carry in the beginning of the day itself.
For example, I used to wake up at five in the morning, thinking that would let me have more time to myself.
But that did not make me happier. Instead, it gave me a reason to not look forward to my morning routine.
There is no compulsion to do all the things given in the list above if you do not receive the delight and satisfaction from doing it.
Morning routines are never perfect.
Some things may not work out the way you want them to, but there is beauty in those imperfections that deserves appreciation.
The whole point of starting the day the right way is not to be taken literally.
The Japanese value broken cups than perfectly fine cups because of the imperfect shape of the broken ones.
Don't start the day on a negative note.
By this I mean that you shouldn't bring up unhappy events of the past, backbite people you have 'opinions' about or wander in the gloomy world of yesterday's failures.
You would end up dragging that pessimistic atmosphere throughout the day.
Conclusion
Coming back to the Japanese view of things, did you know that many buildings are built with wood, in a flood- and earthquake-prone country like Japan? Constructing those buildings with wood have a deep, symbolic and cultural meaning.
When these wooden structures get destroyed by floods and earthquakes, it gives an opportunity to today's generation to rebuild and reform these buildings which were probably built by their forefathers.
That is what a new day and a new morning is all about - change and reformation. A chance to enhance what needs improvement and rid what is harmful. There are endless possibilities.
Having a weak body of wood does not mean that you are not strong enough to face the floods, but that you are open enough to always accept change for the better.
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