Your morning routine is the key to your day. You line everything up for success, but one false move can cause it all to come tumbling down.
Here are some habits experts say can keep you functioning.
1. Hitting the Snooze Button
It’s tempting to steal a few more minutes of sleep, but hitting snooze has a negative impact on your physical and emotional well-being. Hitting the snooze button actually sets you up to be groggy and less productive because you are repeatedly waking yourself out of a deep sleep. The solution: getting out of bed right away (even if it seems impossible).
2. Checking Your Phone
Doing this first thing in the morning stimulates self-criticism and judgments in your mind. Your emails and texts are all about things to do, things to buy, things to add to your to-do list,. This amounts to either the stuff that other people want you to be paying attention to, or what your mind says you should be paying attention to.
Even if you leave your inbox alone and stick to Instagram, you can do harm to your psyche because social media causes you to compare yourself to other people.
Bottom line: Checking your phone first thing can awaken your inner critic. To stop yourself from opening Twitter immediately after turning off your alarm, charge your phone in another room.
Begin your day instead with a self-affirming habit like journaling or meditation.
3. Planning Your Day
If you wake up and have no idea what's on your schedule, where you have to be, or what you’re going to wear, then your day is already off to a frantic start. Organizing your day the night before will help you’ll feel refreshed and ready to go in the morning.
4. Drinking Water...
You may be craving a cup of coffee as soon as your feet hit the floor, but what your body really needs is a glass of water, Since you haven’t had any liquids in your system for at least six (or hopefully eight) hours, your body is dehydrated. You can have the coffee (see below), but your body will function better—you'll have fewer headaches, less fatigue, and smaller bags under your eyes—if you down a glass of water first.
5. ...and Coffee
Don't feel guilty about reaching for the coffee pot after you've had your water—it is actually good for your body. Coffee is a great source of antioxidants, and it can increase energy as well as help to stabilize our moods. It can also help keep our brains healthier and our minds sharper.
Too much coffee isn’t going to do you any favors, though. Stick with one or two cups a day, and be consistent with how much you drink, or else you’ll start getting headaches and withdrawal symptoms.
based on an article by Danielle Braff