The Ultimate Morning Routine Checklist: A Beginner’s Guide

A step-by-step guide to your ultimate morning routine

Your morning alarm goes off. Ugh, not yet. Let me just sleep in for 10 more minutes. You hit the snooze button. You wake up and realize you woke up 30 minutes later than you planned. 

Oh shoot. 

You quickly pop out of bed, hurry to put on an outfit, scarf down some breakfast, only to realize you didn’t pack lunch for work or your gym clothes. We’ve all had those days when we wake up on the wrong side of bed. 

Do you find it difficult to turn the day around depending on how your mornings go? Personally, it’s hard for me to be productive and focused when I feel rushed and hurried. This was literally me everyday in college, when I would rush to school since I was a commuter. Not only did I feel anxious to make it on time, I also felt distracted and less attentive in class. 

Research indicates the importance of creating habits and routines into our daily lives. Consistent, healthy habits can ultimately create routines that won’t require conscious effort or thought as time goes. 

That is why how you can create your ultimate morning routine checklist to win the day!

Download your free morning routine printable!

Let’s look at the most successful CEOs and entrepreneurs. Sometimes, I’ll search up their morning routines for personal inspiration. 

Bill Gates, former CEO of Microsoft, starts his morning by exercising for an hour, then reading the news. 

How do you get your day off to a successful start?

Jeff Bezos, CEO of Amazon, wakes up without an alarm and instead, wakes up whenever he does. He then reads the news, drinks coffee, and eats breakfast with his family. 

Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, wakes up before 7 am and checks any urgent emails and makes calls if needed. Then, he does 30 minutes of emailing, drinks coffee, showers, and heads to the office.

Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Facebook, wakes up at 8 am and goes on his phone, checks his social media. Afterwards, he’ll go on a walk or run with his dog. He finishes his morning routine off with breakfast before work. 

As you can tell, every successful entrepreneur or CEO you’ve heard of, has a different morning routine. Oftentimes, we’ll hear: “You’ve got to wake up at 5 am to make the most of your day! You’ve got to take a cold shower to wake yourself up!” 

Let’s take a step back from these messages we tend to hear. 

Though there is research that shows people who do wake up earlier tend to be more productive, this doesn’t mean that night owls can’t be just as productive. They may be more alert and energetic at night. It’s not a one-size fits all. 

So with that said, I did want to point out one not-so-secret thing that most successful CEOs have in order to be productive.  

The main thing that they all have in common is consistency.

Even when they don’t feel like waking up at 7 or exercising, they do it because they know the rewards they’ll reap later in their life by sticking to a consistent morning routine that works for them. 

If you win the morning, you win the day.”

Tim Ferriss

Why is a morning routine so important?

Let’s start with the question: what is a routine? A routine is a series of actions that you do consistently – they are tiny habits that add up to create a single routine.

Here are examples of what morning habits could look like to form a routine:

• Drink a glass of water
• Brush your teeth
• Make your bed
• Open your window blinds
• Do daily devotionals
• Journal
• Pray
• Write morning pages
• Write 3 things you need to get done for the day 
• Read a book
• Listen to a podcast

If you want to know more about how to be consistent with creating healthy habits, this is an essential book to read. 

When you combine all of these sequential actions together, you create a routine in your life. So when you brush your teeth or drink a glass of water, you’re putting together a morning routine. 

The best part is: once this becomes a routine, you no longer have to think twice about doing these things. 

You free up your mind from having to think about what to do. Instead, you can focus on looking forward to the start of your day. 

Click the image below to get your FREE Morning Routine Checklist printable!

How to get started with your ultimate morning routine checklist

1. Track your time and mood

Take a week to track your time. Why is this important? 

In order to create a morning routine, you need to know how you currently spend your time. 

At every hour, I’d encourage you to jot down what that time went to. For example, at 9am, what were you doing? At the end of the day, rate how you feel mentally on a scale from 1-10. Did you feel good about the day? Productive? Tired? Energetic? 

It’s important to not be critical of yourself if you find yourself losing track of time. Simply observe what you’re doing with your time. 

You can use a journal to rate your mood or choose from these 13 free mood tracker printables that can help you track your mood during the day. 

2. List out activities you need to do in the mornings

Next, you want to write down activities you need to do in the mornings whether that’s showering, making lunch, packing your gym bag, getting ready/putting on makeup, etc. These are things that are essential to your mornings or things you already do. 

After you list them out, write an estimate of the time, next to each task, of how long it takes to complete each one.

Here’s an example: 

1. Brush my teeth and skincare routine: 10 minutes
2. Change into clothes: 10 minutes
3. Makeup routine: 20 minutes
4. Pack gym bag: 5 minutes
5. Make lunch: 15 minutes

3. List out activities you want to do in the mornings 

After you list out what you need to do, make a list of activities that could make your mornings more productive. Essentially, these are activities that will make you feel more grounded during the day. These could be things like: prayer, meditation, exercising, reading, journaling, gratitude exercises, walking your dog, listening to a podcast, etc. 

Choose activities that will make you feel more mentally ready and energized to start your day.

Just like tip #2, give an estimated time you’ll need for each activity. If you have a hard time figuring out where to start for your morning routines, here are 10 ideas you can choose from to have a productive morning. 

When you’ve created both lists, see how much time you’ll need to create an ideal morning routine. For example, let’s say you want to add journaling into your morning routine. Currently, your morning routine takes up 20 minutes, so given an estimate of 5 minutes for journaling, you might have a 25 minute morning routine. 

After you’ve figured out how long it will take to complete your routine, you’ll want to set your wake up time and bedtime accordingly. 

For example, if it takes you 1 hour to complete your routine, and you want to be out the door by 8am, then it’s best to set your alarm for 6:30 am and go to bed by 10:30 pm if you want to get in those 8 hours of sleep. 

So work backwards if you have to, starting from the time you head to bed!

4. Experiment and try it out. 

Putting together a morning routine will take time and consistency. So if you feel overwhelmed by creating a routine for yourself, start small. 

I’d encourage you to introduce just one morning habit into your routine. Keep at it for a week or two, and if you don’t like it, then choose to do something different before adding another one. 

One habit I’ve recently added to my morning routine is drinking a glass of lemon water before I drink coffee. Now, it almost feels weird not to drink lemon water in the mornings, which tells me that it’s become solidified into my routine, and I love it!

Overtime, you’ll figure out what works and doesn’t work for you. Be patient and consistent!  

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Related post: 5 Secrets to Create a Killer Morning Routine

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Tips for success in creating a morning routine

Here are a few helpful, simple tips to consider in order to create a successful morning routine:

Drink a glass of water before coffee

Many people don’t realize how dehydrated our bodies get overnight. Water is a necessity our bodies need. This is a huge reason I started drinking lemon water because it’s known to keep you hydrated during the day. So I highly recommend giving lemon water a try. 

It took me about 2 weeks to make it a habit. First thing I do when I go to my kitchen is make a glass of lemon water before even making coffee (and I love my coffee). 

And if you can’t get used to the taste of lemon water, challenge yourself to drink 1 glass of water before anything else. Again, keep at it and be consistent!

Start your mornings at night

Technically, your mornings start the night before with a nighttime routine. A good way to start a productive morning is by preparing the night prior such as preparing an outfit for the day, packing your gym bag, prepping breakfast, etc.

Doing this can help alleviate any stress or overwhelm the next day. Starting your mornings at night ultimately eliminates decision fatigue, so you’ll feel more calm and grounded doing your morning routine.

I’d encourage you to make a list of things you can do the night before, so that you can be more intentional the following day. 

Eliminate decision-making

There’s such a thing as ‘Morning Decision Fatigue.’ This goes hand in hand with starting your best mornings at night. My biggest advice to you is: keep it simple. 

So what can you do to eliminate decision-making in the mornings? Here are some ideas that you can do in the evening:

1. Choose a specific set of work clothes. 
2. Eat the same breakfast/lunch every day or every other day. Believe it or not many successful entrepreneurs eat the same thing everyday. 
3. Make your to-do list the night before
4. Have everything in your work/gym bag ready to go 
5. Have your daily devotionals or journal placed on your desk 
6. Plan what you’re going to have for dinner (it could be Asian food on Mondays, Mexican food on Tuesdays, etc) 
7. Turn off your cell phone notifications and anything that could distract you in the morning 

Wake up consistently at the same time everyday 

This is a tough one, especially if you sleep late and want to catch up on sleep. Yes, sleep is very important! 

But the key to a consistent morning routine is to be consistent when you wake up. This will force you as well to sleep earlier. I challenge you to wake up at the same time you normally do even if you slept a bit later the night before. 

The reason why is because if you want to ‘catch up on sleep’ every time you sleep late, then your morning routine will not be consistent. Oftentimes, I’m tempted to set my alarm clock later to get more sleep. But if I do that, I’d have to hurry through my morning routine the next day, which would not put me in a good mood for the day.  

And believe it or not, waking up at the same time everyday actually improves your health. So do your best to sleep earlier if you want to wake up at the same time everyday. 

Exercise

I’m trying not to be biased with this one tip, but I can’t advocate enough for exercising in the morning. Of course, do what works best for you and your schedule! This is more of a personal opinion. 

In the past few years, I’ve experimented with exercising in the morning, afternoon, and at night. And I was pretty consistent with fitness as well, so I was able to compare which one worked best for me. 

At first, I liked working out in the afternoon because it was when it was super empty at the gym. (P.S. If you struggle going to the gym by yourself, I wrote about what helped me build confidence in this post.) 

It wasn’t until after I had graduated college, when I started working out in the mornings, and it has been so beneficial for my mental and physical health. And that’s why I incorporate exercise into my morning routine.

If you’re not sure which time of day is best for you to exercise, I’d say experiment with it. I also highly recommend giving this article a read to help guide you! 

Frequently Asked Questions

The last thing you need to know about any morning routine

Imagine waking up to your alarm, making your bed, drinking a cup of coffee, and going outside for a peaceful walk. Imagine how calm and peaceful your mornings would be. Without a doubt, I’d feel so much more mentally ready for the day ahead of me. 

You can create your ideal morning routine. You can make it happen. Be patient and be consistent. 

So to summarize the morning routine checklist, here are the main points to remember:

1. Track your time and mood
2. List out activities you need to do in the mornings
3. List out activities you want to do in the mornings 
4. Experiment and try it out. 

Here is a recap of helpful tips to help create a successful morning routine: 

•  Drink a glass of water before coffee
•  Start your mornings at night: 
• Eliminate decision-making
• Wake up consistently at the same time everyday 
• Exercise 

If you found this article helpful, I’d love to know what your morning routine looks like. If you have any morning routine ideas, comment down below because I’d love to hear them as well. 

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The Ultimate Morning Routine Checklist: A Beginner’s Guide