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Last week, we told you the secret to having a great morning routine… was planning the night before. But what we didn’t discuss is the importance of your environment. Even just making a few of these tweaks below can have a huge impact on how you start your day.

Here are a few tips for getting your environment right.

Set Your Alarm OutSide Your Room – While this might be extreme for some, the fact of the matter is, it works. If you find yourself constantly snoozing, putting your alarm in the other room can help you get up and moving. Once you’re out of bed, it’s much easier to stay up and get your day started.

Sleep in your morning clothes – If you wake up and find yourself just going back to bed, sleeping in your morning clothes is a great way to “hack your psychology.” As soon as you wake up, you know exactly what you need to do… get up and put in the work.

Alternatively, you can lay out your clothes for the day in a spot you won’t miss them, particularly if you’re trying to add the exercise habit to your morning routine.

Have A Clean Room – Waking up to a messy room is a quick way to start your day discouraged and overwhelmed. Even just tidying up your room a little bit the night before can go a long ways in priming your mind for a focused and productive morning.

Sticky Note By Your Bed – This is something I’ve been experimenting with over the last few months, and I always find myself more excited to greet the morning. I’ll place a sticky note at my desk with a motivational quote or my 1-2 items I want to get done for the day. It makes hitting snooze much more difficult when I know I have important things to do.

Hopefully, by implementing just a few of these tweaks will help you finally get your morning routine going and make it stick.

On Wednesday we talked about the simple hack that will help increase your chances of building a morning routine that lasts. Taking just 15 minutes the night before to prep you for the next day can make all the difference in the world.

Now that you’ve committed to building a morning routine… the next logical step is determining how to make the most of your time.

Again, you don’t have to wake up 3 hours earlier to get the benefits of a morning ritual. In fact, just 20-30 minutes in the morning is more than enough to build at least a handful of powerful habits that will have a tremendous impact on your life.

While there are dozens of positive habits you can implement in the morning, I’ve found focusing on just these 7 keystone habits to be incredibly beneficial. Even just implementing one of these in your morning ritual can have positive ripples in all areas of your day.

Make Your Bed:

Out of all the keystone habits to implement in the morning, this one is my favorite. While it sounds silly on the surface, I’ve found a direct correlation in my mood for the day and whether or not I’ve made my bed. This is just one of those simple tweaks that put me in a good mood and gives me a quick win for the morning.

A glass of Water:

Another simple, but often overlooked habit is to drink a large glass of water as soon as you wake up. Overnight your body releases a disgusting amount of sweat so you wake up slightly dehydrated. One of the major benefits of having a big glass of water is it makes it easier to stay hydrated throughout the day, especially if you’re prone to drinking soda instead of water while at work.

Read 5 Pages:

It’s a common mistake to think that in order to get the ‘benefits’ of reading you have to block off 30-45 minutes or it’s not worth it. That couldn’t be further from the truth. I like to commit to reading just 5 pages each morning. Sometimes I’ll read a few more, and sometimes I’ll stop reading right at 5 pages. The important part is getting into the HABIT of reading. 5 pages might not seem much, but over the course of a few weeks or months this adds up to 1-2 books you may otherwise not have read.

Stretch/Exercise:

Depending on how much time you have in the morning, getting your exercise in for the day is a great use of your time. Not only will you feel better from the endorphins released from exercise, you’ll have a “great” day no matter what else happens.

If you don’t have enough time to get a full workout in (check out the 7-minute workout) at the very least aim to do some light stretching for 5-10 minutes. Over time you’ll be much more flexible and your body will be in great shape to tackle the day.

Plan Your MIT’s:

If you’ve followed our secret for getting the most from your morning routine and planned your night before, this involves just reviewing your MIT’s you’ve set the night before. If not, take a few minutes and write down the 2-3 goals that you want to accomplish for the day. Think of these as actions that if done, would make your day “productive.” It’s amazing how much you can get done if you have the right focus.

Meditate Or Pray: While the many benefits of meditation have been shouted from the rooftops for the last few years, it really can help you have a much more focused and productive day. Again, the point isn’t to meditate for 90 minutes and do nothing else. In fact, just 5 minutes of focused meditation, breathing, or prayer can prime you to have a great day. If you need some guidance, download Calm or Headspace.

Journal:

Another favorite keystone habit that I love doing in the morning is what’s known as the “morning pages” or “brain dump” popularized by the best-selling book – The Artist’s Way. Essentially you take 10-15 minutes and write whatever’s on your mind. You can do this by hand or in a web platform such as 750 words. The goal isn’t to write amazing prose or produce anything to share with the world. The goal is to dump everything in your head that’s taking up mental space so you have a clear mind heading into the day. Write whatever comes to your mind and don’t worry about it being perfect.

Bonus: Cold Shower

Admittedly not for everyone, jumping in an ice cold shower for 5 minutes in the morning is a GREAT way to wake yourself up. One of the main benefits of the cold shower is it’s a great way to exercise your willpower and improve your mindset heading into the afternoon. If you can take a 5 minute cold shower you can handle anything that life throws your way.

My good friend Joel Runyon, of Impossible, has an awesome app CST that helps you get started.

Putting It All Together:

Just adding one-or-two of these keystone habits into your morning can have a profound impact on your morning ritual.

Don’t try to add all of these into your morning routine right away. Start slow and start adding one or two to your ritual once you’ve successfully completed the ones before.

Over to you! We’d love to hear some of your favorite morning ritual habits. Share your ritual in the comments below.

Having successfully implemented my own morning routine and helped hundreds of others do the same, I wanted to share the one thing I’ve done to greatly increase the chances of me following through with my morning ritual the next day.

It doesn’t involve going to sleep at 6 PM…

Or waking up at 4 AM and sacrificing quality Zzz’s.

In fact, my biggest ‘secret’ to successfully building a morning routine starts the night before.

By getting your mind ready for the next day, you’ll be able to increase your ability to implement a powerful morning routine.

Here are a few things I’ve found to be extremely helpful in setting myself up for success. While you don’t have to do all of these, just doing one or two will help you get into the habit of starting your day off right.

Set Your Clothes Out For The Next Day:

This is incredibly helpful for reducing “decision fatigue” the next morning, and especially great at priming you to exercise if that’s one of your goals. As soon as you wake up, you see your clothes and know exactly what that means. You still have to put in the work of course, but this simple tweak can make all the difference.

Clean Off Your Desk / Work Area:

I take a few minutes each night before I go to bed and clean my desk and work area so I’m greeted with an organized desk the next day. I’ll set my laptop out with my calendar / most important to do items, so as soon as I log on to my computer I have a clear picture of what I need to get done.

Put Your Favorite Book Out In The Open:

When finished cleaning my workspace and desk, I’ll leave the book I’m reading on the desk. When I wake up I’ll see my book and know that reading just a few pages before ‘life gets in the way’ I’ll make progress on the book and feel good about my efforts.

Plan Your 3 MIT’s:

I also like to take 5-10 minutes the night before and plan what my 2-3 “Most Important Items” are. Because my morning ritual is virtually on autopilot the next day, I know I won’t have anything distracting me from getting to work on the 2-3 things that will have the most impact on my business and personal life.

Of course, things might change when I wake up, but having a few clear goals the night before makes it significantly more likely my most important items will get done.

Take A Peek At Your Calendar:

In addition to planning my 2-3 most important next tasks for the day, I’ll also take a quick peek at my calendar. I look for any major events that might distract me from my getting my 2-3 Most Important Tasks done. This way, I’ll reduce the chances of anything “popping up” and distracting me from my goals.

In total, my nightly routine prepping me for the next day takes no more than 15 minutes, and in my experience, it has significantly increased my chances of getting the next day started with all the momentum in the world.

If you’ve struggled with sticking to a morning routine in the past, try just a few of these things the night before. I think you’ll be surprised at the results.

P.S If you’re still looking for every advantage in building a powerful and productive morning routine, you’ll love what Pavlok Rise has to offer. Comment below to stay up to date with all the latest as we launch later this month.-Maneesh Sethi

-Bud Hennekes

Head of Content