What you do in the morning sets up the tone for the rest of the day. So, it is important to get things right from the point at which you wake up in the morning! You would have heard your tutors and parents tell you about the importance of being productive and making good use of the time in your hands. Well, the best way to go about doing this is to start your morning the right way.
The common complaint among everyone is that they do not know why their morning start with a sluggish tone. Finding out the reason for such a start to the day is half the battle won! The other half is certainly finding ways to solve this issue and customise a perfect morning routine to kick-start the day well.
So, here are some ways in which you can rectify your morning routine mistakes to get things done the right way, customised to meet your needs and wants.
CONSISTENCY
Following a routine means that you need to learn to be consistent. You have to be able to follow the same series of activities every morning without skipping any one of it. Moreover, keeping up to a set times-schedule would also enable you to be productive. Productivity is ultimately all about getting things done without wasting time unnecessarily.
Some things that you should be consistent about, includes, making it a habit to never check your phone first thing in the morning. Your notifications and news updates may not all be rosy and positive most of the time, and you do not need to start your day on that tone.
LOVE WHAT YOU DO
When you learn to love your job or school-life (whatever you might be doing), you will be motivated to wake up every morning. Should you dislike what you do, every morning will start off in a slow and mundane manner. You will end up sulking and everything would seem repulsive to you. Keeping a positive outlook on life and taking things with a stride is essential for you to have a happy morning.
Practicing some form of yoga or meditation, with a series of deep inhalations and exhalations would help you practice some mindfulness and clear the mess in your mind. Your mental well-being is crucial for you to function optimally.
THE ALARM CLOCK
Setting your alarm to a realistic time is important. You cannot expect yourself to wake up early in the morning when you did not fall asleep early the night before. Moreover, avoid the habit of hitting the snooze button because this disrupts the sleep cycle to a great extent.
Physiologically, we travel through cycles of REM (Rapid Eye Movement) and Non-REM sleep throughout the night. By hitting the snooze button, you would essentially interfere with those cycle and end up waking up exhausted instead of feeling refreshed.
YOUR HEALTH
Everyone loves to close the blinds, sleep in and wake up in the afternoon. Everyone is also afraid of getting tanned and hence avoid going under the sun. However, the sunlight that morning offers is absolutely essential for the body to be in the pink of health.
Exposure to sunlight
Due to lack of exposure to sunlight, vitamin D deficiency is a common issue for most people of all ages these days. Sunlight pumps up the body’s vitamin D supply, which is much needed for various physiological functions.
Research has shown that an estimated 1,000 different genes in almost every tissue in the body are now thought to be regulated by 1,25-dihydroxy vitamin D3 (this is the active form of the vitamin), including calcium metabolism and neuromuscular and immune system functioning.
When people are exposed to sunlight in the morning, their nocturnal melatonin production occurs sooner, and they have an easier time falling asleep at night.
Nutrition
Studies have shown that a high intake of junk food like chocolates, pizzas and noodles and other such processed food, was associated with poor sleep quality. Whereas a high intake of fish and vegetables was associated with good sleep quality.
Our mind and body are complex machineries that are intertwined with one another, forming a network which are interdependent on each other. What we feed our body with, will definitely affect us on the whole!