How to Design Your Morning Routine for Success

Here are a few ideas to help power up your day. Use them during your new two-hour morning routine or add them elsewhere to supercharge your productivity.

Make Music Playlists to Fuel your Purpose

Starting your morning with music can energize, galvanize and inspire. It can also calm, de-stress and soothe. Use energizing music when you are exercising or cleaning or sailing along through your tasks, getting them out the way.

Use soothing music when you need to de-stress or center yourself, such as during meditation.

Making separate playlists to suit your mood can really help make your day more productive. Head over to iTunes and set up a playlist that fuels your day.

Drink a Glass of Water with Your Morning Coffee

Drinking a glass of water along with your morning coffee will rehydrate your body. Even if you’re addicted to caffeine, try to cut it down to no more than two or three cups a day. Any more than that, and the energizing effects are reversed. You will be prone to side effects like:

• Upset stomach
• Nervousness
• Palpitations
• Insomnia
• Tiredness

And if you must drink coffee later in the day, switch to decaffeinated after 3 p.m.

Prepare Yourself a Morning Smoothie

Try a morning smoothie for even a week, and you will likely notice a positive difference very quickly. Morning smoothies (the sort you make yourself; not the sugar or fruit-juice laden ones you buy at juice bars or fast food stores) convey noticeable benefits:

• Stop heartburn
• Reduce or eliminate hunger between meals and food cravings
• Help you lose weight
• Heal your intestines
• Solve a lot of bowel problems
• Give you more energy

Try a morning smoothie—and see how quickly you’ll tick off the boxes in the list above.

How hard is it to make Smoothies? It’s easy as pie. All you need is a $39 Magic Bullet, and the fresh fruit and vegetables of your choice. (Ice is nice, too!)

Add protein powder and/or plain Greek Yogurt if you are on a low-carb diet or need some extra oomph. Add a cup of fresh baby spinach, washed well. Even if you hate spinach, do this. It’s a painless way to ingest a cup of those dreaded “leafy greens”.

What happens to spinach in a smoothie is this: The spinach becomes totally neutral in taste—yet you benefit from all its vitamins. (Spinach is actually the magic ingredient that conveys the lion’s share of health benefits.)

Better yet, join the free 21-Day Green Smoothies for Breakfast Challenge—something that successful, dynamic coaches like Kristen Joy of The Book Ninja and Life Coach, Therese Sparby happily endorse and practice. And if you’re a “breakfast skipper”, this is the perfect solution!

My friend Natalie Marie Collins has a 21 Day Smoothie Challenge that you can try.

Just feeling healthier and having more energy will help you adopt other good habits and give you the mental sharpness you need to succeed

Feed your Soul

That’s the physical wake-up to your system taken care of—but don’t skip straight to Facebook or email. Time to nourish your soul!

The beauty is, you don’t have to adopt every method I’m going to suggest here—though you certainly can, if you like. Just pick at least one suggestion that resonates with you the most strongly.

• Read: Or Listen to a Book or Podcast

(Self-Help, Motivational, Inspirational, Business, or Spiritual)

• Practice a Gratitude Attitude

This can be as simple as not allowing yourself to get out of bed in the morning until you’ve thought of three things you are grateful for. Try including a “Three Things I am Grateful for Today” section in your Daily Inspiration journal; or write them on three slips of paper and slip these into a jar.

The “three things I am grateful for” habit is such an easy one to get into—and not only does it take hardly any time at all, it is one of those little habits that can transform your life.

• Use Relevant Affirmations

Words have power. If affirmative statements resonate with you or inspire you, make it part of your two-hour morning routine.

Again, customize it into a format that works well for you—one you enjoy. Buy yourself a card pack with different affirmations daily. Or subscribe to a site like Goodfinding.com that will send you a daily affirmation by email

Start Work at the Same Time Every Day

Even if you’re self-employed and you live to be flexible, keep yourself to one set time slot—and that’s starting work at the same time every day. No matter how flexible you are the rest of the day, getting yourself into the habit of sitting down to work at the same time every day will help you accomplish more—and avoid procrastination.

Automate Your Day

Why do something from scratch when you can automate it, using resources, apps, tools and templates?

Use timers, tracking apps, scheduling suites—whatever makes tasks easier for you or helps you perform tasks and take care of responsibilities more efficiently.

Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff

Throw out any task that isn’t absolutely essential. If you can’t throw it out, delegate or outsource it. That goes for household chores like cleaning—hire a cleaning lady—or grocery shopping too—many supermarkets allow you to order over the phone and have your groceries delivered or ready to pick up when you arrive.

Just Say No

Ever find yourself in a reactive state, where your routine slips out of control? Chances are, you’re agreeing to take on other tasks and responsibilities when you should be saying “no”.

Protect your routine by learning to respect your own boundaries. Never give excuses or reasons why you can’t do something (this just encourages argumentative pressure). Just tell them “No. My plate is full.”

Plan Rewards in your Day

It’s a well-known fact: If there’s a reward at the end of a difficult road, people are far more likely to stay the course. What is your ideal reward for being productive?

Remember that rewards are not always tangible. While it’s nice to eat a truffle every time you exceed seeing three clients a day, you can also indulge in rewards like using a Fitbit to measure the number of steps you take; or going for a swim, if you shave an hour off your work time.

The important thing is to identify the type of reward that would appeal to you—and set it up so you can achieve it. (It should be neither too unreachable nor too easy, for the best emotional impact.

Switch Off Unnecessary Devices

Disconnect from the net and close your browsers unless you are actively researching or uploading/downloading. Turn off your phone. Concentrate only on your top priorities for the day—and don’t turn your devices again until you’re done.

Keep Track of Ideas

Do your best ideas happen in the morning? When you’re in the midst of other tasks, ideas tend to fly at you out of nowhere. Make sure you devise and adopt a system to keep track of them: A physical notebook in your purse and one each beside your bed and favorite chair; an app such as Evernote on your computer or iPhone; even a Rolodex and index cards.

You may think you’ll remember those ideas later, but it’s a proven fact that most people don’t: So make sure you catch them while they’re hot!

Arrange Your Morning Routine with Family

Whether you have small children, teens, senior adults or pets in your family, planning mornings with your family can put you and your family in a better frame of mind.

Walking your dog, snuggling with your kids, or quizzing them on their spelling can make your mornings more fun.

Don’t forget that goodbye hugs can brighten everybody’s day!

I did a Podcast Eposide on the Morning Launch as Well – Enjoy !