EPISODE 001: THE EASIEST MORNING ROUTINE IN THE WORLD
You’ve heard it all before, a morning routine is super important, but you’re just too tired and overwhelmed and can never seem to make one work.
On today’s episode we are talking about why the way you start your day is so important and how you can throw out the checklist, and start with the one thing that’s really going to make a difference.
Can’t listen?
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Here’s a recap of the episode all typed up!
Hello beautiful and welcome back to the Positively You Podcast. I’m Jessie and ya know what? I just want you to know that I am so incredibly pumped to be hanging out with you today. So whether you just poured a cup of coffee, or are doing some laundry or house chores,(that’s always my favorite way to listen to podcasts) or heading out on a walk….whatever it is that your doing while listening just know I’m so happy to spend some time with you today!
My goal today is to get you excited and feeling really good about making little changes in your life that are gonna lead to really BIG impact. And that’s why I’m actually super excited to get into today’s episode because it’s something that I really am super passionate about and I talk about it all the time.
If you have ever read or listened to anything related to personal development or self improvement or habits or “the super secrets of the super successful” …..or whatever- there is always a common thread. And that my friends is a morning routine.
Seriously, just google “ books on morning routines” or “habits of happy people: and you’ll get a search result of about a million and ten. And a morning routine is in nearly every single one. I have no doubt in my mind about the power of morning routines. And I have to just say it. Cause I know I can’t be alone in this. But t it’s really hard/ annoying to get morning routine advice someone who’s a man in his like 40’s, who’s never had kids and lives in a beautiful penthouse apartment overlooking some major city or whatever…. Or from someone in their 20’s who’s just energized as hell and going hard all time who also has never felt the exhaustion of having small kids…..I’ve got absolutely nothing against those people and I’m so glad they have found routines and habits that are useful for them and for people like them.
I’m not them. And I’m guessing you’re not either. I’m a 33 year old mom and I have three kids ranging from 9-4. So yes I am out of the basically a walking zombie phase of life, but not so far removed that I’m like “don’t wish these years away- you’ll miss them so much!” My point is: today we’re talking about morning routines and I want you to know that I’m not some corporate expert. I’m a mom just like you, who gets it.
Okay…..stepping off the soapbox and coming back down…..
Back to google and the importance of morning routines. Just glancing at any of these books or listening to any interview it’s obvious that these morning routines are impactful and that the most put together and successful people have them. So it’s something we should adopt, right?
but like…..what about those of us up nursing babies half the night? Or who have kids who hate sleep? Or we bed share or co-sleep with our kids… Or who are night owls and hate mornings? Or work late or swing shifts? Or who can’t get up before kids because those little monsters wake up before the sun and you’re just so gosh dang tired and…. or, or or…..
When you’re in one of those situations the idea of a morning routine might be outright laugh-able.. Or offensive. My oldest legit didn’t sleep for more than 2 hours at a time for like 2 years. If anyone would have told me the key to feeling better and getting more done was to just “get a better morning routine” I would have punched them in the face. Or at least really visualized doing it.
So what’s a girl to do?
Start freaking small. I think a lot of us have a tendency to be like all or nothing- go big or go home- perfection or die!
So then when we want to implement a new habit or routine we jump feet first into researching the best possible way, coming up with cute Pinterest worthy charts and planners, and add 10 bullet points to the to-do list. After all, checking all those off is gonna feel amazing.
Wake up early, Read, Journal, Pray, Drink lemon water (not too cold, not too hot) , Get outside, Meditate, Make Bed , Ground yourself, Workout , Cool down, Stretch , Shower , Gratitude, Get ready , Do hair , Clean bathroom ,Get dressed , Eat a good breakfast, Positive affirmations , Brush teeth , Start the laundry, Take vitamins , Unload the dishes , Wake up the kids , Be happy and amazing…….and want to die by 10 AM.
Check.
Ugh. I’m not about setting you up for failure. Quite the opposite. I want you to get a quick win every single day and feel amazing about your mornings without all the checkmarks.
So here’s what you do: The best and easiest way to take control of your morning and it literally is going to take maybe 2 minutes…..is...drumroll…..
Make your bed.
Please don’t reach for the skip button! I promise I’m onto something. I started this habit about Two and half years ago and I’m not kidding when I say it really changed my mornings and actually the trajectory of my whole life. Sounds intense right? But it’s really not.
So if you’re currently giving me a big eye roll and thinking oh come on, it really is not that big of a deal and can’t make that big of a difference. I’m just gonna hop back into it at the end of the day. It’s a waste of time. Stick with me for a second.
I want you to visualize something with me real quick. Imagine you’re on vacation and you’re staying at a nice hotel. You wake up for the day and you are excited to head out and explore the town. Have you ever been on vacation or been staying at a hotel and you leave and go have fun and enjoy your day and you come back to the hotel, pull out your room key, slide it into the lock, push open the door and come face to face with the reality the the housekeeping didn’t get to your room. The bed is un-made, and it just doesn’t feel as good, right?
On the flipside- when you get back from a long day of adventuring or exploring the town or even just chilling at the pool and you get back, push open that door and you are greeted with a neatly made bed, doesn’t that just feel amazing?!
You can’t tell me that the state of the bed doesn’t make a difference! The whole room feels different and it’s like you can take a big relaxing breath. Now, we don’t live in vacation mode at a hotel all the time with a housekeeping staff….so relying on someone else to make the bed isn’t gonna cut it- but I promise you, you wouldn’t want that anyway. Besides the look of a clean, put together bed and room- YOU being the one to make your bed every morning has a crap ton of benefits.
What I learned from 365 days of making my bed
You prove to yourself that you can make a goal and keep that promise to yourself. Proves you can be consistent - Which encourages you to go for bigger goals because you now have the proof that you can do it.
Fires up your brain first thing in the morning into productive mode. You will have accomplished something and feel a sense of pride.
Clutter and messes trigger stress and anxiety in your brain. Seeing a neatly made bed has calming effects. Think of the difference you feel when you watch an episode of hoarders compared to a clean Pinterest board of master bedrooms...
4. It creates a chain reaction of other positive and productive habits! After I’ve made my bed in the morning I notice how quick and easy it was to make that space feel more calm, my brain is fired up and like “what else can we get done?”
5.When Gretchin Rubin was writing her book, The Happiness Project, (great book, you should read it) she said: "Making the bed, was the number one most impactful change that people brought up over and over.
6. A study done by the National Sleep Foundation found that bedmakers were happier and had better sleep habits than their non bedmaker friends. More studies support those findings and show that people who consistently make their beds are happier, sleep better, and one study done by OnePoll and Sleepopolis even showed that bed makers were having more sex! What??
Um, sign me up, I am totally on board with being happier, sleeping better and having more….fun.
Okay so when creating your morning routine, I obviously think the first place to start is with making your bed, And for now I think that’s where you should stop too. Master one thing at a time- and then build from there, Especially if you are in the camp of little kids...nursing...a spouse with a different schedule…. Cut the excuses and don’t make this harder.
the time and commitment level to achieving this are minimal and you can quite literally succeed at this 100% of the time. I know you can do this, and speaking from over 2 years of experience, it’s gonna be a game changer for you.
Want a little accountability to stay consistent with your new habit? Simply make your bed, take a pic and use the hashtag #girlmakeyourbed on Insta. Posting to stories definitely helped me be consistent and accountable when I was first starting this habit and now I get so many DM’s daily from moms just like who say they made their bed or they can’t go a day without making their bed now! They are literally my favorite messages to get.
Thank you so much for hanging out with me on the Positively You Podcast. I am so glad you pressed play! I would love to connect with you more over on Instagram. You can find me over there @positively.jessie. Drop me a comment or a DM. and If you wanna learn a little bit more about me, what I do, and how I can help you live a little bit better you can hop on over to jessielarson.com. Right now I’ve got a free download just for you that’s gonna help transform the flow and overall vibe of your day. You can just get that right on the homepage. Uh, heck yes! Until next time, have an amazing week!