5 Ideas for Creating a Good Morning Habit

Note: This article is based on author Celestine Chua, where she tells us about her experience creating a good morning ritual and how to follow it.

Part of a productivity ritual consists of a morning ritual and a set of morning activities to get your day to a fresh start. A morning ritual can be straightforward, from a 10-minute meditation session to a series of morning tasks (such as brushing your teeth, washing your face, and doing a skincare regimen). You can also brew your morning tea, enjoy its aroma, and take small sips while reading the newspaper.

Why do you have to do morning rituals?

1. When we wake up from our deep slumber, we may be physically awake, but our minds are still completely dormant and need activation, so our morning rituals help awaken our minds and start our day fresh.
2. Through the energetic morning rituals, you will look forward to the beginning of your day, encouraging you to sleep and wake up early. Getting morning rituals has given me an additional reason to wake up early every day and other reasons, such as increasing productivity and focusing more on the larger goal I seek.
3. Most of us have busy days at work. We occupy different jobs at work and in our daily lives, and we need more time to spend with ourselves from the beginning of the day. Our morning rituals are the only time when we feel calm and practice some morning meditation.
4. If you are an employer, a freelancer, a housekeeper, or a student, you may find your days volatile and unregulated. So, following morning rituals regulates my days because every morning, regardless of my daily schedule, they provide a basis for arranging my to-do list and starting a productive workday.

My morning ritual:

I officially started practicing morning rituals last month and loved it very much. My current morning ritual consists of the following steps:

1. Waking up early: I synchronize my sleep-wake times with my husband so we can spend as much time as possible together (especially since he's out from 8 am to 10 pm on weekdays, So we barely see each other). It means sleeping around midnight and waking up around 7 am (I don't wake up with an alarm clock because I find it annoying to wake up restless).
2. Fill the filtered water jug in my kitchen and work room.
3. Browning two slices of whole wheat bread for 3.5 minutes (a tip for those who like to roast food, light brown is the perfect color because over-roasting hurts).
4. Slicing tomatoes and avocados, usually cut in advance and stored in the refrigerator, are fruits rich in healthy fats, and can help fight various diseases, such as cholesterol and leukemia.
5. Stretch a thin layer of olive oil over the toasted bread, then place the avocado slices on it and the tomato slices on the other piece.
6. Serve the meal with a banana and a glass of water.
7. Eat, browse some websites, and then start my day.

I do them simultaneously since steps 2, 3, and 4 take a few minutes each.

My breakfast is sliced bread (with a thin layer of olive oil) with avocado and tomatoes, a banana, and a glass of water.

Brush your teeth before or after breakfast:

Did you know brushing your teeth right after breakfast (or any meal) is not a good idea?

According to Dr. Scott Fry, Scott Frey), from the Frey Smiles Clinic, when you eat sugary foods (this is all the foods you often eat at breakfast, from pastries to fruits, to fruit juice, to jams, to any drinks containing sugar), the bacteria in our mouths feed on sugars to make acids, and then soften the tooth enamel and “make it more susceptible to erosion.” The same thing happens when you eat acidic foods (citrus fruits, salad dressing, carbonated drinks, seafood, bread) and brush your teeth immediately after a meal, you rub the “soft enamel layers of the teeth because of acidity,” which leads to thinning of your teeth, and this is not good.

Mouth saliva can bring your oral pH back to normal, although it takes about 30 minutes, so here are three oral care tips after each meal (I try to do this for breakfast and dinner as much as possible):

• Use alkaline mouthwash to help restore your oral pH.
• Use floss to remove stuck foods.
• After that, wait 60 minutes before brushing to avoid amplifying the damage.

Create your morning routine:

Having a morning ritual is fun, and I encourage you to create a good morning routine and follow it daily. Here are five ideas for doing it:

1. Your morning ritual should give you energy, meaning you should be excited and looking forward to doing it rather than being a useless, tedious business.
2. It can be a considerable activity (such as a 15-minute meditation) or a series of small activities, such as my morning activity.
3. It should be easily repeatable so you can do it daily without thinking.
4. It should be at most 15 minutes. Otherwise, it may become a daily burden. (however, there are always exceptions, such as morning jogging for 30 minutes, followed by a 15-minute shower, then breakfast for 10 minutes. Exercise, bathing, and breakfast are part of a healthy routine; here, they are not “extra” tasks to do but are part of a healthy system).
5. Allow yourself to experiment; your morning ritual is not supposed to be static. Because our interests change, our morning rituals can change over time, too. Allow yourself to experiment with different rituals and modify your current ones until you find one you feel perfectly suited to.

Here are some ideas of what you can do in your morning ritual:

• Repeat positive motivational statements.
• Hiking in the park.
• Enjoy the morning sounds, such as birdsong, leaf rustling, and light traffic.
• Look at nature.
• Meditation.
• Express your self-love in the mirror and empathize with yourself.
• Drink your morning tea and enjoy its aroma.
• Prepare a healthy breakfast for yourself.
• Review your life booklet that includes your goals and plans.
• Reflect on your vision and visualize your goals as they are achieved.
• Reviewing your progress in achieving your goals, is there something you should do differently? And what's your next move?
• Read a chapter or half a chapter of a book.
• Read your favorite blogs.
• Do stretching exercises or yoga.
• Morning jogging, followed by bathing, then breakfast.

You can combine parts of different activities and create unique morning rituals.

In conclusion:

Have you noticed that I should have included tasks like checking emails, replying to emails, or talking to someone? This is because these are activities in which you receive and actively process inputs, contrary to the whole purpose of the morning ritual, which is intended to be a personal space. You get some time alone, and e-mail is work to a large extent, and your morning ritual is a ritual you do before you start your busy day. The purpose of the morning ritual is to allocate your own time, so keep it and do not waste it.