Starting (or Getting Back Into) A Morning Routine

Over the years, I’ve found a morning routine I really enjoy.

When I complete it, I feel that much more productive in the morning. I feel like I’ve gained some momentum and am ready to tackle the day.

The problem is that if I fall out of the routine, it feels insurmountable to start the swing again. Ten minutes of meditation feels like an infinite amount of time to sit silently on the couch when I haven’t been meditating.

The same routine I know makes me feel good can be hard to do. I find that’s often the case: the things that make us feel good are masked by difficulty. It’s like momentum. The object at rest prefers to stay at rest.

Unfortunately, I recently fell out of the routine.

I used to be really, really good about it, but this year…not so much. I moved across the country, changed jobs. The physical world around me changed, and the routine fell apart.

I could spend my mornings wanting to get back into the routine and beating myself up every day I didn’t take a step forward. Alternatively, I could take some baby steps to get back into the swing of things.

Those baby steps might not be the full effort I want to give, but isn’t a baby step better than no step at all?

Today, I’m partially back into the routine. I’m not doing as much of it as I want, but so far this year, I’ve done way more than nothing. 

How did I trick my brain into doing the hard thing that’s good for me? Well, first let me talk about this routine.

My Morning Routine

I got the routine from a book called Morning Miracle by Hal Elrod. When I was studying abroad in Scotland back in 2018, I found myself wanting to make the most of my time there. I didn’t want to lay around when I had friends to see.

Elrod refers to his morning practice as the SAVERS routine.

SAVERS stands for…

• Silence (or Meditation)
• Affirmations
• Visualization
• Exercise
• Reading
• Scribing (or Journaling/Writing)

When I did those things (or most of them), I felt really good about the day. There’s a saying, “win the morning, win the day.” When I did that routine, I felt like I was on the right track to winning the day.

Alas, I fell out of the routine. The same thing that I knew made me feel better was now daunting. I couldn’t even begin. So, I had to trick my brain into easing back into the practice.

Here are some ideas that helped me start getting back into a routine that makes me feel just a little bit better. Most of these ideas relate to starting new habits, but what is a routine if not a series of habits strung together?

Tip 1: Make It Easy

The first idea that helped me build back the routine was to make it easy. 

In James Clear’s book Atomic Habits, making it easy is one of his pillars for habit formation.

What does making it easy look like in my morning routine? It means don’t expect to do it all at once.

Take meditation for example. I was telling myself I needed to meditate for the full ten-minute session in the Waking Up app in order to consider that part of the routine complete. The problem is that when you haven’t been meditating, ten minutes can seem like a lot, especially when you first wake up in the morning. 

Instead, I started meditating for just one minute. Then three minutes. Then five. Until I slowly built my way back up to the full ten minutes.

10 minutes of meditation might be too hard, but 1 minute is super easy. I could trick my brain into doing something for a minute. 

In the long run, five one-minute meditations are way more than seven zero-minute meditations (a.k.a. not meditating). Doing something is better than doing nothing.

Tip 2: Chain It with Another Habit

Now that you’ve got a bite-sized habit you want to start, you have to figure out when you’re going to do it. How does that habit fit into your morning?

Another idea that Clear talks about is habit chaining. That is, taking one habit and attaching it onto something you already do. By habit chaining, you create a connection between the two habit so that you sort of flow from one to the next.

I use habit chaining in my morning routine. For example, the thing I already did when I woke up was weighing myself on the scale. I didn’t have to start doing that, so I made that my anchor point.

Weighing myself became a cue to get dressed (I lay out my clothes the night before to make that habit easier). Putting on my clothes and going to the kitchen was my cue to do some light stretching. As I did those habits more and more, the link got reinforced in my brain. Now, if I’m particularly groggy in the morning, I don’t have to think about my routine. I automatically do it.

I use habit chaining later in my routine too. I meditate for ten minutes then I go right into journaling. From journaling, I go into reading.

Keeping this flow of one habit to the next stacks them together, and it makes it easy to keep the process going. 

The best part is that you don’t even need to start from scratch. Think of something you already do in the morning. Maybe you start the day with a glass of water. Use that as your anchor.

Tip 3: The Two-Day Rule

The final tip I have for you is the two-day rule.

Now that you’ve got some easy habits selected and you’re chaining them together, you’re ready to get started on a routine.

You’re feeling good. You’re doing the habits, and maybe you’re even building up some time on one particular habit. 

Then you miss a day. 

Self-criticism takes over and you beat yourself up. You miss one day, so that means you might as well miss another. Then another. All of a sudden, you’re back to square zero.

This has definitely happened to me before. Just like successful completions can compound on each other, misses seem to be able to as well.

That’s where the two-day rule might be able to help.

The two-day rule is pretty simple: don’t miss twice in a row.

I track my habits using an app called Streaks, but you can do this on a piece of paper or a notecard. Every day you complete the habit(s) you’re aiming to do, mark an X. Now, just don’t miss twice. 

If you miss one day, that’s fine! You’re not a machine. Things happen. 

Don’t miss tomorrow. Do the habit, and mark the X.

Even doing something Monday, Wednesday, Friday is better than starting something Monday and Tuesday and then falling off. We’re aiming for long term growth here. You don’t have to be perfect every day. Just don’t miss twice.

Bonus Tip: Attach It to An Identity

Ok, I lied. I have one last tip for you. This is really the last one, I promise (for now at least).

I recently re-watched this Ali Abdaal video on how to make habits stick, and one of his tips tied in perfectly with my article from a few weeks ago, so I just had to mention it.

A couple weeks ago, I talked about the importance of counting points toward the identity you want for yourself.

Well, habits are a sure-fire way to inform that identity.

If you’re starting a meditation habit, attach that to an identity you want for yourself. Maybe you want to start going to the gym. Attach that to the identity of being an athlete or a healthy individual.

Then, when you complete the habit, you count it towards that identity, and it reinforces the habit. It’s a win-win, an upward spiral.

For me, I have a habit of hitting a word count each day. When I hit that word count, I remind myself I want to be a writer. As I score points toward being a writer, it’s easier to sit down to write.

It’s a self-fulfilling prophecy that makes achieving the goal that much easier.

Conclusion

And just like that, you’re not only starting habits, but you’re putting systems into place. 

People who succeed and fail have the same goals when they set out. Both people want the same outcomes. It’s the systems that they put in place that help them achieve their goals.

One habit may not be much, but after a couple weeks or months, you can string together a whole routine. And maybe that one habit is all it takes to start off on a journey that changes how you see yourself.

What’s one habit you want to start for yourself?

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