About a year ago, I had a short stretch of time where I was super irritable in the afternoons and I couldn’t figure out why. Every day, as I drove to the gym, I’d experience a real sense of frustration and I couldn’t quite figure out where it was coming from.
Yes, driving in Houston can be horribly frustrating, but this was different. My frustration every afternoon had become something that I had never experienced before.
On top of that, I was feeling sluggish all day and I was horribly unproductive. No matter what time I went to bed at night — even if I took a nap, I’d still be tired. Because of this, I couldn’t focus and I wasn’t getting very much done most days.
I started to think through different possibilities of what could be causing me to feel this way and began to eliminate the things I thought it could be. I tried changing my diet, going the bed earlier, and a few other things, but none of that worked.
I felt like I had tried everything, until one day I thought about my morning routine. Could that be causing all these unexplained issues I was having?
Every morning, the first thing I did was snooze my alarm anywhere between 3 and 5 times. I would intentionally set my alarm to go off early enough to give me time to snooze it. Then when I finally woke up, I’d turn on my television and start watching the news. Bad news. Political bad news. After that, I would start my workday by grabbing my laptop, plopping down on my couch, and reading work emails — oftentimes raising my stress level right out of the gate.
After realizing that this could be the issue, I immediately went out and bought a desk chair and started planning what I would do differently every morning.
The next morning, I woke up without snoozing my alarm and skipped turning on the news as soon as I woke up. Instead, I took some time to read something that inspired me. Then, I sat in my new desk chair at my desk to start working — first, jotting down a few goals for the day. Lastly, I didn’t read my work emails first thing in the morning but instead, waited a couple of hours into my day to read them.
That first day was tough, and so were the next few days after that. I wanted to go back to snoozing my alarm, turning on the news, and working from my couch because that’s what I had become accustomed to. But I was determined to stick to this new routine long enough to see if it could make a difference, and sure enough — it did.
Within a couple of weeks, I started to see a major difference in my mood, my energy, and my productivity. I felt better, I had a much more positive disposition, and I got more done.
If you’re struggling with your mood, your energy or getting things done throughout the day, consider whether it’s your morning routine — or lack of one. Try to think of things you can change or add to your morning that will get you inspired to make the most of your day. Try things like setting daily goals, writing daily affirmations or consuming positive inspiration as soon as you wake up.
It’s so important that we set the tone that we expect to carry throughout the day. The way you start your day could mean the difference between a great, productive day and a bad, unproductive day.