‘One small positive thought in the morning can change your whole day’ ~ Dalai Lama
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Have you ever noticed that how our day starts tends to influence the rest of it? This is why it is so important that we begin the day in a positive way.
Every night we go to bed and in the morning a new day begins. How this day unfolds is entirely in our hands. We can make choices that help to ensure we have the best day possible. Implementing a productive morning routine can make such a difference to the success of our day.
There are many ways to do this, you can see some of the techniques below:
1. Wake Up To Start Your Day
Don’t wake up in order to go to work, wake up to start your day. Many people work backwards from when they have to go to work to see what time they can lie in bed until. Try a different approach. Try getting up, just to start your day. Analyse how you can schedule your morning to really make the most of your time before work.
2. Get Enough Sleep
It will be difficult to wake up positively if you are still tired. If you get 7 – 8 hours of quality uninterrupted sleep, you will feel much more refreshed in the morning and find it easier to get up and out of bed. If you feel refreshed you should be able to jump into your day as it will take you less time to wake up and shake off the sleepiness.
3. Get Up At The Time You Intended
When you go to bed, plan the time you want to get up in the morning and try to stick to it. Don’t waste valuable morning time hitting the snooze button. Your morning routine will be more effective if you are able to be productive as quickly as possible.
4. Define A Schedule
To ensure that you achieve what you want to in your morning, it can help to make a schedule of how you would best like to spend your time. You can either prepare this the night before, or first thing when you wake up. If you make a to do list of what you want to achieve, you are much more likely to succeed. If you get everything done that you intended to, it should have the effect of making you feel positive and setting you up for a great day ahead.
5. Minimise Distractions
Once you have your schedule prepared, be aware of minimising any likely distractions you may encounter. Identify what common distractions throw your schedule off track and plan for how to avoid them. Common distractions may include surfing the web, social media, checking your emails or any number of other things that you had not intended to get involved with as part of your morning routine.
6. Movement
I have specifically used the term movement, rather than exercise here, as for some people the idea of exercise will not be appealing, but for everyone incorporating in some sort of movement. Going for a run, yoga, walking the dog. Anything to get you up and about. If you can do it outdoors getting fresh air, even better.
7. Do Something For Yourself
If you get up early enough, rather than just getting yourself ready and heading off for work straight away, you can try to fit in something for yourself. It might be reading, writing, sewing, cooking, pursuing a hobby, or anything that is important to you. If you can incorporate something that you enjoy into your morning before you leave to start your day, it can really put you in a great mood.
8. Eat A Healthy Breakfast
Breakfast is the most important meal of the day. If you prepare yourself a healthy breakfast it will give you the energy you need and also if you start your day off healthily, you are more likely to stick to healthy choices for the rest of the day.
9. Complete Your Hardest Task First
Once you begin your day, try starting with your hardest task first. If you nail the most difficult thing you have to do first thing, it should make everything else you need to get completed seem easy in comparison. Being able to tick off a big achievement early on in the day can leave you feeling extremely positive and motivated for the rest of the day.
10. Adopt A Positive Mindset
The earlier you can adopt a positive mindset after waking up, the better your day will go. If you wake up all doom and gloom with the weight of the world on your shoulders it is unlikely that you are going to have a good day. 
If you wake up and think ahead of what a great day is stretching before you, this is much more likely to happen in reality.
You might wonder what time you need to get up to achieve all these things. That really depends on what time you go to bed. The key is to get a good night’s sleep. If you go to bed at a time that enables you to get 8 hours sleep, you should be able to get up feeling refreshed and ready to take on the day positively.
How will you start your day tomorrow? Hitting snooze repeatedly and hiding back under the duvet wishing the day was not yet starting, or with a positive mindset eager to get started on the day ahead?
