How does your morning usually go? Do you wait until the last minute to roll out of bed then sprint out the door praying you’re not late for class? Or do you wake up and roll over to scroll social media and end up losing your entire morning? If your day starts off anything like this – you my friend need a college morning routine makeover.
Not to be dramatic but I think starting a morning routine in college was one of the best things I have ever done for myself. On my journey to figuring out how to manage all the things and stay sane, I learned about the importance of creating a routine in the morning that made me focused and energized for the day ahead.
I’ve tried it all from waking up at 4:30am for workouts to sleeping until 9am and having a super slow morning. Needless to say, cultivating the college perfect morning routine takes trial and error. But today I am going to share a few ways you can get started.
This post is all about creating a morning routine in college.
Creating the perfect morning routine will take more effort than just copying the routine of your favorite YouTuber. Since they are highly personal and meant to help prepare you for the day, it is best to find what is most important to making you feel ready to conquer the day.
Once I developed and stuck to my perfect morning routine, I found that the successful small wins I had in the first hour(ish) of my day set me up to get more done throughout the day. PLUS it helped me build confidence in myself because I was actually doing the things that I said I would be doing – and building trust in myself.
What Makes A Productive Morning Routine?
The hardest part about deciding what you want your morning routine in college to look like is deciding what to include in it. I found that there are a few crucial things to include to make your routine feel productive for you.
- Support your core values/goals
- Personal Development
- Assessing how you feel/where you are at
- Prepare for the rest of the day
The goal is to identify habits or tasks that best support your values. This makes it personal and important to you, which is the only way you will stick to it.
For example, my main values are health and growth. So in my morning routine I have a greens drink every morning and take my vitamins. I also listen to a personal development podcast and do open-ended journaling to asses how I am feeling and work through any mental blocks. Additionally, a huge part of my spiritual health is my faith so I do a devotional every morning.
How Do I Implement A College Morning Routine?
So now you have a general idea of what you want to accomplish each morning. But what do you do with that? There are a few steps I recommend to get started.
Review your goals
Your morning routine in college is the perfect time to work towards your goals. When deciding exactly what you want to do every morning, determine if there are any small tasks that could be completed daily to move you closer to your goals. For example, health goals could require you to move your body every day. Add that to your routine!
Related: 4 Ways to Achieve Your Goals
Create your ideal list
Take some time to note what makes you feel your best, gets you focused, and relates to your values. These will be the things you create your morning routine around. If you already have an idea of what these things are, write them all out in a list.
Brain dumps are super helpful in identifying everything you have been wanting to do but have never acted on. Open a new note in your phone and create a list of every task or habit you could do in your morning routine to make you feel your best.
My list looked like:
- Walk Benji (my dog)
- Shower
- Day Planning
- Devotional
- Greens shot & tea
- Personal Development
- Journaling
- Breakfast
TIP:after you have gotten everything out on a list you can group similar items so you aren’t running all over the place in the morning.
Determine how much time you need
After you have decided exactly what you want to include in your morning routine, you will need to determine how long each activity will take you. This will allow you to block off the necessary amount of time every morning before your other commitments start.
Figuring out exactly how much time you need will definitely be trial and error. Start with the amount of time you think you will need, then adjust. But stick with it!!
Wake up earlier
Once you have determined the required time, you might need to wake up earlier to actually make it happen. I am most definitely not suggesting waking up at the butt-crack-of-dawn. You really only need to adjust to wake up with enough time to do your morning routine and still be on time to your first commitment.
For example if you determined you need an hour and a half for your morning routine and your first class is at 9am, you would probably need to wake up around 7am to do your morning routine and still have time to get dressed and commute to your class or work.
If this is a huge adjustment for you, considering easing in to waking up earlier by setting your alarm 15 minutes earlier for a few days. Then continuously add 15 minutes until you get to the necessary wakeup time.
Start small if you need to
A morning routine is made up of a bunch of little habits. So it is no surprise that a lot of people struggle to stick to an entire routine added to their life all at once. If you struggle to do everything you want to in your morning routine, start by adding in one or two activities in the morning. Once you have mastered these few things, you can add more in.
Be open to change
Over the last few years my college morning routine has changed a few times. As I have grown my priorities have changed and my morning routine reflects that. I have tweaked a few things to fit what goals I am working toward. This is normal and welcomed. You want your morning routine to benefit you. So if something isn’t working for you, change it!
Morning Routine Ideas
Okay so now you have identified your values but you’re still feeling a little stuck on what you can actually do to support these in your college morning routine. Here are some ideas paired with the value they support:
- Read a book (personal development)
- Yoga or stretching (health)
- Listen to a podcast (personal development)
- Go for a walk or run (health)
- Eat breakfast (health)
- Journal (health/growth)
- Meditation (health)
- Make to-do lists (productivity)
- Get ready (productivity)
- Have coffee (makes you happy)
Just A Reminder
Your college morning routine is meant to help you start your days off on the right foot. It should be exciting and be something that you look forward to everyday. If it feels more tedious than it is enjoyable, consider taking a few things out and making some changes.
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This post showed you how to create the perfect college morning routine.
