11 Things You Should Do Before 8 AM | Productive Morning Routine

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Who doesn’t like a good morning routine? In case you need some new inspo for yours, here are 11 things you should do before 8 AM.

Read also: 10 Morning Routines of Successful People: How to Start Your Day Like A Boss

Read also: 1 Minute Habits To Improve 1% | Small Habits To Improve Your Life

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1. Make Your Bed

Making your bed first thing in the morning is your first accomplishment and sets you up for a good day. 

Also, it helps you fight that urge to lie back down later on during the morning. 

And lastly, it creates order in your room which helps you be calm and focused straight from the getgo. 

2. Drink lots of water (and take any supplements you have)

I don’t need to tell you how important hydration is. It’s necessary for clear skin, optimal focus, efficient learning, and overall health. 

Also, from a purely practical perspective, it’s good to drink a lot early on because you most likely won’t drink as much while out of the house. 

After all, not everyone has the free water refillers at school or at work, and don’t even get me started on the horrors of public restrooms. 

So, drink a good amount of water early on. 

The easiest way is by pairing it with your supplement intake since many supplements are supposed to be swallowed with water anyways. 

3. Write down three things you are grateful for

The more you practice gratitude, the more often you will feel grateful for the life you live. 

Gratitude is also great against any negative emotion. You can’t feel truly grateful and yet angry or anxious simultaneously. Instead, focus on gratitude to get out of your emotional slump. 

Now that we’ve cleared a few reasons why gratitude is worth practicing let’s talk about why we should do it as one of the first things every day. 

The reason is that your brain is especially receptive in the early minutes of wakefulness. 

Also, your morning tends to preclude the rest of the day. So if you start the day strong, it’s easier to continue like that throughout the rest of the day. 

In other words, a grateful morning increases the chances of you finding things to be thankful for throughout the rest of the day.

4. Write down three positive affirmations

Affirmations help you focus on your goals and prime your mind to achieve them. 

Ideally, you should use affirmations throughout the day every time you feel worried or insecure about something. 

However, the best time to let affirmations work their magic is in the mornings when your brain is still in a more receptive state.

Make sure to formulate them positively and in the present tense, such as ‘I’m punctual instead of ‘I am not going to be late.’

Also, avoid writing the same three affirmations every morning. And make sure to not only focus on your long-term goals but also on small goals like having a good day at work or finding the perfect parking spot. 

5. Write down one character trait, skill, or experience that makes you feel worthy of your dream life

A lack of self-worth is the root of many of our self-sabotaging habits and problems in life. 

Logically, you might believe yourself to be worthy of success, health, and loving relationships. But unconsciously, it’s very likely that you still harbor some self-worth issues that date back to your childhood. 

Things as simple as your friends complaining about you being annoying once can create the deep-rooted fear of not deserving their love.

Or perhaps your teacher or parent made you feel like you are less intelligent than others. This can cause you to subconsciously sabotage your success as an adult because you still think you’re not smart enough to deserve it. 

As you can see, it is almost inevitable that you have some mental baggage affecting your self-worth. Furthermore, there will be plenty of situations in the future that will create new baggage. 

That’s why it’s so important to work on your self-worth consistently. 

A small but still valuable way to do so is by pointing out one of your character traits, skills, or experiences that make you feel worthy every morning.

6. Eat breakfast

This is a bit of a controversial topic. Many people don’t eat breakfast, and others seem to have a whole feast. 

Personally, I really enjoy my cereal. It’s actually one of my favorite parts of the morning. 

In the end, it’s your own choice of what you do. There are supporters of both sides. At the very least, make sure to get hydrated properly and not just by drinking coffee.

7. Move your body, work out or do yoga

Movement gets your blood pumping and helps you to wake up properly. 

Also, unless you absolutely adore working out, you will likely use your busy day as an excuse to avoid working out in the afternoon or evening. 

But the morning belongs to you alone. You don’t have to work yet and can wake up early enough to get in at least 10 minutes of some movement. 

8. Do you skincare

Skincare seems unnecessarily tedious and expensive; I get it. 

However, if you’ve ever seen the picture of the old truck driver, whose face is immensely wrinkly on the side that got all the sun for years, you should understand the importance of skincare and suncream. 

Also, if you have acne or any other skin condition, it is a good starting point to take more care in treating your face.

Just make sure to select products with healthy ingredients. They don’t even have to be expensive. There are websites and apps that can give you a quick analysis of the ingredients of most products. Use them!

9. Checking off your habit tracker for the previous day

Of course, this can be done either in the evening or directly after accomplishing each task.

But hopefully, you are so in the flow of things that you don’t even think about your habit tracker during the day. 

And by doing this the next morning, you’ll have a great motivational boost for the day ahead. 

Seeing your consistency laid out like that before you will make you want to uphold the habit streak even more. 

Also, looking at your habit tracker in the morning can be a good reminder of any new habits you’ve planned to do but might easily forget otherwise. 

So take those couple minutes every morning before 8 AM and keep track of your habits. 

10. Check your plan for the day

Optimally, you already planned your day in advance the evening before; if not, do this now. 

It doesn’t have to be an intricate plan with specific time slots for every task. 

It’s more than enough to write out a short to-do list with the most important tasks and appointments you have coming up.

Just make sure to keep it short. We have the tendency to underestimate how long something will take, so make sure to keep your to-do list below what you think you can get done that day. 

If needed, you’ll surely find enough tasks that can fill any spare time. 

If you did your planning before going to bed, make sure to bring that plan to the forefront of your mind again. This way, you won’t forget anything and be set up perfectly for a productive day.

11. Spend a few short minutes updating yourself on the latest relevant news

It’s often difficult to have a healthy relationship with the world’s news. 

Some people watch and listen to the news all the time, be it through a news broadcast or social media. And while it’s great that they stay up to date with what’s going on in the world, it also means they get bombarded with negative headlines over and over again. 

Other people are tired of this constant anxiety-producing negativity and shut the news out altogether. This might make them feel better but can eventually pose problems when they miss out on important information. 

So what to do about it?

First of all, make sure to not consume any news – be it political, weather or gossip – for the first hour of your day.

We do our gratitude and affirmations during that time because our brain is especially receptive during the first wakeful moments. Logically, that means we should avoid negative input of any kind during that time. 

Later in the morning, take a few short moments to update yourself. 

I’ve recently started doing this through a few Podcasts. The individual episodes range from 100 seconds to 15 minutes. So it’s a very low-time commitment that is easily squeezed into the day. 

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Are you ready to uplevel your morning routine with these ideas? If so, write ‘MORNING’ in the comments down below. 

Also, what additional ideas do you have for things you should do before 8 AM? 

We always love to hear your recommendations. 

Until next time, Felicity Seeker!