How To Start Your Day Off Right

Twitter Facebook Pinterest Email Flip it

The 10 best ways to start your day are:

Get enough sleep
Prepare the night before
Wash your face
Exercise
Think about the great things the day has in store for you
Have a good breakfast
Read something positive and inspirational
Make a gratitude list
Set your goals
Spend time with your family

There may be affiliate links in this article. You can read more about this in my disclosure.

Getting your day off on a good start is possible and it doesn’t take much effort. It’s simply a matter of being organized and having your head in the right space.

You grudgingly get out of bed and dread the day ahead, or you leap from under your bedsheets and look forward to what the day has in store for you.

If you are the former (one who views the next 8 or so hours with apprehension) we will show you how you can infuse positivity into your morning. Your morning mood does influence how react throughout the day.

So reach for the coffee, sit down and see how you can get pep and happiness infused into your morning.

Get the day going right

Introducing a few practices into your morning makes the difference between having your engines humming or wandering around like a zombie and having a range of negative thoughts and emotions trickling through your weary brain.

You may also want to think about having a self care kit to hand of things that could really help give you the pick me up you may need

Get enough sleep

Burning the midnight oil may be okay for a day or two. But after several days you will notice the effects the lack of sleep has.

Numerous studies have been done that show a lack of sleep results in a lack of concentration, increased moodiness, and anger. Not a great way to start your day.

Typically we need 7 to 8 hours of sleep each day. Some people may need less sleep, and the older you get the amount of sleep your need per day can drop.

However, if you feel that you wake up every day tired, then you need to look at getting more snooze time.

Feeling refreshed from a good sleep is the best way to get your day off on the right foot.

Prepare the night before

If you find it hard to decide what to wear in the mornings, you are creating stress and anxiety for yourself.

You can plan ahead by thinking about your outfit the night before. Spend your time thinking about everything and lay all your garments out nicely somewhere, ready for you to put on the next day.

That not only frees up some time for you in the morning, but it eliminates the pressure you were under in the mornings as you debated whether to go with the blue, pink, or green shirt.

Don’t rush

Give yourself extra time in the morning to ease into the day.

Trying to do everything at the last minute before you leave the house will only cause you to be stressed and panicky.

Not a great frame of mind to be in as you frantically walk out the door.

Wake up earlier and allow yourself to relax and enjoy the morning.

Wash your face

Have you ever been tired and someone told you to go and splash some water on your face?

The shock of cold water as it hits your skin releases adrenaline and increases blood flow to your brain. So now you are both physically and mentally alert and ready for the day.

Download your FREE checklist here. If you don’t want to keep printing your checklist, you could also laminate it and use dry erase markers. Here is the affordable laminator I use.

Exercise

You have got the adrenaline and blood pumping with the cold water, and you want to continue getting your body and mind revving for the day.

A 10 or 15-minute workout first thing in the morning will help get the energy flowing and have you in a positive mood.

The exercise doesn’t have to be anything too extreme. For those with health issues, you can do something that is low impact.

Think about the great things the day has in store for you

Grab your favorite morning brew and close your eyes.

Now contemplate the day ahead and how amazing it will be. This can be a hard thing to do as our brains seem to be wired to focus on the negatives.

We default to negative bias and consider the threats that lay ahead of us and ignore the blessings.

It’s a given that every day will serve us up to things that we will have to confront. However, let’s take a moment out of the morning to not contemplate the things that could go wrong, but the things that are going to go right.

Have a good breakfast

Everyone will tell you that breakfast is the most important meal of the day.

You may sneer sarcastically at the suggestion, but see who you feel both mentally and physically when you skip breakfast.

Midway through the morning, you may start to become peckish, and your concentration starts to slip.

You may even find yourself getting “hangry” and your mood starts to take a downward spiral.

Have a healthy breakfast and you will be supplying your body and mind with what they need to get you through the morning on a high!

Read something positive and inspirational

Give your confidence and esteem a boost in the mornings. Reading positive affirmations or inspirational messages will put your ego into the right headspace and you will feel pumped and rearing to go.

Here is a trick to get the most out the affirmations and inspirational messages:

Make them personal when you read them.

Use your first name at the beginning of the affirmation (this speeds up the process of overriding any negative thoughts you have had in the area you are seeking to overcome) and repeat them out loud to yourself (you can read out loud quietly if you want to).

Focus on how good you feel when you read the messages and if it’s an affirmation about something that you are wanting to change about yourself, imagine how you would feel if what the positive affirmation is saying is a reality now. Infuse the affirmations with your emotions and feelings instead of rotely repeating or reading them.

Here is an example of how you can personalise an affirmation:

General statement: I am beautiful both on the inside and the outside

Personalized statement: (insert your first name) is beautiful both on the inside and outside.

You will find countless websites and images of positive affirmations and inspirational quotes that cover a wide range of areas.

Choose which ones you want to use. There are also apps that you can download onto your tablet or smartphone that will provide you with affirmations and inspiration every morning.

Allow yourself to be inspired and motivated before you head out the door! You may even want to have a self care checklist to help guide you

Make a gratitude list

We have mentioned about how our brains are naturally set to looking at the things that are wrong around us.

It means that we miss the blessings that surround us every morning when we wake up.

Spending 10 minutes each morning making a list of things we are grateful for in our lives will set you up for a great day.

Studies have shown that practicing personal gratitude every day will make you happier, strengthen relationships and make you more optimistic. You will also build resilience against the stressors of daily life.

Set your goals

We all have things we want to accomplish throughout the day, but writing down your goals can lead you to forget to complete an important task. Also, as you leave the house you may be mentally running through your “to-do” list and stressing over if there is anything you haven’t remembered.

Grab a pen and paper, our your smartphone, and have a task “brain-dump” in which you list down the tasks for the day.

By getting everything written down releases cognitive resources and you feel ready to go as you physically see what you need to accomplish for the day.

Spend time with your family

For those of you with a family, the mornings can be hectic as everyone is getting prepared for work, school, or whatever else they need to do for the day.

Taking time to be with your family in the mornings and appreciating each member (remember the gratitude exercise from above) will make the morning routines go more smoothly as there are less stress and bickering.

Family bonds are strengthened and you will walk out the door in the morning feeling blessed that you have a team that you can fall back on when things get tough throughout the day.

Sometimes men are left out when it comes to self care, here is an awesome self care checklist for men.

It’s going to be a great day

Taking the steps to start your day off right will set you up for an incredible day.

The positivity and optimism you gain results in your day being more productive and enjoyable.

Sure, there will be those times during the day that will test you and your patience, but the time you spent preparing yourself physically and mentally allows you to endure the tests.

Make your mornings your ‘me’ time if you can’t find time in the evening or night to pamper yourself with a bit of personal quality time.

A great morning equates to a great day and leads to you appreciating yourself, life, and the people around you more.

If you want to really motivate yourself you could try taking a 30 day self care challenge and get off to the best start!