Morning: The Best Time To Set Your Mood For The Day
Do you wake up every morning, feeling tired and sluggish, even though you slept for 8 hours? If so, it’s time to start your personal morning routine. When you wake up in a reactive state, you will move throughout your entire day feeling stressed and anxious never really feeling like you are fully prepared for the day. It leaves you with the feeling you are so behind and will never catch up, so you pick up speed and work faster but you seem to not really get anywhere, it’s like you are spinning your wheels going no where.
Mornings are the best time to condition your mindset. When you wake up and smile you set your day out on a very happy note. Research shows that your mood in the morning affects your productivity all day long.
Researchers at Ohio State University found that employees’ moods when they clocked in tend to affect how they felt the rest of the day. How they felt when the woke up affected how they handled customers and how they reacted to the customer’s mood. It also effected how they interacted with their coworkers and even how they felt was transfered to their coworkers. If they felt stressed and moody it affected everyone they worked with. Moods are transferable to those around you.
There are things that you can do to start your day off in a good mood instead of a grumpy mood. I don’t know about you but I try my best to avoid coworkers and people I come in contact with that seem to have a bad mood or they always complain about things that they can change around them.
Here is a wonderful book I ordered in the Audible version and I liked it so much I also bought the kindle version. What the Most Successful People Do Before Breakfast: A Short Guide to Making Over Your Mornings–and Life This little book has changed the way I look at my mornings. I want my mornings to be a time where I bring happiness into my life and I start out my day in a positive way. I have found that when I make an effort to smile and think of things I am grateful for My day is so much better not only for me but for those around me.
Here Was the Most Important Findings of the Study.
I know we all knew this even before they study was published. “How your manager comes to work directly affects impact on performance, including both how much work employees do and how well they actually did their work.” Your managers mood when they come to work can and will affect the entire work force he or she manages.
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What Can You Do To Make Sure You Have a Great Day?
Spend the first part of your morning taking care of YOU.
Lots of studies have shown that mom’s tend to take care of everyone around us and forget about taking care of YOU. When we have children and a husband we put off taking care of ourselves thinking either i’ll get around to it later (and later never happens) or they have a warrior syndrome of i’ll sacrifice myself for my family. We do this not realizing the consequences of what we are really doing to our mental and physical health in the long run. We suffer in silence while our health deteriorates and we are mentally a mess on the inside.
It is time that we take back our health and well being. We can be happy and healthy and still have a family and work a full time job. We must set clear boundaries and expect that our family will follow our lead and set their own routines and boundaries as well. We have to take the lead and then have them follow us as we set the example.
How Do We Set up a Routine
Here is what I did. You can get a copy of the list I created for myself here. You can use it like I did and check-off each activity as you complete it every morning.
The purpose of a checklist is so that you can visually measure your progress as time goes on. I set it up for seven days and I printed it and took it to my local office supply store and had it laminated so I could check off things as I completed them during the week using a dry erase marker. Then I set up a calendar space to show my progress. I use a special colored pen to check off the days that I complete everything on my routine chart so that I could see the days that I needed to have extra focus on or the days that continually had trouble getting my routines in and completed. I use the notes section on my planner to jot down notes on why things didn’t get finished for the days that were incomplete, that way when I went back over the notes for the month I could see any trends or things that came up on a specific day or days that I might need to address.
I only spend about 20-30 minutes on my morning routine, and about 20-30 minutes on my evening routine. It doesn’t take too much time to work on YOU first. It just means you might get up 3o minutes earlier than your family. You might go to bed 30 minutes later than the rest of your family. I try and start getting everyone ready for evening routines early around 8-8:30 at night so we all go to bed around the same time.
Wake Up and Smile
This is the first thing I do every morning. Smiling when you first wake up sets your day up for success. Studies have shown that waking up in a good mood is all up to you. When you smile it’s harder to let things get you down so to speak. Smiling sets your intentions for having a good day.
What if you’ve had a rough commute and you have to rush to your desk, and you know you’re going to be in trouble, that’s not a good way to start your workday right? Once an employee starts that way, it could have negative consequences for the company and for their coworkers the whole day.
Once you do get to your desk take a few minutes to smile, relax and think of what you are grateful for. Be grateful that you got to work safe and sound, and you have a family you love very much and go to work to provide for their needs. Just taking the few minutes to re-center yourself can change that awful commute into one of your best days.
Drink lemon water first thing in the morning
This has helped me more than I could ever imagine. I wake up and have a big glass of lemon water every morning. I make sure my pitcher is full of alkaline water the night before. When I get up and moving I put the lemon wedges in the water and start drinking. My pitcher is 65 ounces and is heat and cold resistant if you would like to see it and purchase one here is the link: Artcome 65 ounce glass carafe with stainless steel strainer. It has a stainless steel strainer so you don’t have seeds and pulp floating in your water. I also love the beautiful design.
I Take my supplements
I take a variety of supplements, like B vitamins and Vitamin D3 and a great Multi Vitamin.This ensures that I have energy throughout the day, so that I never have to rely on caffeine or sugar to get me through the day.
Start writing in a Gratitude Journal
I purchased a gratitude Journal and I love it! I had the idea last year when everyone was doing Twenty-Five-days of gratitude for Thanksgiving. I wanted to remind myself of what I have to be thankful for everyday. So I started looking for a gratitude Journal to start writing in everyday. I found this little journal and I love it. Here is a link for you to check it out. I’m sure you will agree with me about what an awesome little book it is. The 5 Minute Journal: A Happier You in 5 Minutes a Day
I love my journal and have written in it for the last year. I sat and looked through it many times over the last year. There is so much in our lives to be thankful for, writing it down helps you realize all that we have to be thankful for.
Take time to read
I like to set aside at least 15 minutes in the morning to read in a book that I have on my list of books to read for the month. When I start the day off with reading and I find that during those little breaks during the day I will be more likely to read a little more throughout the day. I try to carry my I-pad or the book with me when I am on the go.
Take Time to Meditate or Pray
I set aside at least 15 minutes to meditate and pray every morning. I will do a short devotional then I will pray for my family and the day that things go well. I give my day to God so he can bless it. I am in the process of developing a series of devotionals here on my website feel free to check them out. It is still in the development phase so be patient I will try to get more devotionals up every week.
Have a Scripture for the Week or Month
One thing I am doing that I am enjoying and learning from is I set a scripture for the month. I meditate on that scripture and find ways it can be a part of my life on a daily basis and I try and incorporate into each area of my life. I think about how it can effect my life and how it is changing my life everyday. I will jot notes down on my planner or in my gratitude journal of how that scripture has made a positive impact on my life, the changes it has made in me or someone around me.
Have a Word of the Month
For the last few years I have broken down my months and have had a focus word for every month. I look at what I am doing during that month, where I have to go during the month and what are the things I have struggled with the previous month. I then will set an intention for the month and choose a word to focus that intention on. My word for the month last month was relationship. I was having some trouble with several relationships in my life so I wanted to focus on how to make the relationships better in my life. So I looked for books to read on relationships, how to set good boundries in relationships with others. I purchased several good audio books to listen too when I didn’t have time to sit and read the books I had purchased. I looked over the podcast list to see if there were any podcast I should re listen to that discussed developing good relationships. During the month I would read the books listen to podcasts and listen to the audio books I had purchased and work on the creating the change I wanted to see in myself and my life.
And there you have it. My morning routine is simple and I find that it helps me keep my day on track and productive and happy.
If you want to build habits that stick, you need to be consistent with them. In the words of Tony Robbins, “The secret of your success is found in your daily routine.”
I am sharing with you my Morning Rituals Checklist If you like what I do in the mornings, here is a copy of my checklist I use every morning. It also has a monthly checklist to check your progress for a year. If you do download it and use it be sure to come back and share with me how you like it and how you are doing on your morning rituals.
You can always tweak your own morning routine. Make it yours, your special time each day. Do what you need to do to make your mornings shine.
This is a post that is all about YOU! It is about taking the time in the morning to work on You. We tend not to take the time we need to create the best person we can be. As mom’s we build up our spouse, our kids and we leave very little time for us.
I find that when I take time for me first thing in the morning I have a 100% better day. I have another post that will help you create a Family Morning Routine that will help you get everyone on the same page of helping around the house. It’s never to early to teach your family it’s a group effort to keep things clean and presentable, it is not just mom’s job anymore.
Our family has a lot of events and things we are running to everyday. I had to find a way to help organize a calendar for our family to where everyone gets where they need to go on time. It is a busy mom’s essential item on her phone. How to Set Up A Family Calendar System that Works This system has really helped my family get to the important appointments with exactly what we need and be on time.
I hope these post help to create a slice of time for you and a better organization for your family in the mornings.
Have a wonderful and beautiful day!
Sherry
This page contains affiliate links. If you purchase a product through one of them, I will receive a commission (at no additional cost to you). I only ever endorse products that I have personally used and benefitted from personally. Thank you for your support!
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