Healthy Habits, part 1: Your Morning Routine
Welcome to this two-part series about healthy habits for creatives. These are healthy habits for anyone, but they are particularly helpful for creatives.
This week we’ll focus on the importance of a morning routine. And next week, I’ll dive into evening routines which are also very helpful.
Studies have shown that if you have a very simple but effective morning routine, it sets the stage for your entire day and can really change the way you feel. A strong morning routine can also help you make more progress more quickly on your creative journey, as you build your online business or with whatever mindset work that you're doing.
Here are my three tips for you about morning routines.
Tip 1: Keep it simple
You do not want to have 10 things that are a part of your morning routine. I recommend that you have between one and three things. You can add to it later and you may want to switch things up periodically when one particular aspect of your routine stops working or you just want to change things up a bit.
Tip 2: Keep it manageable
Ask yourself how long you want your morning routine to be. Make sure you’ll have enough time to complete it. It’s helpful to start with a routine that’s fairly short – maybe just 30 minutes or so. If you are very busy or eager to get started on projects in the morning, keep it short.
Tip 3: Make it realistic
The key here is that your routine needs to work for you. Remember that it’s not set in stone. You can give a few things a try – I’ll share mine with you next. Some of what I do may appeal to you and you’re welcome to adopt them. Pay attention to what’s working and what’s not working for you and make changes as needed.
My morning routine takes between 45 minutes to an hour, and there are three elements to it:
· Journaling
· Light exercise
· Sketching
I wake up in the morning and my husband has almost always made coffee already, which is so incredibly nice. I grab my cup of coffee and sit in the kitchen in our breakfast nook area. I follow Julia Cameron's morning pages routine where you capture what’s in your mind until you’ve filled four pages. Here’s the blog post that I wrote several years ago about this practice if you want to learn more about it.
The second thing that I do is some light exercise. I either take a quick 20-minute walk, or I do some stretching. I might do a quick series of yoga moves. It’s always something very simple and only takes about 20 minutes.
Once my blood is flowing and I feel more awake, I spend 20 minutes sketching in my sketchbook. That’s it. My whole routine is simple. It takes about 45 minutes. And it works for me. What are you going to try?
Next week, I’ll be back to talk about evening routines because wrapping up your work day with an intentional routine is just as important as starting your day with a morning routine.
Watch Anne TV for more details.
Remember,
It’s Never Too Late to Create
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MEET ANNE
Hi…I’m Anne!
My creative inspiration comes from a lifetime of observation. I grew up in Paris on the Place St. Sulpice and walked to school through the Luxembourg gardens. And that was only the beginning… Learn more by watching the video on my About page.
