Waking up early liberates you from a huge amount of stress.
Having an extra hour in the morning before your usual routine gives space for practical
or relaxing activities that you wouldn't find the time to do otherwise.
Many people use their morning routine to tackle a personal project; others focus on organising
and preparing for the rest of the day and others just focus on exercising, meditating
or doing other type of physical activity.
Whatever you do in the morning is up to you but rule number 1 is being consistent **[ 1)
be consistent].** Personally, I like to wake up at the same time every day, even during
weekends.
If I am extra tired on a Saturday, I give myself the pleasure of one more hour in bed,
which means getting up at 7 am, max.
The good thing about consistency is that it slowly builds up the habit, making your body
and mind less and less prone to create resistance to your alarm clock.
, Your brain forms connections based on what you do repeatedly in your life.
Repeated mental states, behaviours and responses become neural traits, which eventually decreases
the resistance you feel from your body and your mind when you are trying to incorporate
a new habit - this is called neuroplasticity.
As you strengthen your newly found habit of waking up at the same time, the behaviour
will require less effort and it will be easier to do it on a regular basis.
And speaking about alarm clocks, finding the perfect sound and distance **[ 2) pick a good
alarm sound]** from your bed is key to waking up energised every morning.
I'm really not into classic alarm sounds and rather prefer soothing music that builds up
as I ignore the alarm; I put my phone out of hands reach, on top of a dresser so I have
to stand to turn it off.
I'm no longer feeling like going back to bed by that time.
Waking up early becomes more manageable as you enjoy your morning routine [**3) create
an enjoyable morning routine]**.
A well-balanced and relaxed morning routine will give you enough motivation to get up
in the morning; a stressing and chaotic routine will create more resistance.
Creating a morning routine that is both practical, efficient as well as relaxing can have a detrimental
impact in your day.
My rule of thumb is to spend half the time of my morning routine in practical morning
tasks like having breakfast, showering or doing my hair, twenty five percent doing household
chores like cleaning the dishes, watering the plants and making the bed; and the other
twenty five perfect doing something entertaining, like reading or journaling.
For me, in a two hour morning routine this would look like one hour dedicated to practical
morning tasks, half an hour for cleaning and organising and a second half an hour of reading
or watching Netflix.
But I will tell you more about my morning routine in a video going up in a couple of
weeks.
Another thing that will make waking up easier because it enhances your morning routine is
preparing everything the night before **[4) prepare everything the night before]**.
Picking an outfit, preparing the cutlery and containers to pack your lunch or setting the
table for breakfast are all activities that create a solid transition between your night-time
routine and your routine in the following morning.
The more mechanical these activities and routines are, the better; a steady workflow of minor
tasks can lead up to to less resistance from your brain and strengthens your habit of waking
up early.
For a special boost of motivation, you can also challenge yourself [**5) challenge yourself**]
to complete a project or a deadline during your morning routine.
If you ever wanted to start a blog, create a journal, knit a scarf featuring your Hogwarts'
house colors or just become a runner, you can use your morning time to do it in incremental
bursts of productivity that you can spread out over a longer period of time.
Instead of feeling like you're waking up to go to school or go to work, you change your
mindset by stating and acting upon the idea that you're now waking up to take care of
your special new hobby.
As a final note, I have to remind you that waking up early is not for everyone; and if
you're a night owl, you definitely shouldn't feel the urge to wake up early because someone
tells you to (unless it's school or your boss, and in that case there's nothing you can do).
I actually ranted about the "I wake up at 5 am" a LOT in one of my videos so never feel
the pressure to be productive at a schedule that your brain is not naturally inclined
to use to be productive.
And something that is always part of my morning routine is sitting down with my planner and
my laptop, opening Notion and seeing what's going on in my life.
Notion is an awesome tool and I've made three videos about how I use it to organize every
single thing in my life and the good thing is that Notion is sponsoring today's video
to let you know that it's finally free for students and teachers!
Notion is productivity software that combines all your essential work tools in one place.
It's flexible, allowing you to organize everything in workspaces and move things around seamlessly.
Two weeks ago I showed you how I created an academic planner in Notion, which includes
class notes, a calendar, syllabi pages, task lists, project planners and so on.
With this free personal plan for students, you can now have unlimited space to organize
everything.
All you have to do is sign up using your school email address or, if you already have Notion,
you can change your account e-mail to the e-mail of your school and that's it.
You can also access a bunch of templates designed specifically for students and educators, which
will be linked down below.
And if you aren't a student anymore, that's not a problem → you can enter the promo
code "mariana" to get your own free notion Personal plan by following the instructions
in the description box below.
Also, if you're curious about how I've been using Notion, I will link my past three videos
as well.
I hope you've enjoyed today's video and I will see you next week.
Bye guys!