The foundation of any great day starts with a great morning routine, and yours is holding
you back.
Let’s change that.
Dr. Jubbal, Medschoolinsiders.com.
What you do in the morning during the hour or so after you wake up sets the tone for
the rest of your day.
A good morning routine sets you up for success; a bad one sets you up for failure.
Here are eight morning routine mistakes that are holding you back, and what you can do
to fix them.
One of the biggest mistakes that you can make is not having a consistent morning routine.
Order breeds order and chaos breeds chaos.
Starting your day off feeling organized and prepared will give you positive momentum to
carry you through the day.
Even something as simple as making your bed when you wake up can have a profound impact
on the trajectory of your day.
As Admiral William H. McRaven said in his UT Austin commencement speech: “If you make
your bed every morning, you will have accomplished the first task of the day.
It will give you a small sense of pride and will encourage you to do another task, and
another, and another.
By the end of the day, that one task completed will have turned into many tasks completed.”
Every action you take in the morning sets up future actions throughout the rest of the
day.
Starting your day off with a few small wins gives you positive momentum to accomplish
bigger wins later in the day.
On the other hand, starting your day off with a few small losses halts your momentum and
sets you up for further losses.
Mistake number two is hitting the snooze button.
It may seem harmless to silence your alarm and sleep for another ten minutes.
In fact, it may even seem beneficial to get in a few extra minutes of rest when you’re
feeling tired.
The reality is, though, that hitting the snooze button often does more harm than good.
When we sleep, we cycle through four different stages.
Stage one, stage two, and stage three are known as non-rapid eye movement or non-REM
sleep.
Stage four is known as REM sleep.
When we fall asleep, we first pass through the lighter stages of sleep, stages one and
two, before going into the deeper, restorative stages of sleep, stage three and REM.
Throughout the night, we cycle through these four stages of sleep completing one cycle
about every 90 minutes.
The problem with hitting the snooze button is that it disrupts the sleep cycle.
When you go back to sleep, you don’t necessarily pick up where you left off.
In other words, you might have cut yourself short on precious deep sleep only to return
to less restorative light sleep.
So the extra ten or fifteen minutes of sleep after hitting the snooze button is unlikely
to make you feel any less tired.
If you notice yourself feeling tired in the morning, hitting the snooze button every day
won’t fix the problem.
You need to get to the root of it and fix your sleep.
Are you going to bed early enough?
If so, how is your sleep quality?
Waking up tired in the morning is a reflection of the quality of sleep you got the night
before.
So instead of trying to fix it in the morning once the damage has already been done, you
need to fix the problem before it occurs.
You want to be proactive with your sleep instead of reactive.
I’ve done an entire video on the science of sleep and how to wake up feeling more refreshed
- link in the description.
Number three is not getting enough early morning sun exposure.
As humans we are diurnal, meaning that we are biologically wired to be awake during
the daytime and asleep during the nighttime.
One key hormone that helps regulate this biological rhythm is melatonin.
It helps set our circadian rhythm and primes our bodies for sleep come bedtime.
Research has shown that when people are exposed to sunlight in the morning, their nocturnal
melatonin production occurs sooner in the day and they have an easier time sleeping
at night.
This alone has been game-changing in me getting a better handle on my sleep onset insomnia.
I shoot for at minimum 2 minutes of morning sun exposure when I’m rushed, but ideally
at least 5 minutes and up to 10 when time allows.
Sun exposure also promotes the production of vitamin D, which is important for bone
and immune health.
As a society, we are spending more time inside and less time outside.
As a result, it is estimated that approximately 42% of Americans are vitamin D deficient.
Short, repeated sun exposure throughout the day has been shown to be ideal for increasing
vitamin D, so starting your morning with even a few minutes of sun exposure can be a great
way to jumpstart your vitamin D production for the day.
Mistake number four is checking your phone first thing in the morning.
While you sleep, your brain is able to work free from the distractions and overstimulation
of everyday life.
Your subconscious can focus on problems that you weren’t able to solve throughout the
day and can explore creative solutions to overcome them.
When you start your morning with a screen, however, you hinder the “download” process
from occurring.
It also puts you in a reactive state rather than a proactive one.
Instead of being intentional with your morning and emotional state, you are reacting to all
the nonsense going on in the world.
As Matthew Walker, Professor of neuroscience and psychology at UC Berkeley, explains, when
you check your phone first thing in the morning, you let a flood of anxiety wash onto you.
This is problematic not just because it’s a bad way to start your day, but because you
train your brain in a sort of Pavlovian way to expect a rush of anxiety when you wake
up.
And this anticipatory anxiety is enough to negatively impact the quality of your sleep.
For many of us, checking our phones first thing in the morning has become so deeply
ingrained that it can be a difficult habit to break.
When implementing any habit change though, the best way to approach it is to start small.
Start by committing to wait five minutes after you wake up to check your phone - maybe after
you brush your teeth and use the bathroom for instance.
Then after a couple of days, extend it to ten minutes, then twenty minutes, and so on
and so forth.
Ideally, you should give yourself about an hour after you wake up before you check your
phone so you have adequate time to complete your morning routine free from distraction.
Mistake number five is neglecting your hydration and nutrition.
While you sleep, you lose water not only from normal metabolic processes but also in the
air that you exhale and by evaporation through your skin.
Since we are asleep and aren’t taking in any fluids, we aren’t replenishing the water
that we are losing.
For this reason, it’s common to wake up feeling dehydrated.
This is also why you’ll often notice your urine is quite concentrated in the morning.
An important part of any morning routine is to replenish the water you’ve lost while
asleep.
I make sure to keep a large water bottle filled near my bed, as it decreases the friction
to stay hydrated.
This way, I don’t have to go through the trouble in the morning to go to the kitchen,
grab a cup, and fill it up.
If you’re one who regularly forgets to drink water in the morning, I strongly recommend
that you do the same, or pick up an overly enthusiastic interest in tea.
If you want to learn more about the unappreciated beauty and enjoyment of tea, check out this
intro video on my personal channel - link in the description.
After you’ve rehydrated yourself, the next piece of the equation is nutrition.
When it comes to breakfast, there are two types of people: those who eat breakfast and
those who don’t.
I believe that both can be viable options depending on the person and their situation.
I currently follow a 16/8 time-restricted feeding schedule and usually don’t start
my feeding window until 11 AM - several hours after waking up.
That being said, if you are going to eat breakfast in the morning, avoid processed foods like
sugary cereal, pop tarts, or sweetened yogurt.
These foods may make you feel good initially, but they often lead to a crash shortly thereafter.
Instead, try to eat a more balanced meal containing a mix of complex carbohydrates, proteins,
and fats.
This type of meal will be slower digesting and will provide you with more sustained energy
throughout the day.
Mistake number six is missing out on morning movement.
If there’s one habit I never miss, even going back all the way to 2012, it’s getting
my body moving every morning.
Over the years I have developed my own custom stretching and mobility routine and have completely
fallen in love with it.
I’ve noticed that when I do this as a part of my morning routine, I stand with better
posture, have more energy throughout the day, and simply feel better.
These beneficial effects were even more noticeable when I was a resident surgeon and had to spend
long days standing in the operating room or clinic.
Given the compounding effects of starting your day off with movement, it’s almost
silly not to do this every morning.
Spend just a couple of minutes stretching in the morning while you wait for the shower
to heat up or while you make your coffee.
Stick with it for a few weeks and I can almost guarantee that you won’t need me to tell
you the benefits because you’ll feel them for yourself.
If you want to see my exact stretching routine that I follow every single day, I have an
entire video on my personal channel going over it - link in the description.
Mistake number seven is missing out on the opportunity to practice mindfulness.
Our lives are full of distractions.
Between the news, social media, text messages, and zoom meetings, our attention is constantly
being pulled in different directions.
Outside of the morning, there are few opportunities for us to take a quiet moment, sit down, and
be alone with our thoughts.
For some people, mindfulness can mean following a guided meditation.
For others, it may mean going for a walk outside without distraction.
For you, it may mean something entirely different.
I won’t go into the full details of how regular mindfulness practice can benefit you
in multiple ways; however, Tim Ferriss notes that over 80% of his guests of world-class
performers start their days with some form of mindfulness practice.
Coincidence?
I think not.
Finally, morning routine mistake number eight is not setting intentions for the day.
There are many different ways you can go about doing this.
Some people prefer to do visualization practices and envision what they want to do later that
day.
For me, I prefer to use a journaling app which auto-populates a custom template that I fill
out each morning.
This morning template includes writing about three gratitudes, three long-term goals, today’s
3 targets, and 3 affirmations.
This simple practice takes no more than 3 minutes, and it primes me for the day ahead
by getting me into the right mind space.
This is the journaling template that works for me, but feel free to experiment and find
what vibes with you.
If this video has motivated you to implement a better morning routine, remember to start
small and celebrate the small wins.
Try adding or modifying one element at a time and experiment for yourself.
And don’t get discouraged if things don’t stick immediately.
Keep experimenting with and refining your routine until it becomes something that you
look forward to every morning.
Take pride in your morning routine, and I can assure you that it’ll be an investment
that continues to pay dividends.
Thank you all so much for watching.
If you enjoyed this video, be sure to check out my video covering the Anatomy of a Perfect
Morning Routine or this other video.
Much love and I’ll see you guys in that next one.