Hi, I am someone who has both been a morning person and has definitely not been a morning person. If you find yourself already trying to become a morning person and struggling..
My experience gives me a few ideas why that might be the case. So, here are 11 common reasons why your mornings suck and how to fix them!
Let’s see if you’re making any of these common morning mistakes..
1. You snooze
Just 9 more minutes please Yep, it’s instant gratification.
But the truth is that snoozing does not help you – in fact it only hurts you!
Those 9 minutes are terrible quality sleep.
Because you aren’t asleep long enough to complete any cycles, you will be more tired when you wake up to the second (third or forth) alarm.
Instead you should
Turn off the snooze feature if it is an option for your phone or alarm clock.
Put whatever your alarm clock is on the other side of the room so that you have to get out of bed to shut it off.
Count down from 5 and then make yourself get out of bed.
Don’t give yourself the opportunity to bargain for just a few more minutes.
The bed is comfortable, but you’ve got sh*t to do!
2. You pick up your phone immediately
I feel like a lot of us are guilty of picking up their phone first thing – are you?
If you are picking up your phone to turn off your alarm, that’s one thing.
But “just checking” a few things on your phone – be it messages, e-mails, social media or the news – is a slippery slope.
This is the reason your mornings suck that the most of us are guilty of.
Instead you should
Reserve your morning for yourself.
Focus on you before you invite other people’s wants, needs and issues into your head.
I like to turn my WiFi off before I go to bed so I won’t be woken or wake up to any random app notifications.
Having the WiFi off also reduces the temptation to scroll while you’re still in bed.
If you save your bed for sleeping only it will also make easier for you to fall asleep there.
Take care of yourself before anything else.
3. You get up on the wrong side
When something goes wrong in the morning it can be very easy to let it snowball.
You feel like that’s how your day started, so that’s how your day is going to be.
If you tell yourself that the entire day is going to go badly, research shows that you can actually sabotage yourself and make your day bad.
It’s called stress anticipation. But you can call it law of attraction if you want.
If you’re expecting to feel stressed, you will feel stressed.
That one crappy event can set the tone for your entire day..
But it doesn’t have to! Don’t let a bad 10 minutes ruin the rest of your day.
Instead you should
Catch yourself getting into a negative mindset as soon as you can.
Take a deep breath and try to pinpoint why you’re upset – “everything” or “life” doesn’t count!
It’s normal for your moods to fluctuate.
Just because you had a bad start to the day doesn’t mean that is how it will continue.
If anything tell yourself, it’s good that you got this crappy thing out of the way, now it can only get better from where you are!
Take a deep breath and take it one step at a time.
A bad morning does not mean a bad day, just like a bad day does not mean a bad life.
4. But first coffee
I can understand the urge to reach for the caffeine to wake you up first thing in the morning.
Coffee is warming and delicious and will help wake you up.
But you shouldn’t be having it first thing.
Instead you should
While you’re waiting for your coffee to brew chug down water.
Start your day by hydrating yourself.
Your body needs a lot of water to stay hydrated and you just went several hours without drinking any.
Make yourself drink the whole glass or bottle before allowing yourself to indulge in any caffeinated beverages.
Drinking the water will actually wake you up a bit too, even before you start on the coffee.
5. You skip breakfast – or eat junk
You may not wake up hungry, or get hungry early in the morning.
So you skip breakfast.
Or you consume something that’s full of sugar and only get a brief boost from that before you come crashing back down.
Instead you should
Eat a healthy breakfast!
Eating a bunch of sugary junk for breakfast is just as bad as not eating breakfast at all.
According to nutritional evidence there are a lot of foods that are good to eat for breakfast.
At the top of the list is EGGS which can be cooked about 100 different ways.
Fruits, nuts, cottage cheese and Greek yogurt are on the list as well.
If you don’t have time for a big, beautiful balanced breakfast like that, I feel you.
Some mornings I like to eat oatmeal, which is a healthier alternative to cereal.
6. You have too much on your plate
Figuratively speaking of course.
Sometimes you are just trying to do too many things at once!
You are doing all the things, juggling tasks, habits and responsibilities… I’ve said it before, multitasking is a myth.
Instead you should
Take it one bite at a time (see what I did there?)
You don’t have to tackle everything by yourself all the time.
It’s ok to ask for help, to delegate or to just cut things out.
Prioritize all of the things that you want to do and get the most important things done first.
That way, if things do get missed it will be the less important things.
If you are trying to build a morning routine I recommend introducing one habit at a time.
Once you have that habit down (a week, two weeks or however long it takes) start adding another.
7. You don’t know what you’re going to wear
You waste a lot of time in the mornings trying to decide what you want to wear and which accessories to pair it with.
Maybe you’re like me and you need to try on several different outfits before you find the one that you actually want to wear.
This could be a big reason why your mornings suck.
Instead you should
Decide your clothes at least the night before.
I actually like to plan my whole week of work outfits at once, as part of my weekly routine.
But if you don’t like to plan that far ahead try to at least pick it out the night before.
The more decisions you make in a day, the worse you become at making them.
It’s called Decision fatigue. You’re actually using up your mental energy with the many, many decisions you make on a daily basis. And most of those decisions are small ones!
So save your decision making brain power for more important things in your day.
8. You stay up too late
Somehow you manage to drag yourself out of bed on time, but you emerge up a zombie.
You can’t expect to be a fully functioning human-being at 5 or 6 AM if you didn’t go to bed until 1 AM.
Even if you caffeinated yourself well enough to pull it together, it is not sustainable and you will eventually burn out.
That is not enough sleep for your body.
Instead you should
If you want to wake up early, then you need to go to bed at a reasonable hour.
Unfortunately, there is no way around it. The adult body typically needs 7 to 8 hours of sleep.
It might benefit you to set yourself up with a nighttime routine.
Shift your mindset into wind-down-mode at the appropriate time, put on your blue light glasses and dim the lights. Light some candles and read a physical book.
Why a physical book? The light from our devices can actually confuse our Circadian rhythms and biological clock.
You should also stop drinking caffeine after noon, stop taking naps and avoid alcohol.
Alcohol makes you feel warm and sleepy but it actually lowers your body temperature and reduces the amount of quality sleep that you get.
9. You aren’t consistent
You wake up at 6 AM during the week, but on the weekends you sleep in until noon.
But you’re only making those early morning week days harder on yourself.
Your body does not take very long at all to adjust to a new sleeping schedule, so sleeping in those 2 days (or more) is only making the 6 AM days painful.
Instead you should
I’m not saying you can’t sleep in, but try to wake up near the same time every day.
Your body has Circadian rhythms that tell it all sorts of things – like when to eat and when to sleep.
When you adjust your sleeping schedule so drastically over just a few days, you confuse it.
Staying consistent with the times that you sleep and wake up will help solidify the routine and your body will gradually grow used to it.
10. You procrastinate
You wake up early and it feels like you have so much time.
You start off relaxing instead of getting ready.
The time slips away quite quickly without you noticing and you end up running behind.
Instead you should
Decide what you’re going to do the night before.
Having a plan ahead of time will really help you out!
Get yourself ready and then take the extra time to relax – if there is any left.
Often times tasks will take us a lot longer than we expect them to.
If you’ve woken up early to do something specific – do that thing first.
It can also be helpful to set alarms at certain intervals to keep you aware of how much time is passing and how much time you have left.
Also eliminate the distractions.
I’m willing to bet that you didn’t wake up early to scroll social media or watch TV, so don’t.
Don’t turn on the TV and don’t open any social media apps.
11. You don’t practice self-care
You slurp down your cup of coffee almost too quickly to taste it, you rush through your mornings doing a thousand different things and take no time for yourself.
At the end of your morning the time that passed is just a blur.
You’re already feeling stressed, not ready to take on the day.
Is it really any wonder why your mornings suck?
Instead you should
Take care of yourself, which a lot of us can neglect.
Self-care can be so many different things and doesn’t have to take a long time.
It could be a full skin care routine, morning pages, meditation or something creative.
You have to fill your cup before you can pour from it. So take some time to treat yourself well.
Before you start
Ok so now you’re ready to change these things and make your mornings better (Hopefully!)
I truly believe that the best morning routine is one that you create for yourself.
You can go from being the zero of your morning to being the HERO of it!
I have a whole post about how to do just that!
If you liked this post, I know you’ll enjoy that one too.
I hope I touched on at least one reason why your mornings suck.
Mornings are a truly beautiful time of day and waking up earlier allows you to get so many things done while others are still sleeping.
Even if all you’re getting done is spending some time with yourself because that’s important too!
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