Morning routines are a quintessential part of our day. It sets the tone, it gets us pumped, and it gets us going. So, with that being said, I feel like I've perfected mine, and that's kind of a tough thing to do considering I'm not the biggest morning person.

One tip that I'll throw out is to get up two to three hours before you need to get ready to go. That way you don't have to rush. For example, last semester I had a class at eight in the morning. In order to have the morning I wanted, I woke up at five. Which totally sounds absolutely insane because who in their right mind willingly wakes up that early? I'll explain why this is important later.

The first thing I do in the morning is take a walk to my Keurig. I admit to my caffeine and have no plans on adjusting my coffee intake anytime soon. Coffee is the fuel that runs my life, and I feel like it's better than chugging energy drinks all day!

As soon I have coffee going, one thing that really helps me wake up is taking a super hot shower and jamming out to whatever playlist I feel like that morning. The combination is a gentler version of a wake-up call, minus your mom yelling at you to wake up and you begging for five more minutes. That and music gets my juices flowing and gives me something to focus on so I don't fall back asleep. Trust me, I've done that, and it really is not fun getting slapped with cold water when the hot stuff runs out.

After my shower, I grab my coffee, laptop, and phone, and plop onto my couch. I believe that it's extremely important to have time to sit down and wrap your mind around the day and have time for your body to catch up to you. It takes time to be fully awake, and I feel like I used to be so exhausted all of the time because I didn't allow myself the time to wake up.

And then I just….sit.

I may write, I can scroll through social media, I might choose to watch Netflix. I can simply relax and enjoy the silence. I just do whatever I feel like for an hour or two before I have to put on a face and get dressed for the day. The point is, I give myself time to process the day and fully be ready to face it.

Sometimes as students we simply don't give ourselves time. We constantly rush, rush, rush, and exhaust ourselves. And then we wonder why we constantly are tired and crave caffeine!

Moral of the story is this: YOUR MORNING TIME MATTERS! The time you give yourself to be a functional human being has a huge impact on the rest of your day. Don't wear yourself out before your day even starts, it's going to run you ragged.