Beep. Beep. Beep. You roll over under the warm covers to face your alarm. Without even opening your eyes, you press snooze only to retreat back into your slumber. Just as soon as you closed your eyes it seems the alarm is going off again. Snooze has become your morning's best friend.

For just a moment though, imagine that you never hit snooze. What would you do with those extra 10-20 minutes? Go on your phone, check emails, and maybe even make a better breakfast? It has been proven time and time again that what is done in the morning sets the tone for the entire day. We all have different connotations of what "productive" means, making it hard to know what concoction of tasks will make for the ultimate, productive morning routine. Instead, I'm here to give you a little look into my mornings. This summer I've worked really hard on researching and testing out different things to find a routine that makes mornings my favorite part of the day.

The number one thing I've found to help my mornings was to not sleep until the minimum amount of time I needed to get ready. I would wake up, get ready super quick, eat, and be out the door still groggy with sleep. Instead, I now wake up two hours before I need to leave for work and surprisingly I am immensely less tired even though I'm waking up over an hour earlier than before. By utilizing this time it makes all the difference.

To start, I really try not to hit snooze. Snoozing just leads to a cycle of going back to sleep and being even more tired when you eventually wake up. Once I turn the alarm off, I set my phone down and have a strict, "no checking it" policy. The way I see it, I have the entire day to be scrolling through my phone. In the morning, I don't want to stay in bed extra time on it since it's harder to actually wake up and truly get going. From there, I open up the blinds in my apartment to let in all the sun's rays. The natural sunlight is a good indicator to your body that its time to be up. This is why in the winter it's also harder for our bodies to get going in the morning since usually, it is still dark out when we all start our days.

When I was first testing out routines I use to be tempted to climb back into bed since I had so much extra time. From there, I would just get sleepy again backtracking on why I was getting up early in the first place. I've helped that by making my bed so I am less inclined to get all settled under the covers again. From there, one of my absolute favorite parts is my morning meditation/yoga. I just go straight to my mat, pull up Yoga With Adriene on my laptop, and get to it without overthinking it. We tend to waste a lot of time and energy by thinking about how much we don't want to work out or how we "have" to do this or that. By just going right to it we don't give our brains time to convince ourselves we'll have time later or that today is a good day to skip. Starting my day with a bit of yoga/meditation gives my morning a very relaxed and chilled out feel to it, instead of rushed and chaotic. I get to spend 15-30 minutes stretching and waking my mind and body up for the day while getting something I love to do done early.

After yoga, I get a glass of water and chug it before I have my coffee or any breakfast. You can read about the benefits Here and Here of adding this step into your morning. I usually only make myself coffee when I don't sleep well but I always include a filling breakfast so I am full until the later part of the afternoon. While I eat, I like to throw on Spotify to listen to music or some days it might be an episode of one of the shows I'm watching on Netflix. That's the great thing about morning routines, you can do whatever you want with them. Having structure while keeping variety intertwined will ultimately leave you more inclined to continue them. To end the morning after I get ready if I have any extra time I use it by cleaning up my room or doing any dishes from the night before so that I can come back to a clean space. Being able to come back to an organized place later in the day makes it easier to get straight to doing what you want, instead of stopping to clean.

Everyone has different needs in the morning. By finding something that works for you and sticking to that is what will make you have a better day. A morning filled with things that you love and genuinely want to do will put you in a good head space for the day, leading to better decisions overall. As humans, we thrive off of structure but that structure doesn't have to be set in stone. Take just a week or two and find a morning routine that feels right and "productive" just to experience how much good it can add to your life.