What it means to be a morning person

I think there’s this weird misconception that in order to be a morning person you need to be up and dressed at 6am and not a moment later. But morning technically ranges from, well, 12am till 12pm right? To me, being a morning person simply means you’re more productive in the morning. And to me, “the morning” means before lunch. I certainly don’t wake up before 7 every day any day; you won’t find me sipping a smoothie and going for an early morning run. But certainly since being self employed, I’ve learnt the value of the morning and learnt to utilize it to grow my productivity.

I’ve only grown to love the morning over the last few years; when I was in sixth form, I would often sleep in until gone midday (granted, I was hungover the majority of the time but not the point!) and when I was in school and had to get up at 7 every day, oh man I loathed it. Although I still love and cherish my sleep and my bed is my absolutely favourite place on Earth, I think as I’ve gotten older, I’ve become more accustomed to getting up early and just sucking it up if I’m tired.

I’ve found that I am so much more productive in the morning than any other time of day. In fact, I think the middle slog of the day is when I’m least productive – my creative juices are running out and I just feel sluggish. Then again at around 7pm, I’ll start to perk up a bit again. I would continue work well into the night however due to my boyfriend’s work schedule, at night is the only time I can actually spend any time with him so obviously I don’t want to spend it working.

Therefore, that leaves the morning and the beginning of the day for me to get the majority of my sh*t done. And I’ve learnt to absolutely love it. Here’s some little tips and thingys on being a morning person. I realise that not everyone works from home like me, so if you only incorporate these tips into weekends or on certain days, cool!

Set your alarm for 10 minutes before you need to get up, so then you can lay there for an extra 10 minutes before jumping out of bed: And this gives you the chance to wake your mind up instead of jumping out of bed as soon as your alarm goes off and trying to put your tights on your face instead of your glasses.

Have the things you use first thing right next to you: Medications, water, lip balm – anything you use first thing, leave on your bedside table so you can do it as soon as you wake up. It’s one thing off your to-do list and the movements you’ll need to pick things up etc. will slowly wake your mind.

Have a to-do list ready the night before: Waking up knowing you’ve got a shed load to do but not actually knowing what any of that stuff is just doesn’t even register with me. Write your to-do list the night before, it’ll help, I promise.

And just be organised: Again, something else you might need to do the night before but just keep your stuff organised. If you work from home then keep your work stuff (notebooks, laptop etc) in an organised manner. If you’re going to work or going out, get your clothes, make-up, jewelry – everything ready the night before.

Make time for breakfast (if you can): I know some people can’t eat breakfast for whatever reason and that’s cool but if you’re the kinda person who skips breakfast for no reason, I urge you to make time for something! It’ll give you energy and get you going for the day.

Make time for exercise (again, if you can): I always do my Yoga every morning. If it gets past 1 in the afternoon and I haven’t done any yet then chances are I’m not going to. Doing Yoga in the morning always sets me up for a good day; physically because I’ve got some exercise and made time to move my body and mentally too!

Being productive now means you can do whatever you want later: This is another huge motivator for me. Being someone who really struggles to switch off and have down time, this encourages me to work super duper hard in the morning because I know by dinner-time, I do what I want without feeling guilty.

Do you have any of your own tips for being productive in the morning? Are you a morning person or a night owl?