Your 6-Step Morning Routine for 2018

I do believe in the power of a morning routine. In a world that becomes more and more flexible, digital and fast-moving, I am seeking for stability. Morning routines can strenghten our physical and mental health and give us the route map for the day.

Why do you need a morning routine?

One the one hand, I love the freedom and independency we digital nomads, remote workers and vagabonding freelancers created for ourselves. But the flipside of this lifestyle can be a loss of stability and discipline or a stagnation in self-growth. I am just talking for myself, if you don’t struggle with these three points, I admire you.

The result might be procrastinating, postponing or the feeling of getting lost in one million thoughts and ideas. This is the point where I miss certain stability and a daily routine in my so free life.

What can you do?

I am listening to only very few podcasts. One of them is Life Hackz from Marcus Meurer, the founder of the DNX (global digital nomad conferences and camps around the world) and influencer in the digital nomad movement in Germany. One episode of his podcast (in German language) Marcus is talking about the power of his morning routine. I\’ve implemented most of his points and I will share with you my morning routine.

My Morning Routine

1. Early bird – Wake up with the sunrise (yes, I know it’s hard).

1. Clean up your nest – Make your bed and feel the first success of the new day in achieving something.

1. Sports – Strech your body, do sports or Yoga and if possible receive a kiss from the sun. In summer times, I would drive to the beach, go for a swim and fill up my body with the early morning sunlight. In the colder winter season, I would start the day with a Yoga class, skip the beach and go to the gym instead or if you are short with time, try the 7-Minute App for your morning exercises.

1. Meditation – My favorite meditation app is Headspace but you can also use Calm for a guided meditation that takes about 10 minutes. To me, I rather meditate in the mornings instead of evenings to clear my mind before I start working.

1. Gratitue Journal – There are different types of gratitue journals, I am doing basically the 5-Minute Journal. You don’t need to purchase it, all you need is a nice blank notebook, each page represents one day. Start to write down 3 points you are grateful for this morning, followed by what would make today great and your daily affirmation. In the evening before you fall asleep, write down 3 amazing things that happened today.

1. The MIT – Start your work day with the MIT, which is the most important task. It is not the task which makes you more happy, which is the most easy or urgent one. The most important task is the one thing you can do today that brings your business / work / project one step further. It is absolutely helpful for me, to avoid all Social Media and E-Mails until I have achieved this task.

Please note: to select your MIT for the next day you could use the App Wunderlist. Here you can create folders named by your projects. The to-dos in your folders can be prioritized and you can add a due date as well. Before you go to bed, choose the MIT for your next day and you will have an easy start in the morning to know what to do.

As I have a physical business with staff (Hub Hoi An), I am checking my messenger of course for emergencies. My staff members are the only persons that I allow to contact me while working on my MIT. All private messages, mails and social media requests have to wait until I am done.

Other points I want to implement in my daily life in 2018

1. Don’t be a night owl – I will go to bed between 9pm and 10pm most evenings of the week.
2. Sports – I will do sports 3x per week. Yoga, swimming or gym. I am not Sporty Spice. This point is tough for me, what about you?
3. Invest in myself – I will create time slots to learn something new. The past 12 months, I was really busy in setting up the Hub Hoi An and I haven’t spent much time in self-learning. What I will implement in my daily life in 2018 is to invest in my personal and my business growth. This can be achieved by listening to TED talks or podcasts, reading books, learning new skills through online tutorials or participating in workshops.

These are my personal 6-Steps I’ve implemented in my morning routine. Do you have a morning routine? And if so, how does it look like?

Share your thoughts in the comments below. Have a great start in the new year!

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