Anyone can become a morning person.
It’s 6am, you grab your phone from the bedside table. Just 10 more minutes you think to yourself, wiping your eyes, as the phone’s cold light fills the dark room.
If this rings a bell, you can transform your morning time. Mornings hold huge potential, but only with the right attitude and a little planning can they fall into place with the clockwork precision of a Wes Anderson flick.
With some help from Liberté, we at Beat might just have cracked it. January morning bliss? You've got this.
1. Sleep Early:
We'll kick off the list with the most obvious one. You don't need to be a doctor to know that sleep is essential to health and wellbeing. Make sleep part of your daily routine. Set yourself a target of going to bed at least 30 minutes earlier than usual. For the morning, keep your curtains slightly ajar to maximise the amount of thin January light into your bedroom.
2. Turn Social Media Off:
We're all guilty of wasting five minutes in bed each morning aimlessly scrolling through social posts that are forgotten when our feet touch the floorboards, so why not switch your smartphone onto airplane mode and put the social stalking on hold until the public transport commute.
3. Get Dressed First:
If getting dressed is the last thing you do before leaving home, you're making life that little bit harder. Behaviour specialist and author, Dr. Betsy Browne, suggests that getting dressed is what people should do first after waking up.
4. DIY Your Breakfast:
We've all had enough of sugar-coated cereal, so why not put two minutes aside each morning to create you're very own masterpiece. Transform your granola with Liberté. Create something magical. Spoon over colourful fruit and brighten up your breakfast.
5. Remove Distractions From The Kids:
Pick out your little ones’ outfits the night before. Assign schoolbags, coats, shoes etc. while making sure everything has its own home. It can be difficult, but try to leave the TV switched off every morning to ensure your routine is 100% distraction free.
6. Play Music:
Playing feel good music that matches your heart rate each morning can usher your body into a more energetic, relaxed state. And don't take our word for it, Spotify recently joined forces with Cambridge University to prove that starting the day with the music that you love lowers drowsiness and anxiety. Happy days!
7. Have Everything to Hand:
This one goes without saying, yet we're guilty of it every single morning. Have your keys, cards, phone and papers to hand every morning from night before. Keep them in the same place so you'll never have to experience that moment of sheer panic when you can't find those all-important notes moments before you set off.
Mastered all of the above? Great, you've found your morning Zen. From here on in, January mornings will be a time of organized bliss where every challenge will fall into place with clockwork precision. Well, almost everything.
Brought to you by Liberté
