One of the hardest parts of being a blogger is coming up with great new content every week. As a blogger, I need a constant stream of inspiration in order to come up with ideas for my posts, images and my blog’s design. Although as they say, inspiration is everywhere, being a constant learner is an important part of locating inspiration in your life. If you are having trouble finding inspiration, here are a few things I like to do to find inspiration when I need it most!
1. Listen to music: I suggest listening to all types of music, even genre’s your not that familiar with or don’t even like. Variety is so important when opening up your mind to inspiration and you need to listen to everything that’s out there if you want to discover something new that will inspire you to think differently.
2. Read about something new: Scientific articles tend to be the most powerful for me, but learning about any new subject can open a door of possibilities and inspiration. It doesn’t really matter what your blog topic is or what you normally write about, just learning a bit about a new discipline or subject can really help open the channels of creativity in your mind!
3. Write stream of consciousness style: Sometimes you never know where your own mind will lead you until you follow it. One great exercise I suggest for writers is to do a bit of stream of consciousness writing. This means you just start typing and listen to that voice inside your head about what to write. Start with things on your mind and your own thoughts and just follow them through and see where they lead you.
4. Go to a new place you have never been: New experiences generate inspiration like none other! I find that just driving or wandering to a new part of town I have never been to really helps open my brain up to possibilities. Seeing new sights, smelling new smells and living through new experiences can be very inspiring and something of an adventure!
5. Get to know someone new: Meeting new people and getting to know them is a very powerful one on one experience. There are so many wonderful people out there in the world with so many interesting points of view that hopefully by getting to know one of them, their views may rub off on you a bit and cause you to look at the world differently!
6. Watch a movie that you don’t think you’re interested in: Often times its important to challenge our perceptions of our own likes and desires. Breaking established patterns like watching movies in genre’s your not used to watching is a really simple way to sample and test out new things without making a major commitment. Hopefully, that movie you weren’t interested actually entertains you and brings you to see that you shouldn’t discount things based on what you think you already like!
7. Do something physically challenging to you: This doesn’t have to mean you should go out and run a marathon if you don’t normally run, it just means to push yourself physically. While I’m at the gym I find so much inspiration just hiding out in my own mind while I’m on a machine. I think that when you’re focusing your physical energy on working out, your mind starts to open up and relax allowing new inspiration and ideas to just hit you. Give it a try and you’ll be killing two birds with one stone!
What sorts of things do you do to find inspiration? Have you ever tried or plan to try any of the items on this list? How did it work for you? Let me know in the comments below!
xoxo,
This article was first published on Strange & Charmed on March 20th, 2014 and is being reposted as part of my Holiday Prep Hiatus! For the months of November & December I will be recycling some vintage S&C content that you may have missed in order to give myself some extra time to finalize projects and spend time with my family during the holiday season. All reposted content will be marked as such. I hope you enjoy this blast from the past blog post!
Whether or not you celebrate Christmas, most folks get at least some time off during the Holiday Season, so make the most of your vacation time and sneak in a few of these productive activities that are sure to keep your work and life manageable in the new year!
Clean Out your Smartphone
Like most people’s homes and desks, smartphones usually accumulate a lot of extra stuff in the form of apps, photos, information and contacts that need to be sorted through and in some cases deleted. Its the end of the year after all and there is no better way to start off the new year than with an organized smartphone. While you’re at it, make sure you have all your emergency contact information and necessary phone numbers stored in your contacts just in case you need them one day!
Listen to a book on tape
Now, this doesn’t have to be a work related book, nor does it need to be a non-fiction or self help book! Reading is a great way to de-stress and I think listening to a book on tape is just as good for your mind and your productivity! So, if you have a bunch of chores or other to-dos, throw on a book on tape while you’re busy and it will help keep you cheerful and motivated! Audible.com has a great smartphone app that makes it easy for you to find any book your looking for, but you can also stop by your local library and borrow a book on tape the old fashioned way!
Spend some time on yourself
If your busy and trying to use your Christmas Vacation time to get some important to-dos checked off, you may not think it a productive use of time focusing on yourself, but trust me, it will have long term benefits. So, carve some time out of your day, take a bubble bath, listen to some music, have a nice workout or just lay in bed and relax because your peace of mind is so important for increasing your productivity and most of us don’t spend enough time working on that!
Learn a new simple and quick recipe
When it comes to meals, I would venture to guess that most of us have a repertoire of a few dishes that we continuously cycle until we get sick of eating them and then order out! So, I think its incredibly valuable for each of us to learn a new recipe that we can add into to our normal routine that may end up saving us time and money in the long run. Spend some time thinking about meals that you enjoy and see if you can find a quick recipe online that you can perfect during your downtime!
Connect with family & friends
Look, with so many of us out of work for a day or two, it really makes sense that you should spend time with loved ones during the holidays. You don’t have to do anything too stressful, just a day together walking outside in the snow or a meal cooked and shared together can be the difference that makes you feel more satisfied and in control of your life.
So, what are your plans for this Christmas Vacation? Let us know in the comments!
xoxo,
This article was first published on Strange & Charmed on December 19th, 2013 and is being reposted as part of my Holiday Prep Hiatus! For the months of November & December I will be recycling some vintage S&C content that you may have missed in order to give myself some extra time to finalize projects and spend time with my family during the holiday season. All reposted content will be marked as such. I hope you enjoy this blast from the past blog post!
Does this ever happen to you? You sit down to start an important project, you know exactly what’s expected because you have either done it before or are familiar with what the end result should be, however, even before you have begun, those expectations begin to nag at you. You begin to worry that you may not do a good job, you obsess and knit pick over elements of your project and after all your mental anguish and second guessing you finish your project and it all turns out fine. Maybe you have also experienced this second scenario. You sit down to start an important project, but this time it’s something you have never done before. You’re not exactly sure how to begin or how things will look by the end, but you think about your project logically, put in a solid effort and in the end, it turns out spectacular! Why does that second scenario usually turn out better than the first? You would think that someone would do better in a situation where they had more experience and understood the expectations, but that isn’t always true. It’s beginners luck! You may have heard of it before, it’s a common phenomenon where someone attempts something new and ends up successful in their effort. Now, while “beginner’s luck” has never been statistically proven, most of us have experienced it in one way or another and we can certainly learn a thing or two about how to do great work from it!
Beginner’s luck is tied to the idea of expectations. When you attempt something new and admittedly know very little about it, you often find that when you give it a try, you are much better than you would have assumed. That’s because you didn’t expect much, but you gave an honest effort none-the-less! As humans, we are often tied up in notions of what is possible and what is impossible, and in that mindset we project upon ourselves what we think we can do, what we think we can’t do, and we end up surprising ourselves when we actually succeed where we had no expectations of success.
Okay, so how do we use this concept of beginner’s luck to our advantage? There are a number of ways where a shift in your perception to this beginner’s luck mentality can help you do your best work and live your best life!
1. Don’t be afraid to try new things, you will do better than you think!
This goes for work and personal situations. Although many of us are plagued with fear of the unknown, beginner’s luck tells us that when we try something with an honest effort we get a better result than anyone would have guessed. Even if you have tried something before with a negative result, giving it an honest shot the second time around may prove fruitful!
2. Reach for the “impossible” because that standard is imagined.
Voices outside and even inside of ourselves are often telling us what is possible and what is impossible. Think of these voices as bookies at a horse race giving you the odds in a situation. If you bet on the long-shot and lose, you just lost the few dollars you initially bet, but if you win you will rake it in! The odds may be against you in a certain scenario, but taking beginner’s luck into account, anything is possible. When it comes to your future and your dreams, if you have more to gain than to lose, trying for impossible is actually a better bet!
3. Let go of your expectations and just get to work!
Don’t think, just do! Thinking can often over complicate things and cause irrational fears to pop up. If you let go of your expectations for the end result, you will be open to whatever direction you are led to while you work. Some of the most creative and brilliant solutions have been found by accident while trying to find a solution to a different problem. Do not think, become.
Are there any areas of your work where you feel like expectations are getting the better of you? In what ways do you plan on letting go of your expectations and embracing the concept of beginner’s luck to help you do better work? Let me know in the comments how you think you can execute these ideas in your own work life and feel free to share any success stories that may have resulted from your own beginner’s luck experiences!
xoxo,
This article was first published on Strange & Charmed on July 10th, 2014 and is being reposted as part of my Holiday Prep Hiatus! For the months of November & December I will be recycling some vintage S&C content that you may have missed in order to give myself some extra time to finalize projects and spend time with my family during the holiday season. All reposted content will be marked as such. I hope you enjoy this blast from the past blog post!
You probably didn’t know that the cold winter months can take a toll on your gadgets and tech devices! Its true, the cold weather creates a unique set of issues for gadgets that you should be aware of in order to keep your tech working properly. Here are 5 tech tips to help you treat your tech right this winter!
1. Do not leave gadgets like computers, smartphones or iPods in your car while its cold outside. The weather can freeze internal parts of your devices and potentially cause damage.
2. Keep your gadgets in heavy duty cases to protect from precipitation and drops onto snow or ice. Otterbox and Lifeproof cases that cover ports and openings in your gadget will help to make sure no excess moisture builds up in sensitive areas of your device.
3. Keep a stylus on hand in case your fingers are too cold to register on your touch screen devices.
4. If a gadget is excessively cold, be sure to bring it up to a normal temperature before turning it on or using it or else you could compromise internal parts.
I hope these tips were helpful to anyone who is experiencing cold winter weather or who may live in a region where cold weather is the norm! Do you have any other tech tips to share to help us get through the chilly winter months with our smartphones intact? Let us know in the comments!
xoxo,
This article was first published on Strange & Charmed on January 28th, 2014 and is being reposted as part of my Holiday Prep Hiatus! For the months of November & December I will be recycling some vintage S&C content that you may have missed in order to give myself some extra time to finalize projects and spend time with my family during the holiday season. All reposted content will be marked as such. I hope you enjoy this blast from the past blog post!
Do you ever feel like life is so hectic sometimes that you just don’t know how to unwind? I mean, we hear about the importance of finding time to locate your inner peace and all, but how does one actually start that journey? Do we need a map to locate peace of mind? Sometimes I think so! In all honesty, I am writing this post for myself because I have been so out of it and stressed for so long that I need to remind myself to take time and unwind, even if it’s really really difficult to do it! So, I sat down and thought about all the things that are mentally blocking me from unwinding and relaxing and some ways that I cope with stress when it gets too out of control on my own life. Hopefully this list will resonate with you, too!
1. Turn off notifications that ding: The threat of a dinging notification is a stressor in and of itself in my life. I have taken to turning my iOS devices on airplane mode just to escape them!
2. Light candles all over your home: I don’t know what it is, but for some reason candles make me feel like I have a clean home (…even if my home isn’t clean) and this releases an OCD stress about everything having a place and being there!
3. Take a nice relaxing bath: I suggest using epsom salts for a deep muscle relaxation and using whatever aromatherapy bubble bath or oils you have available to do. When I take a bath when I am stressed, I drown myself in the stuff!
4. Drink plenty of water: If you are well hydrated you are less likely to get a headache and I feel like water also helps me feel fresh and clean on the inside. Its like the water is cleaning out all the toxins from my cells and flushing them out (I actually think that might be what water does, so the more the merrier)!
5. Listen to soothing music or a book on tape: This one is pretty self-explanatory. If I take a bath with epsom salts and then put on a book on tape (usually the Hobbit!) I am guaranteed to fall asleep in 5.7 seconds!
What other tips do you have for relaxing and unwinding when you are stressed out? Please, please, please tell me, because I really need to know!!
xoxo,
This article was first published on Strange & Charmed on February 27th, 2014 and is being reposted as part of my Holiday Prep Hiatus! For the months of November & December I will be recycling some vintage S&C content that you may have missed in order to give myself some extra time to finalize projects and spend time with my family during the holiday season. All reposted content will be marked as such. I hope you enjoy this blast from the past blog post!
It’s that time of year again, and no I am not referring to the return of the Pumpkin Spiced Latte at Starbucks, but if you want my DIY PSL recipe, click here! I am referring to the return of cold and flu season! I know, so much less delicious than a pumpkin spiced latte, but it’s here and we all have to deal with it! I know we have it drilled into our heads to make sure we carry around little bottles of antibacterial hand gel and to wash our hands frequently and sneeze into our elbows (gross, but it does help fight the spread of germs), but how often do we stop to clean our devices like our iPhones and laptops that we are constantly touching? Your iPhone can actually carry more germs than the lever on a toilet and you are putting that up to your face on holding it in your hands countless times a day! So, I thought I would review the steps to help properly clean an electronic device like a computer or smart phone so that you can start keeping your gadgets clean without fear of shorting a circuit!
Step 1: Turn off your device. Whenever you are going to clean your device, make sure its off. This helps prevent you from getting some sort of electric shock in case you do make a mistake and get moisture into a crevice in your device.
Step 2: Use an antibacterial wipe to gently whip down the surface of your device. I like to use Wet Ones wipes because they are antibacterial and easy to take along with me. The problem with some “tech wipes” is that many aren’t antibacterial so you may be cleaning dirt off your device but not preventing cold and flu germs from spreading! Make sure the wipe is moist but not to wet before you begin. If it is let it sit out for a minute or two to dry or try ringing out any excess moisture.
Step 3: Avoid any openings in your device like headphone jacks or charging ports. You can get close, but don’t try to clean inside because those openings go directly to the innards of your device and can cause damage! If you are cleaning a computer keyboard, you can wipe over keys and in the spaced between, but just make sure you don’t get moisture into the openings under the keys!
Step 4: Dry your device with a microfiber cloth. Although your device shouldn’t be wet, you will have some moist spots on the casing or screen from the wipe down. So, use a microfiber to quickly wipe off any moisture left on your device before you turn it on. Once your device is dry and clean, turn it back on!
Step 5: Repeat this activity 2-3 times a week! Technically, I think this should be done everyday, but I understand that not everyone has the time to do that so if you can do it 2-3 times a week you will probably do a lot to cut down on the amount of germs your devices are carrying around. If you think you will forget to do it, set a reminder on your phone!
Do you frequently clean your devices? What products do you use? Do you think that cleaning your gadgets helps to cut down on instances of illness for you? Let us know in the comments!
xoxo,
This article was first published on Strange & Charmed on October 8th, 2013 and is being reposted as part of my Holiday Prep Hiatus! For the months of November & December I will be recycling some vintage S&C content that you may have missed in order to give myself some extra time to finalize projects and spend time with my family during the holiday season. All reposted content will be marked as such. I hope you enjoy this blast from the past blog post!
How to Build Confidence, Boost Your Productivity & Be Your Own Boss!
It’s time for another link roundup! With only two months left in 2015, we have now reached that part of the year where we make our one final push to hit our goals and get organized before the new year begins. For me, I find the best way to get inspired is to immerse myself in great content that provides insight and advice to challenge my thought processes and engage in meaningful solutions to my everyday problems. That’s why I love doing these link round up posts for you! It gives me a chance to share the content that inspires me and helps me to be a better content creator for you, and in turn, I hope you find solutions and inspiration to help you make an impact in your life. So, here are some articles I have been reading and thought you might also enjoy!
I hope you found something new and inspiring to read from this post! If you have any other articles you have read this month that you loved and want to share, please do so in the comments below! Also, if you are a female entrepreneur, small business owner or aspiring #girlboss, I would love to welcome you to join my #CHARMEDBIZ COLLECTIVE Facebook community filled with like-minded women who are supporting each other to build their online empires! I hope to see you there!
If you haven’t noticed, productivity is a very important topic to me. Why? Because I don’t like to spend all of my time working. I, like most people I would assume, would prefer to spend my time relaxing, hanging out with friends and family or pursuing my favorite hobbies. We all have to work to live, that’s an essential fact of life, but working doesn’t have to take up all of your time. Through the study of productivity I have learned ways to get more done in less time, how to streamline my tasks and work smarter, not harder. If this is a concept that you can relate to and want to learn more about, I have a few of my favorite productivity tips to share with you, plus a great online resource that you can use to continue learning about the subject!
My top 5 productivity tips
1. Set your top 3 for the day
With multiple tasks on your to do list, you may find it hard to choose which items you need to start with. In order to simplify this process for myself, I identify the top 3 tasks on my list to be my priorities. These are items that are either time sensitive and must be done today, or items that need to get done before other items can be accomplished. When working on my task list, I try to get my top 3 done as soon as possible so I know I have made important progress for the day.
2. Create routines for everyday processes
I’ve read a few different books that discuss the importance of controlling your daily habits and from them I have learned the importance of creating routines for your day. When you create a routine and build it into a daily habit, you are able to auto-pilot your choices which leads to greater self control at a lower cost. People only have a certain amount of self control to make positive choices, so when you can relieve your mind from this burden my instating routines, you are able to use your will power on more important tasks!
3. Say no to the non-essential
One of the major killers of productivity as I see it is the wasting of time by taking on non-essential tasks. So many of us struggle to get the big, important things done in a day, and that’s likely because we have a lot of little, non-important tasks to weed through. The best way to stop wasting your own time with non-essential tasks is to learn to say no to anything that isn’t the best use of your time. This is easier said than done, especially if you are a people pleaser, but I can’t tell you how many people I talk to who are unable to spend their time on things that matter to them because they are overwhelmed with tasks that just don’t matter, but they feel obligated to perform.
4. Batch and delegate work
Now, if you have been a student of productivity as I have for some time, you may feel like this tip is the equivalent of beating a dead horse. It’s the one productivity tip people refer to over and over again, but for good reason; it works! If you think you are batching a delegating your work as much as possible and yet you still feel overwhelmed with your tasks, you are doing something wrong. There is some place you are missing an opportunity to save yourself time by either batching like tasks together and finishing them at one time, or you aren’t delegating enough to others. You need to constantly evaluate your systems in this case, so I suggest checking out this post on how to stop over scheduling your day if you need additional tips to overcome this common issue!
5. Build white space into your day
When I say white space, I am referring to free time. The concept of adding in free time into your busy day may seem counterproductive to productivity efforts, but I promise you, when faithfully implemented, white space can actually lead you to greater productivity. Not only does white space give you time for self care and to calm your mind by spending time not working, but it’s actually been proven that by working free time into your day, you actually perform at a higher level. White space fosters time for your brain to process new information, and to think creatively because it’s not being forced to work. Give it a try and build some white space into your day as soon as possible.
If these 5 productivity tips have you curious about the different strategies you can use to work smarter, not harder, or if you want to learn more about implementing these tips, I am very pleased to announce that I have reopening my Productivity & Planning Master Class. If you aren’t already aware, back in August, I held a live Master Class webinar event where I shared my best productivity tips and strategies. The class was a massive success, but ever since I held it, I have been asked by numerous people to open access to the replay for the event to the public so that more people can access the information and the exclusive printables and resources I provided to attendees. So, that is exactly what I am doing now! If you missed out on my Master Class live, you can still access the replay as well as all the class materials. Just head on over to my shop and purchase your ticket to the Master Class replay and get started learning even more great tips and strategies for being more organized and productive!
The end of the day has come and instead of feeling a sigh of relief and excitement that your day is over and you can finally relax, you feel completely anxious. You’ve been working steadily all day but looking back at your tasks you don’t seem to have accomplished much, and to make maters worse, you have more things left on your to do list than you were actually able to check off. You aren’t just worried because you have a lot of work left to do, but you know that tomorrow when you start all over again you are going make another list of even more tasks to get done and you know that you are going to fall further and further behind as new tasks pop up faster than you can finish your existing ones. If you can relate to this feeling of constantly over scheduling your day, the amount of work, events and tasks that you can reasonably manage, you are not alone. Time management is tough and as a skill, it requires time, focus and the ability to self analyze to master it. To get you started, I have a few tips that I’d like to share to help get you on the path to time management recovery, and hopefully help you start getting out ahead of your tasks, instead of constantly falling behind.
Tip #1
Log your work day to account for all the tasks and actions you take and the amount of time spent on each. Like I said, excelling at time management is no easy feat. You need to have a complete accounting of your time first and foremost to get visibility to the blindspots and pitfalls that are sabotaging your productivity. It’s not enough to sit down and recall the events of the day after its all over, you really need to actively write down your tasks and the time it took you to accomplish them as you are working. Since this could be hard to do, I suggest setting a timer to go off once an hour, and when it does you write down all the things you did during that time, even if you didn’t finish them yet. Try to make sure you keep all the activities in order so you can see if you were jumping between different types of tasks and make note of interruptions to your workflow and the reasons for them. This data is going to be very important!
Tip #2
Once your workday is complete, review your data. I want you to look and see how productive your day really was. Perhaps you did get a lot of work done, it just wasn’t work that came from your to-do list. Maybe reviewing this information you will see that you lost significant periods of time to interruptions that were unnecessary, like calls from friends or chats with coworkers. You need to use your best judgement to understand what issues were standing in the way of you working on your to do list. Did you have to attend unnecessary meetings? Or perhaps the meetings were productive but just a little too long, or you didn’t need to be there for the whole thing. Once you know where the problems are, you can start addressing those with superiors or coworkers and putting new systems and habits into place to ensure your productivity is protected from outside influence.
Tip #3
Now you need to take a look at the tasks you completed and those that were left open on your list. Did you work on things during the day that you weren’t actually responsible for? Perhaps a coworker delegated a project to you and you accepted it because you didn’t want to seem rude or you wanted to take on the project because it was important, even though it was just one more thing you didn’t have time for. Remember, your to do list is sacred space. You shouldn’t put items on your list that don’t fall into your realm of responsibility or you don’t actually have the time to get done. We all leave items on our to do lists that we look at and know we won’t work on, but we feel guilty that we haven’t done so and we think, perhaps today will be the day I do this! No. You don’t have time for these sorts of games and you need to treat your to do list with a sense of respect because its the outline for your plans for the day and the way you will spend your precious time. Don’t let things fall onto that list that don’t deserve your attention and don’t accept new tasks that you don’t have the time to devote your attention to fully!
Tip #4
Start assigning yourself less to do and find a way to batch and delegate essential tasks that someone else can do for you. I like to use the top 3 list in order to achieve this. Focus on three essential activities or events you need to accomplish for your day to be productive and take care of those as your priorities. Try to focus on the activities that will be the most important and impactful use of your time and get those out of the way as soon as possible. You will also want to batch similar tasks together and delegate whatever other tasks are in your way that someone else can handle. Do you have a team admin that can run some reports for you or schedule some of your meetings so you don’t have to? Is there an intern that you can borrow who can print and assemble a presentation you are working on? Can your office secretary that sits right next to the fax machine send those faxes you have piled up on your desk while she’s taking calls? Obviously you want to use whatever tools are at your disposal, and of course you want to make sure you are being courteous with other peoples time as well, so make sure you give clear, concise directions and make the tasks you delegate simple so you aren’t creating more work for another person as well.
Tip #5
Start pushing back on new tasks, events and projects that are unnecessary. We all get asked to do lots of things throughout our day that aren’t necessary to our job function. Perhaps you have been invited to sit in on a leadership meeting or to volunteer as part of an organization with your work. Even offers for long lunches out with coworkers can be tempting yet unnecessary interruptions to our days. Now, I am not saying that you should never volunteer for special projects at work or avoid a great networking opportunity to advance your career, however, if you are constantly behind on your work, you are in a situation that poses a real risk to your current job. I’ve worked with people in the past who were completely overwhelmed with their job, the only real work they were able to achieve from day to day was to put out fires from overdue products and tasks that should have been handled weeks or months prior, and still whenever a “good opportunity” came to them to be part of a leadership team that involved extra weekly meetings or to volunteer their time creating goody bags for an extracurricular networking event, they never said no. I think part of this is the nature of individuals to want to please others, so many people find it hard to say no, especially when it seems like these extra tasks will further their career. The truth is, however, this mentally eventually leads to ruin! So, push back on whatever new tasks and projects land on your lap, and cut out the fat of extra work you are volunteering for until you get yourself to a place where you are out ahead of your work. It’s not like you have to say no to every offer forever, you just need to say no long enough to get your priorities and your schedule in order!
Like I said, time management is not easy but I hope these five tips make it a little easier for you to get started reorganizing your task list and making the key habit changes that will help you to stop over scheduling your time. If this topic of productivity and structuring your time to be more efficient and more in control of your work day is interesting to you, I have a very exciting announcement! On Monday I will be RELAUNCHING my Productivity & Planning Webinar, so if you missed the webinar the first time around and want to catch the replay, sign up for my wait list and be the first to know when the webinar has gone live in the shop!
Add one of these activities to your morning routine for less stress and more productivity
As an entrepreneur who works from home, I have found that how I spend my morning often reflects how productive the rest of the day will be for me. It doesn’t matter what time I wake up per se, but how I spend that first hour or so upon waking can lead me to either have a productive day or a wasted one! There are many different idealized morning routines you can adopt that promise health and wealth, but let’s be honest- designing a whole new routine is pretty hard. So, instead, start off with one of these and add it to your existing routine for a day that promises less stress and more productivity!
Guided Meditation
Meditation is one of those activities that you expect to find on lists like these, however, as someone who has tried every which way to incorporate meditation into my days and failed, I know it isn’t as easy as you’d think. Forcing yourself to sit still for 15-30 minutes without falling asleep is hard. Having to control your thoughts in the silence of your room is hard. But listening to a guided meditation instead, while you sit or lay in bed, is actually pretty doable! I keep a few guided meditations found on YouTube saved in my iPhone’s bookmarks, and in the morning when I wake up, I put one on. This routine works for me because it fulfills my need to stay in bed when I first wake up, and because I know all I have to do is turn on the guided meditation and listen. I can stay in bed, remain in a reclining position and just listen. It’s a very peaceful way to wake up in the morning, especially if you’re not a wake up and jump out of bed sort of person! If you aren’t sure where to start with something like this, here is the YouTube channel of an account that I love to go to for my meditations. This guys voice is very soothing to me and he has targeted guided meditation audios for a number of common issues.
Breath deeply
Starting your day with a workout is often touted as a secret of success for many, however, that exercise doesn’t have to be cardio. Even a simple routine of yoga in the morning where you are controlling your movement and breathing deeply is an excellent way to keep in shape, and lower stress. If you want to get started with Yoga, but think it’s too complicated, check out this article to get some helpful tips and tricks for beginners!
Journaling
In Julia Cameron’s bestselling book, The Artist’s Way, she instructs to keep a journal to write in stream of consciousness each and every morning. A few pages a day is all it takes to process through the events of the previous day that may still be having a sway over your mind, and really help you start your day with everything off your chest. It’s like having a morning therapy session with yourself! So, if you find that you wake up anxious and feel stress from the moment you step out of bed, I suggest keeping a journal by your bedside and giving this a try!
Make your bed
Making your bed in the morning is the start to a great foundational morning routine. Not only does it leave your space neat for your return in the evening, but it gives you an easy mental win in the morning because you have checked one item off your to do list without even leaving your bedroom. Start making your bed in the morning as soon as you get out of it and you will feel the positive affects on your day!
Hydrate early and often!
After hours of lying in bed, your body is in need of hydration immediately. Try drinking a big glass of ice water or start your morning with some warm water with lemon! You may want to reach for the coffee machine first, but caffeine actually dehydrates you further, so make sure to get in a good 8-12 ounces of water before you touch any other liquids!
So tell me, do you have any morning routine non-negotiable activities that aren’t included on this list? I’d love to know how you spend your morning!
