How to Set Up Your Mornings for Success This Summer
As a former high school English teacher, I used to love May mornings. And not just because it usually meant there were three or less weeks of school left.
I loved May mornings because it was finally light outside by the time I woke up and got ready for work. My circadian rhythms adored seeing the morning rays of sun filter through the semi-open blinds of my room. Just this little bit of light—this little change—made my mornings so much brighter. And as such, the rest of my day also felt brighter.
Even though I’m no longer in the classroom, my circadian rhythms still pick up on the shift that happens shortly after Daylight Savings Time occurs—that shift in which, day by day, we get more and more light. So, day by day, our mornings brighten with the sun earlier and earlier.
This summer, we will see more and more sunshine as the day lengthens and night shortens. As such, there is no better time to start that morning routine you keep seeing on Tiktok and Pinterest that you’ve been meaning to start for ages!
Whether you’re wanting to start your day right with God, set yourself up for success in the morning, or simply just make the most of the morning sunlight and set the tone for the rest of the day, a morning routine allows you to do all three. When you build a morning routine that accommodates your schedule and embraces your priorities, you succeed in starting your day grounded in joy and intentionality. And these, dear sister, are ingredients to a well-lived, well-enjoyed life.
Why Morning Routines Matter
You probably have heard all the benefits about morning routines from content creators: improved sleep, better moods, increased productivity, etc. However, as Christian women, there’s an additional benefit that outweighs the rest: we get to start our days in God’s presence.
Sitting in God’s presence first thing in the morning allows Him to pour into you before any other outside influence can. He can provide you with a sense of peace, hope, and rest before you get up and truly begin your day. So when deciding why you should start a morning routine and what to include, make sure you schedule time (even 5-10 minutes) to read God’s Word and pray. So grab your cup of coffee, sit in the rocking chair on your back porch, admire the beginning sunrise, and pray to God. He’s grateful to spend this quiet time with you, daughter of God!
Furthermore, morning routines are important because they allow us to prepare for the day. Look at the Proverbs 31 woman: she rose early in the morning “while it [was] still night” to “provide food for her household and portions for her female servants” (Proverbs 31:15). She planned. She prepared. And because of that, she was able to become this godly, gracious, kindhearted, business-savvy, and caring woman of God. By rising early before anybody else, she was able to enter into a good headspace that spearheaded her agenda and tasks for that day.
There’s power in the early morning, friend. Trust me. Because those mornings in which I carry out a routine and those mornings I don’t contrast drastically in how I spiritually, physically, and mentally feel.
Why wouldn’t you want to tap into the power of a God-filled, preparatory morning routine?
How to Visualize and Plan Your Morning
Creating your personal morning routine doesn’t have to be scary. It’s as simple as these two steps: visualize and plan.
Visualize Your Mornings
This is the step where you get to think outside the box. Where you get to go on Pinterest or scour TikTok for all the “Christian girl” or “that girl” morning routines. Where you get to dream and visualize to your heart’s content.
Ask yourself this: what does an ideal morning routine look like to you? What does it feel like?
Think of all the things you could possibly set up in your daily morning ritual: Quiet Time with God, planning your day, exercise, eating a healthy breakfast, drinking water, reading, listening to a podcast, writing/journaling, getting ready for the day in a cozy and comfortable outfit . . . the list goes on and on.
When I sat down to visualize my morning routine, I knew I wanted to include a little bit of everything: spiritual, physical, and mental enrichment. With that in mind, I wrote down 2-3 things I could do in each category (see image below). While your morning is going to look different from mine, it’s important that you take the time to sit down and visualize what your ideal, invigorating morning ritual looks like.
Want to grab a morning routine schedule that looks like this?
Scroll on below to download this exact one OR a blank one to personalize for yourself!
Print it out, tape it to your wall, and watch your mornings become brighter, better, and filled with God’s presence!
Plan Your Routine
When it comes time to take our visualizations and turn them into realities, we must address the current timelines of our mornings.
Ask yourself these questions:
How much time do you have to work with?
What time are you waking up now (and do you need to change that to accommodate your new morning rituals)?
What will you all include in your routine?
It’s important to note that not all the steps you envisioned in your ideal morning routine will make the cut. Perhaps not at first, or perhaps not at all. For example, I would absolutely love it if I could fit in 30 minutes of exercise in my mornings (if not just to get it over with). However, I also know that I’m a chronic snoozer, so a morning ritual in which I fit in maybe 5 minutes of yoga/light stretching and then 5 minutes of an ab workout works better for me. It allows my body to wake up with soft movements in the morning without me having to sacrifice a lot of time (and mental energy) in dragging myself out of a bed to do a 30-minute HIIT workout that I’m not in the mood for.
When planning your routine, make sure to always start your morning with God! Time with Him comes first, because we know that we should “seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness” (Matthew 6:33). This means seeking Him first thing, even in the morning!
After your quiet time with God, how you order the rest of your routine is up to you. Feel free to change it up from morning to morning until you settle on an order that works best for you and makes you feel your best during those first few early hours.
Personally, I like to plan my day with God directly following my quiet time with Him. Then, I’ll do my 5 minutes of yoga/light stretching and 5 minutes of an ab workout before sitting down to work on several tasks for the day in a practice that has been coined as a “power hour” (where you sit down for 60 minutes and get your top 3 tasks for the day done or at least started on). Following this, I’ll finish out the morning by eating breakfast while listening to a podcast or reading, and then I’ll finally get ready for the day.
Again, the options are limitless on your morning routine. Relax and have fun in this visualization and planning process!
Implement & Adjust
Once you’ve built your morning routine, it’s time to implement it and adjust as needed!
Start out small. Know that you’re not going to immediately go from “barely rolling out of bed” to “5 AM club member” overnight. However, you can get there quicker if you focus on taking small steps in implementing your routine.
Whenever I was finally coming out of my rut season about a month ago, I had to remind myself of this rule. Honestly, I still do. Because there’s mornings where I don’t feel like doing a 5-minute ab workout. And there’s some mornings I don’t feel like listening to a podcast while eating breakfast when I’d rather scroll on Pinterest.
That’s where the power of starting small comes in. On these mornings when I’m tempted to not carry out some or all of my morning routine, I bargain with myself. “You don’t want to listen to a podcast while eating breakfast? Just listen for five minutes, and then you can scroll Pinterest.”
You will never unlock the power of your morning routine—nor your potential for today—unless you start implementing the routine you’ve made.
Once you’ve spent a few days using your routine, it’s time to reflect and adjust. If this routine makes you feel good and you notice a spiritual, physical, and mental difference, then great! Keep doing what you’re doing!
On the other hand, if you don’t notice a difference or if you don’t like it, then that’s okay! Adjust some parts or adjust all of it. Try again. Keep implementing, reflecting, and adjusting until you find the routine that works best for you.
Not every routine is one size fits all. What works for you might not work for me. And what works for one season in your life might not work in another. Again—it’s okay. That’s why we must reflect and adjust.
But no matter how many tries it takes to get our routines right or how many times we have to adjust it throughout different seasons of our lives, let’s at least implement the morning routine. Let’s at least start our days right with God and wake up to prepare for the day like the Proverbs 31 woman did.
In Lamentations 3:22-23, there’s an anthem for everyone wanting to start each morning with a fresh and renewed spirit:
“The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; His mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is Your faithfulness. ‘The Lord is my portion,’ says my soul, ‘therefore I will hope in him.’”
No matter if you’re wanting to start your mornings by spending time with our Abba God or you just simply want to make the most of your time before the work day begins, you can find a routine that works best for your schedules and priorities. And when you do . . . oh, when you do, every day will feel like a new adventure, filled with moments of joy, peace, and gratitude.
It sounds like an exaggeration, but trust me. It’s not.
So step out of bed, stand on the truth of God’s Word, and open the blinds. Let the light in.
A new day has begun. And God’s mercies are new. 💟
