Am I a morning person and does it matter? The Minimalist Challenge: Day 6

Druid Georgi -

Day 6: Follow a morning ritual

It’s Saturday. That’s not an excuse for what I did today. I also am learning to READ THESE CHALLENGES BEFORE THE DAY BEGINS. So that when I wake up at 11:30am and read, “Follow a morning ritual” I won’t want to turn back time.

So there you have it, but dead to the world is a kind of morning ritual? Isn’t it? Isn’t it? I know it seems bad and I have no excuse. I’ll follow a morning ritual tomorrow along with my actual task for the day so that’ll be redeeming.

Even though my morning ritual this morning was just lots of sleeping, I did use google to look at the benefits of having a morning ritual and the types of things you ‘should’ be doing in the morning in order to have a productive day. I’ve decided to compile my favourite ones to make a custom morning ritual that should fit my lifestyle for when I do actually get out of bed at a less embarrassing hour.

Most of the articles I read said that the first thing you should do is drink some water.

Then I learnt about tea meditation which intrigued me. You might remember my inability to meditate but with tea meditation the idea is to make a morning brew with complete mindfulness of every act involved. So the second thing to add to a morning ritual would be brew meditation. (I say brew because it’s sometimes tea and sometimes coffee).

Next is an amalgamation of ideas about morning rituals. Some articles were all about productivity and high energy. Cleaning things/doing a workout/taking a cold shower etc. But for me mornings are all about being calm. Setting up a stable platform on which you can perform the rest of the day’s activities. So for me the next ritual would be to read, not only read but to read something great. 

I’d like to think that I’d could put exercise into a morning ritual. But as I’m currently wrapped up in a blanket burrito I feel I should know myself better. Moving around is good though. So that’ll be my next part of the ritual. Move around. Just putting all of the things I need for the day in one place or unloading the dishwasher or doing 30 star jumps or something. To level up this part of the ritual going outside might be a nice thought.

The next and final thing on my ritual is to make a list. This is probably not for everyone. But I love lists. It doesn’t have to be a big list. Just a list that helps you to define your goals for the day. So a list could be: Make the bed, go outside, talk to a friend. Or it could be: Write 1000 words, plan a day out with your friends, search for post-grad jobs. Or it could be a mixture of the two. Or not like either. Just stuff that can be crossed off easily because crossing stuff of lists is very satisfying.

Other notes I’d make about morning rituals.

  • Don’t wake up and immediately look at your phone.
  • Make it a quiet and solo experience.
  • Eat something yummy that’ll keep you full and happy.
  • Do something in the mornings that you’ll look forward too – that way you’ll love waking up.

Okay that’s all for today. Tomorrow is going to be all about books because I’m streamlining my reading list! Get ready to learn about my ridiculous book obsession.