How to kickstart your day

I am not a morning person. Never have been and never will be. My bed is my best friend and I love to sleep, hit that snooze button and just dose off a bit longer. But that is not the most productive start of your day. Surely sometimes, I like to have a good lie in, but on most mornings I have to be up and running at 6 AM to get to work on time. Here’s how I do it!

One of the steps = having breakfast

So the question is how to kick yourself in the butt so you can be up and running an out the door in a jiffy. This will not be a full morning routine, but let me know if you’d be interested in seeing that. I’m thinking of making a video out of it and I’d like to know if anyone would like me to do such a thing. But there’s a few things I’ve started doing that have turned this slowpoke in the morning into a much more productive person.

1.) Don’t hit the snooze button

Setting an alarm clock and then hitting the snooze button was something I did for years. I’m not sure what made me stop, but one day to the next I decided to just not do it anymore. When my alarm clock goes off, I get up straight away. I find this helps to activate my brain: I feel less drowsy. And for some reason my biorhythm is a lot more manageable this way and I find myself waking up 5 – 10 minutes before the alarm buzzes on most days.

2.) Have breakfast

The best way to kickstart your day is to add some fuel to the fire. You need to make sure you get that engine running so it can keep you running for the rest of the day. Now, you don’t have to go and have yourself a full cooked English breakfast by any means. But having something, no matter how small, will allow your metabolism to get into gear and get going. I’ve tried many different breakfasts and I love oatmeal porridge, overnight oats, French ‘whipped’ cheese (a type of cottage cheese) with some fruit. Just this week I decided to get back into the habit of having a glass of beetroot juice in the morning before I eat something as that should help your digestive system even more.

3.) Wake up your brain

Not only your stomach needs to get going in the morning, so does your brain. I like to take my time to have breakfast: 15 – 20 minutes and while I eat I read beauty blogs. It’s not too taxing and difficult to process. It’s something that is positive and fun, yet at the same time it allows my brain to wake up and start processing impressions. If you’re not into blogs, you could read a paper, magazine or watch a news broadcast. Whatever helps you to boot that grey matter into action.

4.) Do something for yourself, even if it’s just 5 minutes

For me, this would be doing my make up. You could also listen to your favorite song, read a bit in your favorite book, take a shower, etc. Whatever it is you do, no matter how long or short you do it for, doing something for just you before you head out the door will help you to start your day feeling refreshed and confident. Try not to have it be some addictive game on your phone. In fact, I’d advise you to not involve any electronics with this step if you can.

5.) Get active

Last but not least, getting your body moving is a great way to round off everything you’ve just done. Sure you can get into your car, drive off and get to work just fine, but perhaps you could take the stairs instead of the elevator in your building, or perhaps you can go walk your dog. Personally I walk to the station to get to work every day and on Saturdays I will first go out to get groceries and then go out for a workout. I just love to do something in the morning, even if it’s just short, 15 minute walk, to try and get those 10,000 steps.

How do you kickstart your day?