#1: Your Morning Routine

How was your morning? ☕️

I started mine with a quick trip to the bathroom—did a number one, washed my face, brushed my teeth, and applied sunscreen.

Next, I gulped a vitamin C capsule with one glass of cold water. Then, I sent a quick message to my loved ones to greet them good morning.

While sitting on the bed in silence, I opened Headspace for a 10-minute meditation session.

Right on time, my adorable chihuahua Ringo began barking, his way of telling me he's ready for his morning walk. I looked for his leash as he wagged his tail excitedly and we spent the next 10 minutes walking down the street (with him barking at every passerby).

After that, I wiped Ringo's face and paws with a wet cloth, refilled his water bowl, and cleaned his pee tray (it's near my desk so I won't be able to focus unless I get rid of the pungent smell).

By then I was ready for coffee! I had a cup of iced coffee waiting in the fridge, so yay for me.

I put my coffee mug on my now dusty crocheted coaster that probably needs washing, and journaled. I wrote what I'm letting go of, what I'm grateful for, and what I'll focus on for the day. Then I practiced my Christian faith by praising God with a couple of worship songs, morning prayer, and Bible reading. I ended this session with a page from Ryan Holiday's The Daily Stoic.

At this point, I opened the Scribbble app and drafted this post.

Despite what the productivity gurus and the booming morning routine genre on YouTube tells you, believe it or not, you already have a morning routine.

You read your emails during breakfast? You work out before drinking coffee? You scroll through Instagram, TikTok, or Twitter right after you pick up your phone to turn off your 6am alarm?

What you do in the first two hours after you wake up is your morning routine.

But you have a choice: will you go about your mornings on autopilot, doing what you've always done because you're used to it, or will you intentionally design a morning routine that inspires, motivates, and empowers you?

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Hi, and thanks for reading! I'm Kishly, a cheerleader of creatives and copywriter turned marketing strategist. Bookmark this blog to read my daily atomic essays on marketing, compassionate productivity, creative living, and lifelong learning. Or subscribe to Process, my weekly-ish newsletter for young adults (and the young at heart) in pursuit of wisdom and wonder. ✨