Even though we cannot always control whether we wake up on the right side of the bed every morning, there are habits that can help make our days more consistent. Here are some habits that have helped me start my day right and set me up for success. Keep in mind that this is in chronological order, but feel free to tweak it based on what works best for you!

Sleep early

I know I know, sleeping early is not exactly a morning habit, but this really does make a huge difference. Sleeping early can more or less guarantee that you’ll get enough rest time, helping you gain energy and putting you in a good mood first thing in the morning. To develop this habit, try turning on “Downtime” on your devices so that you won’t get distracted by social media when it’s close to bedtime. The app SleepTown also helps achieve the same purpose but through gamification. Additionally, your iPhone has a “Wind Down” feature to help you prepare for bed. 

Make your bed

Even though this seems insignificant, making your bed first thing after you get up can help you feel “productive” and accomplished. With this feeling, it becomes easier to do other tasks that you should do but didn’t really feel like doing before such as eating a healthy breakfast or planning out the rest of your day. 

Meditate

Not going to lie, before I started meditating, I thought it was a waste of time and that I could’ve allocated those few minutes to do more important tasks. After I started, though, I realized that the practice made me more grounded. Without constantly feeling anxious, I was able to proceed throughout my day more mindfully. Some of my favorite apps include Headspace and Calm (which also has a bunch of really calming white noise and nature sounds). 

Get dressed

Even though it does feel kind of pointless to get dressed every day when most of us are still stuck at home and not going anywhere, I’ve noticed that I tend to feel sluggish and lazy if I’m in my pajamas. Changing into “real clothes” acts like a mental switch that can help us transition to feeling better and brighter the rest of the day!

I hope these tips will be able to help you as much as they helped me, and even though building these habits will be difficult at first (it takes 66 days on average to implement one), they will definitely get easier with time and become second nature.