My Morning Routine: 5 Tips For People Who Hate Mornings
REAL TALK — I’M NOT A MORNING PERSON.
But in the recent years, I’ve learned to be one. I’ve found that on the days that I do manage to get up early and get my day going, I feel so much more productive. I work a full time job and have to be up early during the week, but I know that a lot of you readers are on summer break, and don’t have tons going on in the morning. Whether you’re just wanting to add a little bit of extra structure in your life, or need to get up early for school or work, these 5 simple steps will really help you out in the morning.
Power Off
Do yourself a favor and start off your “morning” routine at about 11pm the night before with a good night’s sleep. I know that personally, if I don’t get around 7-8 hours of sleep I’m a nightmare, so at the very least I try to shut off my computer and switch my phone to night mode at around 10:30/11:00. Giving yourself 30 minutes to an hour to wind down sans technologie really does improve your overall sleep.
2. Wake Up Call
Actually waking up might just be the most difficult part of my morning, and I’m sure that most of you can relate. For the other 7 hours during the night, I’m the lightest sleeper ever, but for some reason between the hours of 6:30-7:30 am I sleep like a rock. So, I usually end up setting a million alarms in hope that one of them will wake me up… Ok but in all seriousness, I really do set 5 alarms in the morning, and it usually takes all of them to actually wake me up. With that said, I’ve found that the more I hit snooze in the morning, the harder it is to get out of bed. So a word of advice: try to get out of bed as soon as you hear the first alarm. The longer you wait, the harder it is to get up.
3. Skincare
After I get up and brush my teeth, the first thing I do without a doubt every single morning is wash my face with cold water. Not only does this instantly wake me up, but the cold water also increases circulation and helps with puffiness and undereye circles (both of which I definitely suffer from in the am). After cleansing my skin with the Milky Jelly Cleanser by Glossier, I’ll go in with a Vitiman C serum to prep my face. Vitiman C helps to brighten and even out your skin, so it’s a definite must in the morning for me. At the moment, I love the Super Glow Serum by Glossier, as well as the Vitiman C Concentrated Serum by Derma E — both are great options.
This next step most of my friends roll their eyes at, but it’s one that I swear makes a difference. Immediately after applying my serum, before my face is completely dry, I’ll go all over my face with my rose quartz face roller. After doing tons of research on rose quartz (I’ll link an article here), I was intrigued by the benefits and wanted to give it a try. Rose quartz is known to help improve circulation and pull inflamation from the body, and is also extremely cooling on the skin. While I haven’t been using it for long enough to confirm all of the benefits, I can say that it feels amazing, and instantly brightens and tightens my skin.
Finally, I’ll go in with the Fresh Rose Deep Hydration Moisturizer as well as the Glossier Daily Sunscreen (super important), do my makeup, and I’m done.
*after writing all of this out I realize that it sounds like a lot, but I swear all of this combined takes 10 minutes tops!*
Regardless of how much time you have in the morning, I really reccomend dedicating a few minutes to your skincare routine. Especially if you wear makeup, it really is so important to take care of your skin and make sure that it’s clean, hydrated and protected from the sun. Get on a good skin care regime when you’re young, and I promise you’ll thank yourself later!
4. Outfit Time
If I’m being really productive, I’ll set an outfit aside the night before and have it ready to go, or at least come up with something in my head. Usually is not the case. Sometimes it’s actually better to be in a rush when choosing an outfit because if you’re anything like me and you have the time, you will turn your entire closet upsidown, try on 20 different outfits (and still end up going with the first one… of course).
Luckily I’ve started to learn from this, and my new rule of thumb is that if I can’t come up with an outfit, I’ll just go for some boyfriend jeans, white sneaks and a tee-shirt or tank. Super simple, but still cute.
5. Breakfast & Coffee *of course*
By now, I’m usually pretty rushed, so I really don’t ever have time to eat breakfast at home. I wish this was at least a little more impressive, but usually I’ll just take a bagel or some toast on the road with me. Boring, I know.
If I have the time, I’ll make my fav smoothie ever
1 banana
1/2 (ish) cup of strawberries
1 tablespoon of hempseeds
1-2 handfuls of spinach
A splash of almond milk (to taste)
*blend all of the ingredients together, et voilà!*
Finally, I’m not myself without a cup of coffee. If you see me before I’m fully caffinated, I’m truly sorry. My go-to drink has and will always be an almond milk latte — better than real milk I swear. This last, but nevertheless crucial step in the mornng is what really jumpstarts my day.
So, there you have it. My morning routine in five simple steps.
How do you like to get your day started? Let me know in the comment section.
xx,
seb.
