The Success of Your Morning Routine Starts the Night Before
Meeting opportunity with preparation
I recently wrote about the success I’ve had using the Alarmy app to get out of bed but this doesn’t necessarily stop me from hopping straight back into bed.
I’ve found that preparing my clothes the evening before has a direct influence on my ability to stay up after getting up and I realised this after I decided to start jumping rope…
In January, I bought a skipping rope and planned to jump rope for 30 minutes in the morning as soon as I woke up. And for the first two weeks of the new year this is exactly what I did.
And then in the final two weeks of January, I didn’t jump rope once.
Now this is a pretty common occurrence if you lack self-discipline, like me.
We have the full intention of adopting a new routine or starting some positive behaviour change and shortly after this falls by the wayside.
I had the full intention of jumping rope in the morning to get in a workout, get the blood pumping, and burn 400 calories before the day even starts.
I’m also pretty ok at jumping rope for some weird reason, but I was unable to turn this desired behaviour into a habit, why?
I thought nothing had changed. I was still getting up at 7am so it’s not like I skipped this behaviour for extra sleep (excuse the pun).
But something had changed. In the beginning, right before I jumped into bed I would take my workout clothes and place them on the floor next to the bathroom.
This was my first outfit of the day and there it was ready and waiting for me as soon as I finished taking a picture of my sink (if that sounds weird to you then read my post about Alarmy).
This tiny little action the night before meant that I would just grab the skipping rope and get in a 30 minute workout right after waking up.
And then I stopped preparing my workout clothes the night before. Not because I didn’t want to, but because I didn’t remember to. I guess that in itself is a new behaviour that wasn’t yet a habit.
And what happened? I stopped jumping rope in the morning.
Now you might be thinking, why didn’t I just go into my bedroom and get my workout gear as soon as I realised I had forgotten to leave it out.
Two reasons:
I’m lazy, clearly
If I go rummaging through my drawers in the pitch black whilst my wife is still asleep this is not going to go well for me
I only realised this was the case when I reflected on why I wasn’t jumping rope in the mornings anymore even after I had found it so easy and rewarding in the beginning.
This tiny action of leaving my workout gear out the night before made it easy.
Atomic Habit law number 3 - ‘Make It Easy’ really showing its truth here.
So how does this little story of me trying to jump rope relate to waking up early, not hitting snooze and building healthy morning habits?
In the evening, right before crawling into bed, get your outfit from the wardrobe or drawers and set it out ready.
Want to workout after you wake up? Get your workout clothes ready and lined up including socks and trainers.
Want to walk the dog as soon as you wake up? Get your hat and scarf ready the night before and put the dog lead there too.
Whatever you want to do first in the morning, make it as easy as possible by preparing your clothes the night before.
Tonight I’ll prepare my workout clothes ready for a 30 min rope skipping session.
One morning you will forget to do this, as I did, and you’ll come to realise you made it harder to do the thing you want to do in the morning through lack of preparation not a lack of willingness.
The success of your morning routine starts the night before.