10 Morning Habits of Highly Successful People

Last Updated on March 17, 2017 by Diane Hoffmaster

I am a morning person.  There are a number of people who think that morning is the worst time of the entire day.  They drag themselves crankily out of bed and drink 4 cups of coffee before cracking their eyes halfway open to greet the day.  While I don't wake up singing, I definitely hit the ground running when I get up in the morning.  It is my most productive time of day and getting my to do list done early leaves me feeling positive the whole day through.  Your morning habits have a huge impact on your mental outlook as well as your physical being.  According to Forbes, morning people are successful people.  Studies have shown that your willpower is the strongest first thing in the morning. You are most productive early in the morning before exhaustion and other priorities get in your way. So, stop hitting the snooze button and adopt these 10 morning habits of highly successful people!

10 Morning Habits of Highly Successful People

Get up earlier:  Set your alarm clock for 1 hour before you really need to be awake.  DON'T hit the snooze button.  Drag your tired butt out of bed and start tackling your to do list.  This might mean that you need to head to bed a littler earlier than usual.  That is okay, too! Turn off the television and get a good night sleep to help develop good morning habits.

Make a to do list:  Use that extra hour in the morning to help plan out your day.  You cannot be successful without a plan.  Write down realistic goals for the day.  Prioritize them so the most important ones get done first.  Visualize your day and decide what you need to accomplish in order to call that day a success.

Re prioritize your to do list:  That to do list you just made?  Rearrange it.  Put the MOST dreaded thing on the top of your to do list.  The thing you have no desire to do but have to anyhow?  That one needs to be done FIRST.  You will feel awesome knowing that you accomplished it first thing in the morning!  Check out Brian Tracy’s classic time-management book called Eat That Frog to see why you need to do this.

Take time for mindfulness:  Take a few minutes in the morning to focus on mindful living.  Practice yoga, deep breathing, meditation, etc to help you calm your mind and focus your thoughts.  Visualizing your day and focusing your mind are morning habits that will help relax you and let you tackle the stress of the day with renewed energy.

Eat a healthy breakfast:  Breakfast is one of those morning habits that will help sustain your for hours.  You cannot tackle a busy day with energy and enthusiasm without food.  You have fasted all night.  You now need food and liquid to refuel your body.  Coffee is not breakfast!  Choose whole grains, lots of protein, fruit and other nutritious breakfast foods for energy that will last for hours.

Exercise:  You don't need to run 10 miles every morning in order to get motivated.  A brisk walk, 20 minutes on the exercise bike, or 30 minutes of yoga will help get your blood pumping and give you energy to tackle the day! Invest in a fitness tracker to keep track of your daily activity levels.

Spend 10 minutes de-cluttering: De-cluttering your life will help you stay focused on what needs to be done.  Toss your junk mail, put away yesterday's shoes, and get rid of anything else that doesn't belong on your counters.  Don't look at something and tell yourself 'I really need to put that away'.  Get up and actually do it!

Stay informed about current events:  I have always said that first impressions can never be remade.  An educated and well informed person can hold an intelligent conversation with anyone on a variety of topics.  You don't need a degree from Harvard to be educated.  Read a newspaper or magazine.  And I am not talking about fluff articles about improving your sex life.  Read up on current events and the world around you.  The next time you are at a social gathering, you may very well be chatting with your next future boss!  Make a good impression!

Set goals and put first things first:  How will you ever achieve your goals if you don't know what they are?  Write them down.  Don't be vague here...write down a specific achievable goal and create bullet points of exactly how you are going to achieve that goal.  Your morning should be spent doing at least one thing that will help you achieve that goal.  Want a new job?  Work on your resume.  Want to save enough money for a house?  Balance the checkbook and check out interest rates on home loans.  Want to retire early?  Start researching how to do that.  Use your morning to achieve the goals you are most passionate about.

Don't tackle your whole email inbox:  This sounds counter intuitive to successful morning habits, right?  Shouldn't you WANT to clean out your inbox?  No, because you will waste your entire morning on random, useless emails when your energy level is highest.  Tackle only the most urgent emails, and then walk away from the computer.  Work on the other morning habits listed here first.  THEN, come back to your email later in the day when your motivation level is lower.  Email is a rather mindless chore and can usually be dealt with when tired and unmotivated!

Morning is the best time of the day so develop good morning habits now!

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Diane Hoffmaster

Diane is a professional blogger and nationally certified pharmacy technician at Good Pill Pharmacy.  She has two college aged kids, one husband and more pets than she will admit to. She earned her BS in Microbiology at the University of New Hampshire  but left her career in science to become a stay at home mom. Years of playing with LEGO and coloring with crayons had her craving a more grown up purpose to her life and she began blogging and freelance writing full time.  You can learn more about her HERE.