
Question: Why do you need a low energy morning routine?
Answer: Because you’re human.
If you want to create a sustainable morning routine, it’s important to be honest about your needs and abilities. And that reality, for many of us, is that we just don’t always have the bandwidth for long, productive mornings.
So being able to have a low energy morning routine that you can turn to on these days is the best way to set yourself up for success.
Whether you’re struggling with depression, are stretched too thin, or are just not a morning person, you can and likely will struggle with low energy mornings.
If we all had full energy levels and maximum motivation everyday, this world would be a much different place.
But on at least one day in the not so distant future, you will likely wake up and feel…. very ‘meh’.
On this day, you will have a choice.
Option 1: Skip the morning routine completely and lay in bed continuing to feel ‘meh’.
Option 2: Turn to your low energy morning routine and accomplish some healthy habits without exerting much energy.
We of course all have days where Option 1 feels like the best choice, but I think we also all know that Option 2 is the winner.
So let me show you how to set up your low energy morning routine so that when that morning comes, you’re prepared!
- Step 1: Identify your ‘must do’ habits
- Step 2: Figure out what things help you feel better on low energy days
- Step 3: Figure out how much time you realistically have
- Step 4: Figure out how long each morning item will take you.
- Step 5: Put it all together
- Tip for setting yourself up for low energy mornings:
REAL QUICK: If you want the worksheet version of this blog post where you can work along with it, you can grab that for free here: DOWNLOAD THE WORKSHEET
Step 1: Identify your ‘must do’ habits
Even on low energy days, there might be some non-negotiable things you have to do in the morning to make yourself feel good.
It’s important for wellbeing and personal growth to keep up with certain healthy habits, even when it’s hard. However, it’s also totally fine to scale back on days when you just can’t handle it all. It’s about finding a balance.
I talk in-depth about this in my post How to Design a Morning Routine that Matches Your Motivation (and Actually Lasts), but one of the easiest ways to design a low energy morning routine is to figure out what your ‘optimal mindset’ morning routine is, and then work down from there.
So for example, if you know what your ideal morning routine habits are, for example:
- Make the bed
- Do a full skincare routine
- Make a healthy breakfast
- Workout for 30 minutes
then you can identify what EASIER versions of these habits might be for low energy mornings. So this might look like:
- Pulling the covers up instead of fully making the bed
- Putting on moisturizer & sunscreen instead of doing a full skincare routine
- Grabbing a quick breakfast from the cabinet instead of cooking breakfast
- Stretching for 5 minutes instead of doing a full workout
By allowing ourselves simpler, more bite-sized versions of these healthy habits, we are still doing things we need to do for our wellbeing, but giving ourselves some breathing rooms for days when life just feels too overwhelming.
Step 2: Figure out what things help you feel better on low energy days
Having a low energy morning routine is of course a great way to cut yourself some slack on days when you just aren’t feeling your best.
But they’re also an opportunity for self care. If you wake up feeling less than ideal, why not add a little something (something easy of course) into your morning routine that will help boost your mood or at least help you feel more put-together.
Here are a few ideas:
- Light your favorite candle while you get ready
- Take a few extra minutes to cuddle with your pet
- Treat yourself to coffee from your favorite coffeeshop
- Listen to music while you get ready
- A quick meditation using an app like Headspace (only takes a few minutes!)
- Take a long shower or bath
- Read for a few minutes
There are countless self care items you can do, depending on how much time you have.
Find something that you know makes you feel a little better, a little cozier, or a little more confident, and enjoy it!
If you’re in a rush but want to implement some more self care into your life, there are a few ideas here: 6 Self Care Ideas for Busy People
Step 3: Figure out how much time you realistically have
Typically the mornings I wake up with low energy are also the mornings I tend to hit snooze a few extra times.
The lack of energy is what keeps me in bed longer than usual and makes it harder to wake up and do anything.
So when you’re designing your low energy morning routine, figure out how much time you would realistically have on days like these.
Maybe you only have 30 minutes compared to your normal hour, or maybe you still have an hour, it’s just not going to be spent as productively as normal.
You might even have different versions of timeframes (example: an hour for normal mornings, or 30 minutes if you snoozed a few extra times).
Step 4: Figure out how long each morning item will take you.
Take your list from Steps 1 and 2 and write a little note next to each one that says how long each task will take. There’s a spot for this on the worksheet if you downloaded that!
So for example, it might look something like this:

With this, you can either be ultra specific (this task will take me 1.5 minutes), or give yourself increments of 5 for a little wiggle room (5, 10, 15 minutes, etc)
Step 5: Put it all together
You now have the list of the things you want to do on these low energy mornings, you know how much time you have, and you know how long each task will take.
Now you just need to fit everything in.
If you have 30 minutes available, and the tasks you wrote out take only 20 minutes, then that’s great! You can give yourself more time to be still in the mornings, do things at a slower pace, or add in some more self care habits!
On the other hand, if you only have 30 minutes and your tasks total up to 45 minutes, then figure out what isn’t necessary for these days. Feeling rushed does NOT help us on bad days, so we want to avoid that at all costs.
So on a day where you’re short for time, is there a habit you can skip? Should you wake up earlier (or avoid hitting snooze)? Could you try habit stacking with any of the things on your list?
Fit everything together the best you can- it’s like a cozy little morning puzzle!
Tip for setting yourself up for low energy mornings:
When we are in super good moods and set goals, we tend to have this confidence that we will ALWAYS feel like keeping up our good habits.
So by going into it with this mindset, when low energy days come around, we are kind of left of out of luck.
Being prepared for low energy days is a crucial part of maintaining balance in your life, and setting yourself up for success.
I know it can suck to admit that you will have bad days, but you’re human. It will happen.
So how can you prepare for this? Look at the low energy morning routine you created and figure out what things you need to make this happen.
I’m going to use my example from Step 1 to show you what I mean.
As a reminder, here is the low energy habits list from that example:
- Pulling the covers up instead of fully making the bed
- Putting on moisturizer & sunscreen instead of doing a full skincare routine
- Grabbing a quick breakfast from the cabinet instead of cooking breakfast
- Stretching for 5 minutes instead of doing a full workout
So from this list, one thing I could do to prepare is have quick breakfast options on-hand for these low energy mornings. Maybe some oatmeal cups or granola bars so that if I don’t have the time or energy to cook, I still have a healthy breakfast I can turn to easily.
If I didn’t have these quick breakfasts on-hand, I would be sooooo much more likely to go get a doughnut or skip breakfast altogether.
By giving yourself some room to have bad days, it will help you recover faster so you can get back to normal ‘optimal mindset’ days sooner.
You will inevitably face a low energy morning at some point, we all do. But by acknowledging that those days will come along, and being prepared for them, you are going to be just find.
One of the biggest things that can knock people off of their wagons when it comes to building good habits is running forward with the assumption that the conditions will always be perfect. Then when they hit a snag, it causes everything to unravel.
By setting up these plans ahead of time, you’re ensuring that when you hit a bump in the road (in this case, a low energy morning), you are going to be to get through it and keep going.
I love your feedback on these posts, and want to hear from you- what’s something you do on low energy mornings that helps you? Or what is something that you would like to implement going forward? Let me know in the comments!
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