If I had a dollar for every time I wrote out my morning routine goals only to quickly abandon them a couple of days later, I would be a very very rich woman.
My intentions are always good- start using a morning routine to better my mental and physical health, create structure in my life, build good habits, and reduce my overall stress levels. But no matter how good (or strong) those intentions are, I always fall off of the morning routine wagon in about 2 days, or even less sometimes.
Sound familiar?
But why? Why can’t we keep our routines and our plans for ourselves? Why does it feel so impossible some days to get out of bed, let alone do a whole big to-do list?
I’ve struggled with this my whole life, and I think I’ve finally cracked the code. The answer? Instead of trying to use my morning routine to overcome my mental health issues, work alongside my mental health issues.
Let me show you how.
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What are the perks of a morning routine?
Real quick, before we get further into the steps, let’s chat about why and how a morning routine can help you.
Our brains loooove structure. They love to know what to expect.
Especially if you struggle with depression or anxiety, you are probably aware that unfamiliar situations or unknowns can trigger our ‘fight or flight’ responses and greatly increase our anxiety levels.
So if we are starting each day in an unstructured way flying by the seat of our pants, then we are immediately pushing our brains into that anxiety ridden state, which can really lay out the path for our days. Not so great, right?
Giving ourselves a healthy and predictable start to the day can truly help our brains work better, increase dopamine (the happy hormone), and increase the likelihood of us having a good day.
Step 1: Be honest with yourself about your situation.
I struggle with depression, anxiety, and ADHD.
And while developing structure and routine can help all of these things be more manageable, I used to approach it with this idea that I could just jump into a morning routine and do it every day and then my mental health would be better.
But I was forgetting one important thing: I still have mental health issues. Deciding to start a new morning routine does not immediately dismiss my depression or my anxiety or my ADHD.
Instead, I have to figure out how to work with my struggles and make progress as I go. Ideal? No. But crucial? Very much so.
This means that instead of hoping that I’ll feel excited to get out of bed every morning to start my day, or assuming that I’ll sleep well every night and the morning will go off without a hitch, I need to be honest about the potential of road blocks.
If you struggle with depression, then there will likely be mornings where it’s hard to get out of bed or feels like such a chore to do simple things like brush your teeth.
If you struggle with anxiety, there might be mornings where you feel exhausted because your mind kept you up all night.
Each mental health struggle can create unique circumstances for you and your brain, but being honest with yourself about these is an important first step in creating a manageable routine.
And having mental health issues does not mean that you will never be able to successfully manage a morning routine, it just means that your approach may be different than all the (very unrealistic) morning routine videos you see online. And that’s okay.
Step 2: Figure out your optimal mindset morning routine
We’re starting at the top here- trust me on this and go with me on this little journey.
To start, write out your ideal morning routine. We’re going to call this your optimal mindset routine. This is basically the morning routine that you’ve probably written out before- what you would do each morning if you felt great, had tons of motivation and energy, and plenty of time.
Here’s an example:
Whatever is on your ideal morning routine, write it out and keep that list handy!
If you’re looking for ideas on habits to add to your morning routine list, I have a separate blog post you can read here!
Read the post: 8 Morning Routine Habits You Need to Adopt
Step 3: Figure out your average mindset morning routine.
This morning routine is going to be the one that you will probably use on most days. It’s going to use the routine you came up with in Step 2, but account for the fact that you may wake up and want to have a routine, but not feel like going above and beyond.
So using what you wrote down as your optimal morning routine, tweak it to figure out what things could or should be cut out for those days when you aren’t feeling so ambitious. Maybe you shorten your morning workout, or you skip writing out your to-do list, or you skip your makeup and hair routine and keep it simple.
Here’s an example:
Step 4: Figure out your low-energy morning routine.
Now that you’ve got your optimal and your average mindset morning routines, it’s time to account for those really low days. Those days where it’s hard to get out of bed, the idea of doing a bunch of tasks feels overwhelming, and you’re struggling to be a human. These days do happen, and that’s okay.
For your low-energy morning routine, take your list and tweak it even more. Cross out everything that isn’t necessary or realistic on those really bad days.
This will be your routine for your low-energy days. Basically on these days, you are doing the bare minimum but still allowing yourself to keep a healthy routine. So you may not plan out your day and journal and make a big breakfast, but you managed to get out of bed and brush your teeth and your hair, and that’s a win!
Wrapping things up
Now you should have 3 morning routines that you can use no matter what your mindset.
So many people assume that anyone and everyone can just decide to start a super intense morning routine and carry it out successfully, but the truth is that for people like us who struggle with mental health, this just isn’t realistic. And that’s okay!
By being honest with yourself about what you can do, you are taking the first step toward healing and progress. I’m so proud of you!
Have any other tips for someone creating a manageable routine? Let me know in the comments!
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