work from home morning routine

7 Tips For A Work From Home Morning Routine

Whether you’re pro-office or pro-work from home, you can’t deny that the latter makes mornings more relaxed. You’re not scrambling to rush out the door hoping to beat the morning rush traffic. Your commute is the ten steps from the bedroom to your home office. But even without the sense of urgency, you should still have a morning routine or ritual. Why? Because it’s good to establish a habit. It’s why most highly successful people stick to a routine and follow a schedule. 

So now let’s examine some not-so-obvious ways for establishing a good routine. Here we’re giving you 7 ways to create a work from home morning routine — and we’re not just talking about no-brainer tips like guzzling a cup of Folgers. These are real things you can do every morning, without adding more stress. 

1. Take time for yourself.

Let’s face it. Your entire workday will likely consist of email chains, zoom meetings, and to-do lists. So before you jump into the madness, take some time for yourself. You can choose to do whatever makes you feel best during this time — whether that may be taking some time to meditate, going for a nice walk outside, or even doing a virtual workout class from your apartment. Whatever it may be, taking time in the morning to regroup and connect with yourself, before the madness of the day kicks in, is one of the best ways to set yourself up to be more productive at home all day long.

2. Plan out your day.

Once you’ve taken time for yourself, it’s great to start your day with a plan. You can stay traditional and make your to-do list using pen and paper, or you can level up with a project management tool like Hive. Hive helps individuals and teams stay organized, manage tasks, and track deadlines so you always know what needs to be done on any given day.

One of the best ways to start the day is with Hive’s “My Actions” view. With this functionality, your tasks are automatically listed out right in front of you — grouped as due “Now” or “Later” — so you know exactly where you need to start for the day.

Hive My Actions View

One tip to make sure you don’t feel overwhelmed when you wake up? Take 15 minutes at the end of each workday to plan what needs to be done the following day. This will help you get ahead of your mornings, so you don’t start planning your day totally from scratch.

3. Make your coffee last longer.

We just said we wouldn’t mention drinking coffee, but this tip is an exception because it’s about how to drink coffee. Most people finish their morning coffee before heading out the door. Since you’re working from home, there’s no need to consume the entire cup in a single sitting.

However much coffee you drink, stretch it out so it lasts from the start of work until lunch time. With slower coffee-drinking in your work from home morning routine, you get a gradual intake of caffeine instead of all at once. This keeps you moderately energized throughout the day instead of a big energy jolt followed by a crash by the time it’s noon. The crash is partly why midday fatigue is so commonplace.

Alex Mastin, CEO of the coffee hobbyist site Home Grounds, had this to say about your morning cup of Joe: “Coffee is to be savored slowly, much the way you savor fine wine. If you’re worried about the coffee getting cold, then use a thermos or electric coffee mug warmer. By drinking slowly, you not only appreciate the texture and aroma with every sip, but you also get a sustained energy release that doesn’t leave you all shaky and jittery.”

Here’s a general rule: if you finish your coffee more than 30-minutes before lunch, then you’re drinking it too quickly. You should also be drinking about the same amount as you normally would. Some people may be tempted to consume an additional cup or two if they’re stretching it out over a three to four-hour period, but keep it the same.

4. Hydrate, hydrate, and hydrate some more.

Drink a lot of water in the morning. By a lot, we mean two to four cups. Have you noticed your first pee in the morning is more yellowish than usual? That’s because you’ve drank no water in the eight hours you were asleep. Drinking water also assists your kidneys in flushing out toxins from the night before.

Keven Lee, CEO of Journey Pure, explains why he believes drinking water is so important in the morning.

Most foods and beverages we consume on a daily basis contain toxins. Water assists in shuttling the impurities out of your system before they have a chance to wreak serious havoc on the body.”

Excess toxins lead to lethargy. You may not notice it because you’ve been living with it for so long that you’ve come to perceive it as normal. However, within days of increasing your water intake and limiting alcohol and sugary beverages, you’ll notice a perceptible difference in how you feel.

If water is too bland for you, then consider hot tea. Just be careful if you also drink coffee, as the combined caffeine content may make you jittery. 

5. Eat a good breakfast. 

Whatever you normally eat for breakfast, what alterations can you make to make it more natural? For example, if you normally eat hash browns, consider swapping it out with a baked potato. In lieu of using store-bought maple syrup, use a healthier variant like pure honey. If you eat Frosted Mini Wheats, switch to regular Mini Wheats without the sugary frost.

This is exactly the position advocated by Thrive Cuisine CMO Holly Mills. “As the saying goes ‘You are what you eat.’ If you want natural clean energy, then eat a clean breakfast. This doesn’t mean you have to eat a bland salad as your first meal of the day, but you should go natural as much as you can. Cut out the processed junk; the less ingredients your breakfast contains the better.”

Contrary to belief, eating clean doesn’t equate to eating boring. You can still mix and match your foods to create delicious combinations. Examples include a fruit medley with a bowl of steal-cut oats, or freshly squeezed orange juice with sliced bananas on rye toast over a spread of all-natural peanut butter. 

The point is when you eat wholesome foods, there isn’t a laundry list of preservatives that fatigues the body and fogs the brain. This will keep you focused when starring at a laptop screen for the remainder of the morning and all afternoon, as you likely are working from home.

6. Supercharge your coffee. 

Here’s another coffee-related advice. Some people consume energy drinks or energy shots in lieu of coffee. This is not recommended since these contain malic acid, which will destroy your teeth enamel over time. One advantage of energy drinks and shots, though, is that most brands contain the full spectrum of B-complex vitamins. While B vitamins aren’t a stimulant like caffeine, they do convert the foods you eat into ATP (adenosine triphosphate), which our body needs for energy.

Instead of guzzling a Monster or Red Bull to get your B vitamins, do what Majesty Coffee CMO Colin Palfrey suggests:

Use a B-complex vitamin supplement in liquid form and add a serving into your morning coffee. If you can only get the supplement in capsule form, then pop open the capsule and mix it into the coffee. As long as the brew is warm, the powder should dissolve nicely. You now have the benefits of B-vitamins without the harmful malic acid and other artificial ingredients found in energy drinks.”

On top of what Palfrey says, energy drinks also contain anhydrous caffeine, a synthetically derived form of the stimulant and not the natural caffeine found in coffee. It also helps to find a brand of B-vitamins that contain methylcobalamin as its form of B12 rather than the much more common cyanocobalamin, which is the synthetic form. Methylcobalamin is also more bio-available.

Note: We are not doctors, and our comments should not replace medical advice. Talk to your doctor if you have any questions or concerns about coffee additives.  

7. Nourish your brain.  

Do you still experience morning brain fog even by the time you sit down for work? Your brain needs sustenance that the typical egg and sausage breakfast doesn’t provide. If you happen to like your morning hash brown and fluffy eggs, then get your brain-boosting vitamins and minerals from a brain-energy supplement. You should consult your doctor before making any decisions about supplements, but here are some things to consider. 

Go with an all-natural product without synthetic or proprietary blends. If you think nootropic supplements are rooted in pseudo-science, independent studies have supported the validity of nootropics for enhancing cognitive function. 

According to Eu Natural CEO Vinay Amin, the brain requires certain vitamins and minerals much the same way muscle requires protein. “The brain is practically a muscle, and a muscle that’s hardly exercised anymore due to modern conveniences like social media and YouTube. Nootropics aren’t a cure-all, but with daily morning doses, it does stimulate the brain, helping that light bulb switch on in your head when deep in thought.

What are some good nutrients for the brain? Amin recommends natural herbal extracts, such as turmeric, ginkgo biloba, ashwagandha, and Boswellia serrata. These ingredients have all been extensively studied in independent peer-reviewed research.

Well, there you have it, some sound advice to revamp your work from home morning routine now that your home doubles as your workspace. Follow some or all of the advice. Make these practices habitual, and you’ll notice your day just might feel more fruitful.