In contrast, you give a swing morning a little nudge and it gets into the groove – every day in the same, relaxed and routine way. This time belongs to you, because you consciously take it for yourself. With this positive momentum, your productivity really gets going right in the morning.

Sounds good? If you would rather swing productively into the day in the morning, instead of being a plaything of events, we have eight tips for you here:

1) From passenger to pilot of your life

Most people start their day reactively. For 78 percent of all smartphone users, the look into the smartphone falls in the first 15 minutes after waking up. [2][2] International study on smartphone behaviour: Global mobile consumer trends 2017 Instagram, WhatsApp and Co. demand our attention, urge us to answer, and influence our mood. If you behave reactively, you let yourself be distracted instead of deciding yourself: Before you are properly awake, you are already influenced by the lives of others.

In addition, your smartphone bombards you with things that are outside your influence. You can't end wars, and whether there is a new addition to the British Royal Family is also not in your hands.

2) Swing the pen 

When we think of the word diary, we quickly think of adolescent girls who bite their ballpoint pens, admire boy band posters on the wall, and write their longings out of their souls. With that, they intuitively felt what is now well scientifically proven: journaling, the repeated writing down of thoughts, feelings, and experiences, reduces stress and prevents mental illnesses. [3][3] Study: Writing feels good University of Cambridge (2005) Emotional and physical health benefits of expressive writing

Journaling proves to be particularly beneficial for mental health when the focus is directed towards gratitude. According to Martin Seligman, the founder of Positive Psychology, everyone can increase their personal happiness through gratitude-focused writing [4][4] Gratitude-focused writing works wonders Martin Seligman, Tracy A. Steen, Nansook Park, Christopher Peterson (2005) Positive psychology progress: empirical validation of interventions .

Writing by hand matters, too: According to a study by Princeton University [5][5] Better to write than type FAZ (2016) Who writes, remembers students were able to remember content better if they took their notes with a pen instead of a laptop – and thus increase their productivity. By putting positive thoughts into writing in the morning, they burn into your head particularly well and thus support you in tackling the day in a good mood and productively.

3) Use your willpower supply cleverly

For the perfect productive morning routine, a concept from psychology helps us: The social psychologist Roy Baumeister found that our ability for self-control is a limited resource – this means that every day only a certain amount of it is available to us [6][6] Willpower is limited: Baumeister, R.F., Muraven. M. & Tice, M.D. (2000) Ego Depletion: A Resource Model of Volition, Self-Regulation, and Controlled Processing. Social Cognition: Vol. 18, Social Ignition: The Interplay of Motivation and Social Cognition, pp. 130-150 . Making decisions, postponing rewards, or suppressing anger challenges our self-control. And that costs energy every time.

If you open your overcrowded wardrobe in the morning and try on ten outfits, until you finally grumpily dig your favourite shirt out of the laundry, a whole lot of your daily ration of self-control is already consumed – and you turn into a smoke-belching monster before the day even really starts.

Since you need your self-control all day long, you shouldn't waste it unnecessarily. The fewer small decisions you have to make in the morning, the more effectively you make the important and difficult decisions later in the day.

4) Make room in your head 

The magic word to prevent premature exhaustion of self-control is planning. There are quite a few things that can be planned perfectly already the evening before, such as:

• What should I wear?
• What's for breakfast?
• What exercise will I do and for how long?
• What do I need to take to work?
• When do I have to leave?

Having already made all these decisions can help you to let your swing morning swing productively: Instead of sinking into chaos, you remove some hurdles of everyday life through good planning before they can make you stumble.

The first morning hour is the steering wheel of the day. – Augustinus Aurelius

5) Get going through calm

With us, meditation is now firmly part of the office routine – because through that you can exhale stress and inhale productivity. If there is no quiet corner at your work, then after waking up is the perfect moment to recharge your productivity battery for the day: Now you can create the necessary calm to go into yourself for a moment. With regular meditation, you not only increase your productivity, but also improve your compassion [7][7] Study: More empathy through meditation Northeastern University College of Science (2013) Can meditation make you a more compassionate person? and your health [8][8] Study Meditation protects against diseases Annals of Family Medicine (2012) Meditation or Exercise for Preventing Acute Respiratory Infection: A Randomized Controlled Trial .

6) Morning exercise pays off

Even if it's hard: There are very good reasons to exercise in the morning. Studies show that even 20 minutes of exercise in the morning leads to a significantly improved memory and more effective information processing for the rest of the day . [9][9] Study: What morning exercise brings: US National Library of Medicine (2003) Effects of acute bouts of exercise on cognition

In addition, morning movement ensures better sleep. So in a study, sleep quality after a 30-minute workout at different times was tested. The test subjects worked out at 7 a.m., 1 p.m., and 7 p.m. The 7 a.m. group had the most intense and longest sleep as well as the best blood pressure values. [10][10] Study: Morning exercise is good for the body BMJ Journals (2010) Effects of exercise timing on sleep architecture and nocturnal blood pressure in prehypertensives

With a short morning workout session, you are thus perfectly set up for a productive day and your health. An invigorating yoga workout for your morning is available here: 

7) Silence: your quiet friend

Of the 300,000 years that modern humans have existed, we have woken up in silence for almost 296,000 years. Whether cave, mud house, or leafy canopy, it was comparatively quiet. As quickly as our environment has changed in the last centuries, evolution has not kept up: We are mostly still the same. Trams, smartphones, and smoothie blenders disturb our primal need for silence.

How important this need is, science has long recognised: Calmness promotes creativity and increases resilience. Noise, on the other hand, leads to stress and discomfort. [11][11] Seeking calm is worth it: Silence is like a holiday for the brain . In addition, silence makes you more productive. [12][12] Study Take a break sometime Science Direct (2013) A test of the quiet hour as a time management technique

So take a moment in the morning besides exercise, writing, or eating breakfast, just for yourself and your thoughts –  and ideally completely free from acoustic stimuli.

Man has no time when he does not take time to have time. – Ladislaus Boros

8) How sleep affects your morning

Morning people have a decisive advantage: public life takes place then when they are at their peak. Evening people, who only get really active towards the end of the day, have to pull themselves out of bed in the morning, and their productive evening phase often goes to waste.

Whether at 6 or 10 a.m.: regardless of the time, we benefit in the morning from getting up earlier than necessary and using the time gained for ourselves.

Shortly after waking up, the concentration of cortisol in the blood increases and prepares the body for an active phase [13][13] The hormones in the morning use University of Regensburg/University of Trier (2000) The cortisol awakening response - normal values and confounds . You can optimally use this momentum for your morning routine. To not confuse your body, it also helps to always get up at the same time. Only this way can you find a fixed rhythm. Sleeping until noon on the weekend is only a good idea at first glance – even if it sounds harsh: Your swing morning only really gets going with a regular sleep rhythm!

Conclusion

It takes time to firmly anchor new habits. No one will be able to successfully integrate all these tips into their life from today to tomorrow. Start small and increase over time. You'll see how your morning slowly swings up and gives your day the necessary productive momentum.

If you want practical ideas to finally build your new morning routine – without struggle and strain – you will find in this post eight scientifically sound tips.

____________________

This post is by Frauke Harlis. She loves writing just as much as psychology and has studied both. When she is not typing or entertaining her two offspring, she lies on the deck of her houseboat and looks for cloud shapes.

Sources:

[1] Distraction leads to errors at work:The impact of a set of interventions to reduce interruptions and distractions to nurses during medication administration

[2] International study on smartphone use: Global mobile consumer trends 2017

[3] Writing feels good: Emotional and physical health benefits of expressive writing

[4] Gratitude-focused writing works wonders: Positive psychology progress: empirical validation of interventions

[5] Better to write than to type: Who writes, remembers

[6] Willpower is limited: Baumeister, R.F., Muraven. M. & Tice, M.D. (2000) Ego Depletion: A Resource Model of Volition, Self-Regulation, and Controlled Processing. Social Cognition: Vol. 18, Social Ignition: The Interplay of Motivation and Social Cognition, pp. 130-150

[7] More empathy through meditation: Can meditation make you a more compassionate person?

[8] Meditation protects against illness: Meditation or Exercise for Preventing Acute Respiratory Infection: A Randomized Controlled Trial

[9] What morning exercise brings: Effects of acute bouts of exercise on cognition

[10] Morning exercise is good for the body: Effects of exercise timing on sleep architecture and nocturnal blood pressure in prehypertensives

[11] It pays to seek quiet: Silence is like a holiday for the brain

[12] Take a break now and then: A test of the quiet hour as a time management technique

[13] Use the morning hormones: The cortisol awakening response - normal values and confounds