A slow and intentional morning routine is something I really rely on to carry me through the day. I try to do things that set me up for a productive but low-stress day and I find that if I skip a few things, it totally throws me off for the next 24 hours.

Here’s a look at my typical morning when I do things “right”:

I try to avoid spending my first waking hours on my phone and instead keep a book on my nightstand so I have something to read before I’m ready to get out of bed. Then once I get up, I let the pups out and make the bed. To me, the act of making the bed is the first thing I can do in the day to have a little control of my surroundings. Clutter makes me feel unbalanced and distracted so I spend a bit of time first thing in the morning each day just getting a few things in their place so they don’t nag me and pull me away from work later on.

After making the bed, I open all the blinds (windows too if it’s warm outside), tidy up in the living room or anywhere there might be a few things needing to be put away, and I do any lingering dishes from the night before and clean the kitchen counters. I love letting light in right away so it really feels like the day is getting started.

Next, I take the dogs for a walk. We live near a park so it’s perfect for a calm, people-free walk in the mornings and I can easily look out the window to make sure it’s not busy before gearing up the dogs. I sometimes do my morning yoga/workout right after this or I’ll save it for after my next few tasks, depending how my body feels. I’ll also shower after a more intense workout.

I tend to eat breakfast and take some brain/gut supplements right before I settle in to write my morning pages, a term coined from The Artist’s Way and basically just three pages of daily journaling. It usually starts out with really banal things like “it’s Friday already…it’s 8:30 am…I just took the dogs for a walk around the park…” and then while I’m writing I get to the root of something I’ve been dealing with or working through. Additionally, I’m a big fan of Moorea Seal’s 52 Lists Project series and will fill out the weekly prompt on Monday after I do my morning pages.

Last on the list for my daily morning routine is a 15-minute guided meditation (or sometimes unguided, I suppose). I love Headspace and have used everything from their intro series to the “Letting Go of Stress” pack which I’m currently on at the moment.

And that’s pretty much it! My full morning routine tends to last a little over two hours if I’m including some “wake up reading”. Lately I’ve been waking up at 7 to start this routine so that I’m in the studio or doing office work by 9.

I hope you can pull a few helpful things from this post and this series of blogs, especially if working from and spending this much time at home is not typical for you. Here’s a few things I love to make the mornings feel really great: