Do you sometimes lack of energy to start out your day ? You’re laying in bed, awake, but just don’t wanna get out and go to work ?

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Don’t worry, it’s a common thing. Especially in this Covid time, when we are bombarded with bad news, when we spend our days again and again within the four walls, working from home.

Here are my 3 tips to boost your morning mood. They are very simple, easy to apply and don’t take you much time :

1. Review your routine check-list

In the morning, one of my favorite activities is to review my routine check-list. This check-list is not about what I have to do for the day, but it’s about what I’ve done the day before.

Why it’s about the day before ? It’s to remind you of your recent achievements, of the pleasant moments you’ve had. So that, you will feel content and proud of the day before. And this will give you motivation to kick off the new day.

The check-list is also very simple : this is all the simple routine activities that you want to develop, even the smallest and the most silly things. I will tell you some of mine :

Be on time at work
Do the cleaning
Take care of the cat
Cooking
Get the groceries
Hang out
Go to the cinema
Read
Write
English -- which means read/write/talk in English
Sports
Do administration work
Spend time with family
...
Take the vitamines
Put the drops in the eyes
...

You can see that I put on the list very easy things to do such as to put the drops in my eyes, beside more difficult activity like to write. The reason is that even it’s simple to do, I tend to neglect and forget to do it. I intentionally put it at the same list, at the same priority of other activities to motivate myself : whenever I get lazy, I will tell myself ‘let’s put the drops, at least one thing done’ or ‘let’s put the drops to get the easy check, for the other more difficult, we’ll see later’.

You’ll also notice that I put activities such as to do my English, to do the administration work with other activities like to spend time with family or to hang out. It’s because, when I define my bigger goals, for the years or in general, beside career objectives, I also have objectives like taking care of my health, taking care of my family and friends. Those seems for me essentiel to have a balanced life.

To be short, my point is that you can put in your list every activities that seem important for you, even the smallest. Because the micro routine will make bigger changes.

Moreover, you can also add in the list the habits that you want to reduce, and to mark everyday that you succeed to avoid it. It can be for instance : not smoking. We should appreciate every little success !

Last but not least, this routine follow up will give you an objective data about your lifestyle, to avoid very harsh self-blaming like ‘oh, I’ve not done anything this past year, I’ve wasted my time !’ or in the contrary, self-questioning such as ‘I don’t understand, I do exercice almost everyday, why I’ve gained weight ?!’ – well, you can check your data and see that you do it only 3 times per week recently 🙂

About practical question, there are many apps available to track your routine. Personally, I use one called ‘Habits’. It also give me the history of my activity and calculate the percentage of accomplishment based on the goal frequency that I set for each activity (everyday, twice a week, 3 every 10 days, etc.).

2. The simplest and most effective tip – Smile 😀

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A study has shown that, you can ‘trick’ your brain and feel better with ‘fake’ smiles. Do you believe in this ?

Me, I do.

I think that when we go to work, when people ask me ‘how are you ?’, and when I say out loud ‘I’m very well, thank you, and you !’ with a smile, it does help me get energized. Even when it’s a white lie, a polite way to response to my co-workers, instead of my true thought ‘well, I would prefer staying at home and get more sleep’ 😀

Smiles are free. Thus, when you brush your teeth in the morning, just look at yourself on the mirror and…smile. This will help you to feel better and also wake your face muscles up, which helps you to talk and pronounce words better.

3. The morning lists

Recently, we had a talk among our English club on happiness and how to maintain your mental health. Some of the friends told me about the Morning Pages. It’s a writing self-help exercice created by guru Julia Cameron to help you express and connect with your feelings.

It seems to me a great idea. Nevertheless, with this exercice, you will have three pages to write. A friend of mine who uses this method says that it doesn’t take long, 20 mins utmost.

But, for you, who have doubts about having enough time and ideas to fill in the three pages, here is my idea of an alternative :

To answer one of these two questions :

“What are the 3 things that I’m grateful for today ?” or “What are the 3 things that will make me happy today ?”

Your answer can be some short words or long sentences. You can write it down on paper or somewhere on your phone (so that you can do even leaving your bed). Writing them down will remind you to cherish your present and/or to motivate you to kick your new day off.

Personally, I usually answer the first question. Lucky enough, I usually have more than 3 things on my list to be grateful for.

This morning, my list was :

Be healthy
Have a loving husband who kissed me in the morning to say goodbye
Have a fun cat to play with (even when he woke me up several times this night)
Have a job
Have time to do things I like

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I hope these tips are helpful for you.

Tell me which one you like the best, and which are your tips to cheer yourself up in the cloudy days ?

Kiss,