One of the most common questions I get is how I manage to do it all—running BODYROK, raising four kids as a single mom, and growing Steph’s Fit Culture while still making time for my health, friendships, and personal life. The answer? A solid morning routine.
The way you start your morning sets the tone for everything else. If you feel rushed or distracted, that energy follows you all day. But when you create structure in the morning, you move through your day with more focus, confidence, and efficiency. By refining your morning routine, your productivity increases by setting structured and focused intentions that allow you to prioritize tasks, begin your day with a clear mind and minimize distractions and decision fatigue. Ultimately, a good morning routine leads to better time management, increased efficiency and helps you take control of your time. When you are more efficient and productive, you will find that you have more time for yourself, your mood and happiness elevates, and your mental health improves.
How a Morning Routine Transforms Your Day
Boosts Productivity and Focus
Starting your day with intention eliminates wasted time because you no longer need to constantly decide what to do next. Instead of reacting to distractions, a morning routine helps you take control so that you can focus your energy on important tasks before the chaos begins.
Reduces Stress and Overwhelm
A rushed morning creates unnecessary anxiety. Having a consistent routine makes you feel more calm, centered, and prepared, making it easier to tackle the day with confidence. If you want to optimize your day and elevate your life, incorporating meditation, breathwork, or journaling into your routine eliminates stress and anxiety so you can be more productive and happy.
Creates Consistency and Builds Strong Habits
A structured morning sets the foundation for long-term habits. Whether it’s hydrating, exercising, or setting goals, these small actions compound over time, leading to lasting results. Even small, incremental steps towards a goal, when repeated consistently, accumulate and lead to significant progress and achievement.
Keeps You Organized and On Track
A clear morning structure ensures you’re prepared and efficient throughout the day. You’re less likely to forget important tasks, run late, or feel like you’re constantly catching up. Part of a morning routine should consist of compiling a to-do list that prioritizes key tasks for the day to keep you organized and on track. I always prioritize the harder tasks first thing in the morning when my mind and energy is fresh. It feels good to get the harder tasks out of the way so that you don’t have this cloud hanging over your head all day and once you complete the harder tasks, you often find that they weren’t that challenging after all!
Increases Confidence and Self-Discipline
Confidence grows when you keep promises to yourself. When you follow through on your morning commitments, you build a sense of self-trust and discipline that carries into every aspect of your life. By repeating positive behaviors consistently, they become ingrained in your routine, making them easier to maintain and leading to positive outcomes.
Maximizes Efficiency with Habit Stacking
Habit stacking pairs a new habit with an existing one, making it easier to stick to. If you already drink coffee in the morning, use that time to practice gratitude, stretch, or review your to-do list. Habit stacking maximizes your time by tackling multiple habits all at once to make your routine more productive. One of my favorite habit stacks is cleaning/organizing while listening to a podcast. I also love to take my skin care to the next level by doing a mask or red light therapy while doing my meditation. Habit stacking is a great productivity hack.
Supports a Positive and Grateful Mindset
Taking a few moments in the morning to focus on gratitude and mindfulness helps shift your perspective and set the tone for the day. This small habit can make a significant difference in how you handle challenges and interact with others. This one morning habit has really changed how I see my world and how I interact with others. When you come from a place of gratitude, your day flows more positively and you are less likely to be upended by other people’s behaviors. This practice has helped me become “unbothered” and very little anyone says or does affects me anymore.
Key Elements of My Personal Morning Routine
Most highly successful people have a morning routine because it leads to higher productivity and most successful entrepreneurs start their day early. I personally start my day at 5 am and while that may sound ridiculously early, it allows time in my day for high-value activities that maximizes personal growth and personal development. Getting up early establishes a consistent practice of working on the most important things first thing in the morning. Robin Sharma, author of the “The 5 am Club”, refers to the first hour of your day from 5 to 6 am as the “victory hour” because it improves the rest of your day and transforms every aspect of your life. I agree.
Evening Routine
An effective morning routine starts with your evening routine. Cleaning up your evening routine is critical to making sure you are prepared to tackle the day ahead with efficiency and grace! The following evening routine sets me up to have a successful morning routine.
- My last meal of the day is rarely after 7 pm. I don’t snack at night and try to have at least 2 hours between the last food I ate and when I go to bed. On the weekends, if I consume alcohol, I stop drinking 3 hours before I go to bed. Eating and having alcohol too close to bedtime negatively impacts your sleep and without adequate sleep and recovery, your productivity, mindset and health are hijacked.
- I think getting outside after dinner to go for a walk is highly underrated! It is a great time to decompress, digest, chat with a loved one and enjoy nature. I try to do this as much as possible.
- No scrolling after 7 pm. I try to limit any phone use at least an hour before bedtime. No social media or online surfing after 7 pm.
- An hour before bed, I use that time to have conversations with loved ones, read, meditate and do my skincare routine.
- Right before bed, I make a quick list of what I feel I did well/accomplished that day and things I’m grateful for, or I might habit stack and make my list mentally (instead of journaling) while I do some foam rolling and stretching.
- I go to sleep around 9:30 in a very dark room and make sure that the temperature is cool to optimize the quality of my sleep. I talk a lot about my sleep routine and the importance of sleep in a previous blog post that you can find here.
Morning Routine
- The first 30 minutes of my morning consist of meditation. Before I look at my phone or get distracted, I go straight to the couch and do a deep meditation. There are many different kinds of meditations out there but I am a big fan of Dr. Joe Dispenza. Doing Dr. Joe’s meditations changed my life and made me realize that I was stuck in negative thought patterns that were holding me back from having the life that I wanted. Mainly, my fears were holding me back from having success. Doing these meditations consistently over the past few years has opened my mind to possibilities and helped me visualize and manifest the goals I desired to achieve. I talk about meditation more in depth in a previous blog post that you can find here if you want more specifics on meditation. During my 30 minute meditation, I always end with a mantra that is relevant to what I am trying to accomplish and then a little prayer of gratitude. There are many platforms to help you meditate and no…you don’t need to be “good” at meditating. There is no such thing as being good at meditating, so stop using that as an excuse not to meditate.
- The second 30 minutes of my “victory hour” consists of reading or learning. I spend this time reading a book that is inspirational, motivational and educational. I tend to spend this time reading biographies from very successful people like Built From Scratch (Home Depot Founders), Elon Musk (Walter Isaacson), Shoe Dog (story of Nike founder Phil Knight), Steve Jobs (Walter Isaacson), Poor Charlie’s Almanack (Charlie Munger), Sam Walton: Made in America, and The Almanack of Naval Ravikant. I also like to use this time to read books from authors that are motivating or helpful in building my business like Tony Robbins, Mel Robbins, Robin Sharma (The 5 am Club) and Ed Mylett. I sometimes use this time to research a topic that I find interesting that might lead to a future blog post. I read many types of books but my morning reading is focused on learning. When I’m traveling or reading during the day, I read other topics that aren’t necessarily focused on learning and might read some mindless/fun novels to mix it up a bit. I like to use reading as a time to habit stack with red light therapy, a face mask, or drinking lots of water.
- Once my initial victory hour is over, I turn my attention towards making a list of my priorities for the day. I always stack my morning with the more challenging items and work from 6 to 9 am to check off the bigger tasks for the day. I refrain from looking at emails, social media or any scrolling to keep me on track. Having 3 solid hours of work under my belt before I go workout helps me get some big tasks checked off by 9 am. During this 3 hour work block, I usually break it up with a 20 minute brisk walk.
- By 9 am, I have had 4 hours of solid productivity and advancement and usually shift gears by spending the rest of my morning connecting with my staff, visiting the studios, working out and taking a 30-minute sauna. My workouts mainly consist of working out at BODYROK, 30 minutes on an incline treadmill, weight lifting, and deep stretch yoga.
- I reserve the afternoons for meetings, appointments, easier work related tasks and creating new recipes for the blog. Getting the bulk of my work done early frees up my afternoons so when I don’t have meetings and appointments, I have flexibility to take care of myself, connect with friends and prepare a healthy dinner. I find that this morning routine really sets me up for success and gives me more time to do what I want to do in the afternoons. Unless I have a very busy weekend or I am traveling, I try to stick to this routine 7 days a week.
- Another way to learn and grow is to listen to podcasts and since I am often driving around in the afternoon to various meetings and studios, I listen to a podcast while in the car. It is a great use of otherwise wasted time and you can learn valuable lessons and information by using this time well.
The Bottom Line
Many high achievers have structured morning routines to maximize time, eliminate distractions, and create consistency. Waking up early allows you to focus on personal goals, exercise, and deep work before daily responsibilities take over.
A strong morning routine increases productivity, reduces stress, and gives you control over your time. It’s not about perfection—it’s about structure that supports your goals. Even small, intentional habits can make a powerful impact on your day. Own your morning, elevate your life.
