NANCY CHEN

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my daily morning routine + why morning routines are important

Nancy Chen

This is in no way affiliated with Gretchen Rubin’s new book. I’m just obsessed with it because I’m a nerd. 

Raise your hand if you’re a routine freak! (Insert me, wildly waving my hand like the over-eager student I always was). If you’ve ever read Gretchen Rubin’s books or taken her Four Tendencies quiz, then you’d probably recognize me as an Upholder. I like routines, love creating habits, and can be extremely disciplined.

I believe that routines are important — morning routines are essential for setting up a successful day, and nighttime routines are essential for unwinding and getting a good night’s sleep. I’ve already written a post on nighttime routines, so I figured it’s high time for a morning routine one. Besides, I’m much more of a morning person.

One additional thing about routines though, before we get down into it — they allow you to put yourself on autopilot. You know what works, so you can use your brainpower for more important decisions or to unleash that inner creativity. Deep work, if you will.

Routines are also comforting. They create order in a world that’s chaotic. If you have any anxiety or just are a control freak, this is one area of your life where you have a lot of control over.

But also — routines change as your life changes. Don’t be afraid to make adjustments; add on or take away as you see fit.

My Morning Routine

1. Wake up. I don’t press the snooze alarm, ever. If it’s an especially rough morning, I’ll turn on the lights and browse Instagram for a couple of minutes before getting out of bed, but I never go right back to sleep. Years of waking up for early morning swim practice has conditioned me not to do that.

2. Drink whatever what I have left in my 1L mason jar on my nightstand. If I sleep through the night, there’s usually about ¾ of the water left. If I’ve woken up at any point, I usually drink water then and will have about ½ left. I prefer room temperature water first thing in the morning because it’s less of a shock to my digestive system.

3. Go to the bathroom. Enough said there. Gotta do what you gotta do, right?

4. Brush my teeth and put the hot water boiler on. I love efficiency, so I do this while I have a toothbrush in my mouth. That way the water will finish boiling by the time I finish the next two steps. It looks silly, but hey.

5. Finish brushing my teeth and wash my face (see morning skincare routine below).

6. Make my bed. I always, always make my bed. I feel super unsettled if I don’t.

7. Take a shot of some sort of ACV mix. My favorite is the Shire City Herbals unsweetened ACV mix. I hate the taste of ACV by itself, so this is perfect — it includes spices and other good-for-you ingredients. If my throat is feeling a little itchy, I'll do the honey one (pic below). I take it in shot form because it goes down easier, but it'd also be great mixed with warm water.

8. Using the hot water, make a 1L concoction of turmeric, lemon juice, cayenne. I started doing this in order to get more water in me when I was trying to quickly recover from adrenal fatigue. If acid bothers your stomach (or if you run out of lemon juice), take out the lemon juice. You can also sub lemon juice for ACV + honey in this mixture. I find that drinking this first thing in the morning prepares my digestive system for food and makes sure that I’m well-hydrated by the time I truly start my day.

9. Make a bulletproof matcha (or coffee or hot tea). Depending on my mood, I'll start my day with one of the 3 drinks. Recently, I've been loving matcha — it's great to sip on during quiet mornings; I prefer coffee for when I have work to do. If I'm not feeling caffeine, I'll drink mint tea. I blend together ceremonial grade matcha, collagen, hot water, MCT oil, spices, and adaptogens; it keeps me full for awhile because of the fat!

10. Drink it while journaling or cleaning if I have time, or take it to work with me. Recently, I’ve had some time to myself in the mornings, so I’ll take a slower morning if it’s Monday, Wednesday or the weekend, and organize or write down my thoughts while I drink this. Otherwise, I take it with me to work and drink it while training clients, right after teaching class, or while I'm at my desk.

11. Make breakfast if at home or eat breakfast at work. The timing for this varies a lot depending on my schedule, how much sleep I’ve gotten, and how hungry I am. But breakfast happens one way or another! If I have extra time, I also photograph it for my Instagram.

12. Workout (depending on my schedule). Now, having started a full-time job, I've moved the majority of my workouts to after work, but my preferred time is actually 8 am-9:30 am — that way I have time to set up my life and get things in order before getting moving. I love a 9:30 am CorePower 2 hot yoga class or a boxing class!

Morning Skincare Routine

If showering:

P.S. If you want to try out the shampoo + conditioner for yourself, you can get free product here! I've long loved tea tree oil for my skin and in my toothpaste, but I've never used it in my hair before. Glad I did for sure.

I’d love to hear what your morning routines are, your favorite skincare products, and if you’ve taken Gretchen Rubin’s quiz (you can also take it here), which of the Four Tendencies you are. Psychology is interesting, people. People are interesting. You’re interesting. So comment below or email me directly!

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