Five Morning Rituals to Squash Apathy and Distraction

How to create daily rituals to combat feelings of apathy and distraction.

Do your days ever start with you feeling apathetic or distracted? 

Apathetic and distracted are two words I am very familiar with. I feel like I combat them every day. 

That’s why I try to start every day with a focused ritual. I thought I would share mine with you today, to encourage you that even the smallest things can move us forward throughout the day. 

1. I have a reason to get out of my bed. My bladder. Thanks “last night stacie” for drinking water before bed, you’ve really helped “morning stacie” have a reason to get up and go. If I get back in bed after this, I really struggle to feel motivated. After I go to the bathroom, I feed the dog, make myself a mug of hot lemon water, and journal or read for 20-30 minutes. There are days I’m awesome at not being on my phone in the morning, and there are days I really struggle. I like the days I don’t start with my phone until the afternoon. 

2. I do something creative and productive. Because it’s easy for me to get distracted after I read or journal, I make sure my first task is fun, creative, helpful, and easy, and for me, that’s putting together an outfit and getting dressed. I really enjoy this part of my day. The more I view “getting dressed” as a creative art form, the more I really enjoy the process. During the pandemic, getting dressed has felt very low stakes for me, because I can change into comfier clothes half way through the day if I’m just not feeling it. 

3. I have kitchen time. I make and eat breakfast. We are hardcore egg and toast people. You will rarely find us eating something else for breakfast. I make coffee. Sometimes this includes dancing. Dancing really helps. 

What are morning rituals that help kickstart you into gear?

4. I consider the day ahead and get a birds-eye view of today. After breakfast, I sit down at my desk and look over my Plum Paper planner to get a birds-eye view of what I’ve planned for today (that’s right, I’m not making the plan today, I made the plan at the beginning of the week to make it easier on myself to not have to make decisions about my daily To-Do’s every morning). All of me wants to dive into doing my To-Do’s, but I’ve found it’s actually really helpful for me to look over all of them before jumping in. This keeps me from getting distracted my To-do’s that were never on my list. I often ask, “what kind of day do I want to live today?” all the time. It helps me remember my focus and it reminds me I don’t have to be or do all the things. 

5. Turn on study music or sit in silence. The Bridgerton Soundtrack, movie soundtracks, The Cursed Child soundtrack. Anything with words will keep me brain-blocked for days. The silence of your uninterrupted thoughts. 

When you're in the middle of a photoshoot and nobody cares.

I’m not saying I won’t get distracted throughout this process— my dog is super cute in the morining and sometimes I just want to snuggle with her or scroll through instagram. BUT, these first few steps make it much easier for me to say “yes” to the day I am hoping to live and the tasks I’m hoping to accomplish. 

What are the morning rituals that help kickstart you into gear? I really want to know! Do we have any of the same rituals? Do you have any outside-the-box rituals?

Keep your mornings intentional and bright,

Stacie

P.S. My outfit is almost entirely thrifted. My hat is my ABSOLUTE favorite from Gigi Pip. It’s the Miller Hat in Cream.

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