4 days into formerly working from home I have experienced the vast difference between having a morning routine and not! 

I am a big fan of seeing the science behind something but I also need to experience it. 

The study quoted below shows the importance of starting a day well so you can put your best foot forward for your clients. This is why helping and asking whether your team have a morning routine is important not just to their wellbeing but also your business.

When I have a good morning routine I seem to experience a catalyst throughout the day. I hasten to add that I need to keep on that horse as the routine builds and not get off. 

Starting your routine is of course hard, creating any habit is difficult. A few books with more insight on this include Triggers, Feel Better in 5 and Good Mornings. 

For me accountability is key. Last night I made sure I made myself accountable to my partner and colleague about getting up for a run first thing this morning. 

It turns out that your concentration levels at work may be up by 21%, too, if you exercise in the morning, your productivity can skyrocket by 41 percent and your risk of burnout goes right down according to Jo Coulson et al. 

To help with this the team at Passle are always happy to nurture some exercise. Please feel free to join our online fitness club here to see how we are all getting on! 

Other, admittedly, strange routines I have created are focusing on emptying a dishwasher or washing machine when I wake up to just get on the 'productivity conveyor-belt'. This 'building' phase is really important for me and this slowly increases as my working day commences (breakfast, contacting close ones, review emails/content online and focus my plan for the day). 

As a business, we also have morning check-in meetings with the team. To help focus we use the 'scrum' structure. Tom explains this here. From here I am ready! 

Clearly it is obvious from this that I have a job that operates in the daytime. This obviously means that I need a good night's sleep. If you are motivated by science our melatonin (a hormone that regulates sleep) peaks at 11 pm and therefore this is a critical time to be asleep (H J Lynch et al). Getting to sleep can be the problem, we quite literally suffer from sleep procrastination, or at least I can! My solution has been focusing tomorrow's goal, purpose and getting back on the productivity conveyor-belt!