Did you know that more than 40% of our actions are automatic (according to the study How we form habits, change existing ones)? Because we know where our toothpaste is, where our coffee cup is stored, where our keys are hidden, … we do not waste time figuring out where things are in the morning (at least, in principle). Likewise, because we know where our company is located, we go to our workplace without thinking about the route. Thus, if we are asked to change our morning habits—in other words, the automatisms we have developed so far—the changes this brings about will not be natural and will require effort from us.

Many of us have our little habits when we get up, actions we perform in a very precise order and that reassure us. Think about yours. Are they always the same? How do you react when unexpected events slip into your morning ritual? And above all, do your first actions in the morning do you good? Do they motivate you to start the day well and be more productive?

In this article, we will focus on a new habit you could develop to take control of your day: adopting a morning discipline that is stimulating for you and optimal for your productivity. Be careful, this does not mean that everyone should be forced into the same morning discipline. Because each person has their own personality, diverse experiences, and their own lifestyle, everyone will choose the method that seems best to them, or even test several before selecting the one most suitable for them. Moreover, following a morning discipline will not work for everyone. So see what we are sharing here as

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Be the originator of the change process

"Change is a door that only opens from the inside," argued management specialist Tom Peters. For things to change, you must decide and do everything possible for transformations to take place. Adopting a morning discipline, for it to be effective and lasting, must come from you. Life situations may perhaps steer you toward a new habit, but despite that, you remain the agent of your habits; you are the one who will decide to continue carrying out a given mission or to stop a given activity.

Do you want to lose weight? You can do 3 cardio sessions per week, but other options also exist, such as: changing your diet, banning foods high in sugar, walking for 1 hour every day, etc. The measure you will take and commit to over time will be your choice

The most important thing, in fact, is that you listen to your body and your mind. Some, for example, will need a hearty breakfast; others will settle for a piece of fruit and a dairy product; others for coffee/croissant; and others will have nothing.

Optimize your sleep and end-of-day habits

To be able to wake up in great shape, taking care of your evening ritual will be essential to help you sleep well. A good night’s sleep will boost your energy level for the next day, improve your memory capacity, and contribute to a good mood. However, we are not all equal when it comes to sleep. Some will be full of energy after a 4-hour night (the lucky ones), while others will feel tired even after more than 9 hours of sleep.

A few habits that can lead to a restorative night’s sleep (even if they remain personal to each individual, since we all have lifestyles of our own):

• eat a balanced meal before 8 p.m. and avoid alcohol;

• do not engage in physical activity in the 2 hours before bedtime;

• do a relaxing activity (reading, meditation, writing, music, art);

• stay away from screens (TV, computer, smartphone), as they emit blue light that inhibits the production of melatonin, the sleep hormone;

• dim the room lighting during the last 30 minutes before going to bed;

• list the positive events of your day (e.g., our manager congratulated us, we saw a friend we had not seen in over two years, we received a pleasant message from our sister).

Determine a cue, a routine, and a reward

For a habit to take hold and bring beneficial effects, it must be broken down into three parts: the cue, the routine, and the reward. The first, the cue, is that physical, chemical, or biological element that triggers something in us. Our alarm rings and we reflexively stop it. The smell of warm croissants tickles our nostrils and our mouth waters immediately. Once the cue is triggered, the action that makes up the routine follows; this can be physical (opening a tube of toothpaste, buying a croissant, …), mental (focusing on something, meditating, …), or emotional (feeling joy, fear, anxiety, …).

Finally, the habit ends with a reward. For example, after washing up, I feel a sense of cleanliness. After drinking my hot coffee, I feel warmth and well-being. After running, I feel a sense of accomplishment. In a talk, Admiral William H. McRaven shared 10 rules to change the worldand explained that one best practice was to make your bed perfectly as soon as you wake up. The goal: start the day by taking action and feeling pride and accomplishment. By completing this seemingly trivial task, we begin with a positive mindset, and the likelihood that we will keep up our momentum of completed tasks is higher. Of course, this example will not apply to everyone. If your partner shares your bed and you wake up first, you could not make the bed right after waking up. But on the other hand, you could find other simple tasks to accomplish that will get you into action and that, once completed, will give you a feeling of satisfaction, such as doing the dishes from the day before, thinking about tonight’s meal, etc.

Perform the same action for at least 3 consecutive weeks

According to Maxwell Maltz, an expert in plastic surgery, the human brain would need at least 3 weeks for a new repetitive behavior to become anchored in memory and for old habits to disappear. It seems that a threshold is crossed once the action has been carried out for 3 consecutive weeks, and that the probability of maintaining the habit is higher. Think about memorizing bank card PIN codes. When we had to remember new ones and forget old ones, it most often took us several attempts before entering the new code without error, without looking at our cheat sheet, and without thinking.

Having difficulty changing habits overnight is normal. Those who want to stop smoking, drinking, eating sweets, or those starting a diet or a new physical activity naturally experience difficulty in the first days following the adoption of this new habit, partly because they compare it to what they had before and have not activated positive thinking. It is especially the first days and weeks that are the hardest. Every day that passes without having “given in”—that is, without returning to old habits—brings them a little closer to adopting the new habit they are aiming for; and it will require less effort than the day before. Patience and regular effort are essential. Let us remember what the philosopher Aristotle said: "We are what we repeatedly do."

The principle of consistency in commitment, mentioned by Cialdini in Influence and Manipulation, supports the efforts we have made so far to continue in that direction and turn this new habit into an automatism. Because we have succeeded in carrying out a new action for x consecutive days, it would be a shame to stop when we are doing so well, we tell ourselves. We would do better to continue our good momentum to reach the goal we set for ourselves. It has already been 6 days that we have kept up the pace of getting up every morning at 6 a.m., and each time we have used that extra hour to practice sports or artistic exercises. Guided by consistency in commitment, we continue.

Take it step by step

There is one concept we are particularly fond of: the Kaizen method, or the method of small steps. It consists of breaking down a goal into several sub-goals so as to progress in stages and thus achieve what you set for yourself. You are interested in implementing a morning discipline, but getting into the habit of waking up 1 hour earlier seems impossible, so go gradually.

Start with seemingly minor changes, for example moving your alarm 5 minutes earlier or taking a few moments to write down your dreams. Then gradually move your alarm earlier and increase the time you devote to yourself. Observe what you have managed to do and congratulate yourself on the progress you make each day.

To make the new habit easier to integrate, you can also associate it with an existing habit. Let us imagine your doctor prescribes a medication. To avoid forgetting it, you could deliberately place your medication next to your coffee cup, because you are used to pouring your coffee into the same mug every day. Because this new element will catch your attention upon waking, you will in principle remember to take your medication. On the other hand, if from the start you do not get into the habit, the medication—even placed next to your cup—will go unnoticed in your field of vision and the new habit will not take root. Think about signs saying “turn off the heating when you leave the room” that you may find in meeting rooms. At first, when you discover them for the first time, the sign catches your attention, but if you quickly do not perform the action of turning off the heating, you will not do it next time, and above all you will not even notice the sign anymore. The integration of a new element into a familiar environment must be considered from the beginning, otherwise it risks becoming part of the background.

Create a relevant To Do

Once you have started your morning, it is the right time to check your schedule and ask yourself: “If there were one mission I absolutely had to complete before the end of the day, what would it be?” In this way, if by the end of the day you have not completed all the tasks on your day’s To-do but have completed the priority task you had set for yourself, then it will be a victory and you can be proud of it.

Most often, we tend to have a long list of missions to carry out and to add more as we go without necessarily removing any (or very few). The risk is that we spread ourselves too thin, fail to prioritize the right missions, and become discouraged because at the end of the day we have not checked all the boxes. We then think we have worked poorly, and unfinished missions become mental monsters in our eyes.

However, not completing our missions may be explained by objective facts and contextual elements that should be taken into account. Perhaps we had goals that were too ambitious. Next time, we could break some of our missions into several subtasks to complete them over several days. Perhaps urgent issues came up and disrupted the course of our day. Next time, we could try to anticipate them, imagine the worst-case scenarios that might occur (= Murphy’s law), and why not delegate the task to someone capable of doing it.

At the risk of fueling your disappointment in yourself with a long and unreachable To Do List, proceed differently. Set yourself 3 priorities for the day. 3 missions you consider necessary to have completed before the end of the day. 3 achievable actions for the day ahead. Of course, you may have other tasks, but compared with these 3 priorities, they are less urgent.

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It is up to you to activate the levers of transformation to take control of your day! Everything starts with willingness. Do you want to put a morning discipline in place? Yes! Then installing your new habit will begin with a cue that triggers a specific action (or a series of actions) and will end with a reward that gives you a feeling of accomplishment. Do not be too demanding with yourself in taking ownership of your new ritual; in principle, you will need 3 weeks for your new habit to take root and become an automatism. To assimilate it better and so that its implementation is not too abrupt, do not hesitate to move forward gradually by defining stages and thus starting with small, seemingly minor changes. To also make adoption easier, you can associate it with an already established habit. Once your morning rituals are done, you can think about your organization and your priorities for the day. Finally, starting your workday well depends on a good night’s sleep, although everyone has their own evening habits.

We could also question the importance of identifying our deep conviction to encourage us to get up—in other words, the importance of finding our “Why” (see Simon Sinek’s Golden Circles). We necessarily have one, deep inside us. Maybe we know it but have not yet verbalized it? Or do we need a period of introspection to find it? Finding our “Why” will give us a purpose and make waking up in the morning easier.

But remember, this article is meant to invite you to pick only the advice you find relevant for yourself. So, which ones seem most appropriate for your organization?