Transcription
Come here. Listen. You don't have to hate mornings and dread them, because I used to be like that. But these are the morning habits that have literally made me more productive, grounded, confident, and just made my days more successful.
Welcome back. [Applause] When they say your mornings literally set the tone of the day, they were not lying. Listen, I used to hate my mornings. It used to be chaotic, especially during college. Like, I was running. I was waking up. I would hit the snooze button 10 times, rushing getting out of bed, and the rest of my day would feel like I'm rushing to do something even when I have free time. It doesn't matter how long you have. It could be 10 minutes, 30 minutes before work or class. You can make the best morning routine and add healthy morning habits that will literally set the tone of your day. You're not going to be rushing. You're going to have more energy. And these are the habits that have helped me.
If you don't know me, my name is Sada, and I talk all about self-improvement, self-care, you know, hygiene. There's a lot going on on this channel and a lot of self-care to just become the woman that you want to be. And so I'm working towards that and I want to share it with you, share the journey. So if you want more of that, a lot more videos will be coming.
So throughout the years, I have watched so many morning routine videos, morning tips like how to make your mornings better. But I really sat down and said, "What has really helped me?" If you've been struggling in the morning, especially like if you have work, school, whatever it is, your mornings are busy, there is time. There is time to do something for you before going out and doing things for others. It's obvious, but you have to fill your cup before filling others. So before being an employee, before being a student, before being a daughter, before getting up and doing something, the morning is your time. It's really your time. And how you start that really reflects the rest of your day. So if you have bad morning habits—I was about to say bad morning breath—yeah, morning breath, too. But we'll talk all about that. But if you have bad morning habits, and you just feel like the rest of your day, you're constantly tired, your mind is constantly racing, you're going to bed tired, you're going to bed late, these are the habits that have helped me structure my mornings. And it's simple, easy habits that you can add. You don't have to buy a bunch of things. And it's just these habits that you just need to incorporate in your mornings. When I tell you, it has transformed my life.
So, I've split it into three: mind, body, and planning, focus, career. So, I wanted to break it and show you the healthy habits I've added for those parts and what has really made my day successful. I think this is the most important part, and that's why I'm putting it first. Your mind in the morning is, you know, fresh waking up. You're starting the day, and you're you're telling it what to do. You're telling your mind, and you're doing these habits to see how the rest of your day is going to be.
So, the first thing I do when I wake up is I have a gratitude moment. And so, gratitude moment could be something. You can journal. I connect with God, and that's the most important part of my life. So it's like, you know, having a meeting with my maker. Obviously, you could talk to him throughout the day, but personally, having a moment and giving that the first part of my day to him has been the best thing. And I know some people like you can get up, brush your teeth, get back doing your devotions, or like doing some things. But me personally, if I wake up and you know the first 10 minutes of you waking up is so important. Waking up, rolling over, picking up your phone, and scrolling. You're telling your brain, "Hey, this happened. This is on the news. A lot has been happening on the news." And Mel Robbins made such a good point saying that imagine waking up. Do you want all these newscasters, your cousin, your sister, your boyfriend? Basically, you're texting them. Do you want other people to be in your room the first 10 minutes just talking to you? Like the first part of your day should be, you know, you alone quietly. But when I first wake up, I open the Bible this month for the month of April. I'm actually doing Proverbs because it has 31 chapters and April has 31 days, right? It doesn't. It has 30. Anyway. But what I do is I read a chapter, then I journal, reflect, see how this chapter is in my life right now and how I can add it, you know, just doing that and then praying. I also do affirmation. Affirmation has—it has just changed the way that my day has been. If I wake up feeling some type of weight, I switch that. So, if I'm feeling tired waking up, it's like, I am energized. I don't feel like it, but I'm going to say until I feel it. I say three "I ams." I am this. I am this. I am this. And then before I even get up, I have an intention for the day. So, it could be a word, it could be a phrase, it could be a goal, it could be this one thing I need to do for the day, but it's that I have an intention. I just don't get up and go to my day with nothing. Just nothing. Just going with the flow. I feel like having an intention, setting up a structure, especially if you're working towards something. Your mornings have to be the most important part. And you have to determine how your day is going to be. Even if you don't know what's coming. The word of the day could be focus. Today, I'm just going to focus. When I go to the gym, I'm not going to scroll in between sets. I'm going to focus. I'm going to put my all and I'm going to push myself. When I go to class, I'm going to do this. If you go to work, just have an intention where this thing can be applied in every part of your life and everything that you're going to do the whole day. And this does not have to take you 30 minutes. Listen, it could take you 5 minutes. All of this, I know sounds like a lot, but it could be 5 minutes. I have to wake up at 7 or else I am chasing time until, you know, I have to start my day. If you're self-employed, if you want to be self-employed, you know, business, you have to structure your days. So, you have to start the habits now. Even if you're not that right now, you have to structure your days. Learn from me because I went from having everything given to me. You're going to your 8 a.m. class, then you have work right after your 8 a.m., then you're going to go to lunch, then come back and do this to not nobody telling me anything. And I have to structure my day. And so, at the beginning, I felt like I wasn't stewarding the blessing that God gave me to be self-employed and be my own boss. And so, I'm like, I didn't practice these habits. So, I had to start all over again, not pressing the snooze button, gaining that trust. Because if you keep hitting the snooze button and you told yourself you're going to get up at 6:30, but you're like 6:35, 6:40, 6:50, and then you wake up 7:00, you lie to yourself. Okay? You lost trust in yourself. Waking up at the time that you said you're going to wake up is so important.
So after I have my time with God, I do my gratitude journal. Set the intention for the day. I get up and I know a lot of people say this, make your bed. Before you do that, before you make your bed, what I have been doing is I lay down just like my blankets and pillows and even bonnet and I open the window. When I tell you this has been something that has changed the smell of my room, airing out everything because think about it, we're sleeping the whole night. Night sweats, everything is just in one place. Morning breath. And if you know that morning smell, please let me know in the comments if you know what I'm talking about. Every time I say this, everybody was like, "What morning smell?" There's a tired smell in the morning. And that smell got to go. Okay, it has got to go. What I do is I just lay down my blankets. I open the window and you know, obviously if it's cold, winter time, I leave it for a little bit because, you know, the heater, you don't want to waste a bunch of things, but I need it to air out. An air purifier is good, but I just feel like the outside air just does a little bit better. And my window's right beside my bed, so it's perfect. And as I'm brushing my teeth, getting ready, it only takes like 5 minutes. I literally leave it open and just air out everything after, you know, brush your teeth, wash your face, all of that, make the bed. Making the bed has been such a big thing, especially like, you know, a lot of things that you watch like to be successful, you got to make your bed. It's basically saying, "How are you going to start your morning?" And it's like doing something for yourself as simple as making your bed. Another thing with this is make everything easy for you. So this whole thing with morning routines is to make it easy so that you're not dreading the morning. So if you do things the night before, it won't be you, you know, you're not getting up wasting time on cleaning and packing your work bag or anything when you could just focus on the things you're supposed to do so that your days go smoother. So clean the night before. This is something I've added a couple years ago where, you know, even college, I just felt like my notebooks and everything was everywhere. So I had to gather everything. So in the morning I'm not just waking up. There were sometimes I used to wake up late. My room would be a mess, and I'm slipping on clothes that was on the floor and everything like that. So I'm like, just make it easier. It takes 10 minutes cleaning up everything like before bed so that in the morning it's easier. Love going to bed with my room clean. I just feel like so refreshed waking up in the morning. I feel lighter. I'm not waking up seeing a mess.
The last thing with mind is limit screen time. Limit screen time instead of just waking up rolling around, you know, to check the time, but then you open it and then your hand goes to Instagram and then you're looking at it and then it goes back to TikTok. I'm talking from experience, okay? Put the phone down before you do all of it. And even like, you know, you need to check emails and messages. Do that after you brush your teeth, wash your face, get dressed, then do all of that. So, for like at least 30 minutes, get off your phone. When I tell you it makes a difference. The days that I start my devotions throughout the day I am praying because that's how I started my day. The days I wake up scrolling throughout the day I am scrolling. I think one thing that helped me with limit screen time is getting like a physical alarm. So I got—I actually got a PR. They were nice enough to send me the Hatch alarm and I've been wanting them for so long. I wake up with the church bell because I feel like that's the only thing that's like, "Ding ding!" I wake up. I'm like, "Good morning starshine." I don't have to pick up my phone because on the alarm it says the digital time. So it'll be like 7:00 a.m. Why do I need to touch my phone? There's no other reason. So using a physical alarm has helped me.
So another thing I like to do is after I do devotions and then I get up to go to the bathroom to do, you know, my morning hygiene. I like to listen to jazz music. So it's not really jazz, but I might—I'm going to link it down below. It's like this Snoopy song. When I tell you it feels like I'm in some type of—I'm a character. Give you main—main character. Let's say you want to live in that mansion and it's like luxury and you're walking with your long robe. What music would you listen to? Practicing these things so that when you get to that dream life, it feels normal. You've already been doing these habits and you don't—you won't have that impostor syndrome to it.
Feel like you don't have enough time in the morning? Wake up earlier. You have your own schedule and you know how much time you need in the morning. So after doing a certain amount of time, like even adding 30 minutes and you know waking up 30 minutes earlier than your regular alarm can make such a big difference, help you be more productive and you are not running out the door, putting on shoes, eating a banana, just like leaving because the rest of your day—that's how it's going to feel. It's going to feel rushed. Okay, I'm going to take it off. I had it on because the allergies have just been crazy and I'm like, I don't want to touch my eyes. If you have any allergy reliefs for the eyes, let me know in the comments. Okay, this is like the first year I've ever had it. I'm like, before we move on to body—one question I've been asking myself lately which really reflects the things I have been doing is like, "Who do you want to become?" Who do you want to become so that it determines your mornings. I know it's such a big question, but when you ask that you start realizing that starting your day seeing the person you want to become and seeing how they start their day will really help you build these healthy habits in your own way. So for me, you know, I—I want to stay self-employed for the rest of my life. And so if—if that's my goal, I have to structure my mornings. Nobody's going to be telling me, "Get up, do this, do this." No, you have to do this. You have to clock in at this time. It's like it's on me to do that. So ask yourself that, like, really, who do you want to become? Even if you are who you want to become, like how do you want to maintain it?
For the body? Things that have just been helping me a lot. And the first thing is morning hygiene. I have talked about morning hygiene. I think I have done a morning hygiene video. I want to take care of myself. Obviously, you know, I don't want to walk out with stank breath and like the crust in my eyes, none of that. That's something that I have always kept up with. But if you want an easy morning, it really starts the night before. So, I do all my serums, every extra step, and the red light therapy, all of that at night time. In the morning, my main focus is to just brush my teeth, wash my face, feel clean, wipe down, deodorant, take care of myself, smell good, and make that such an easy process. So, I brush my teeth in the morning. I used the oil pull, but honestly, I didn't like the product I was using, so I wanted to switch it. I tried the regular coconut oil where it's like chunky. I didn't like that. I don't because I have to chew it and I just that texture did not sit well with me. So, if you know any oil pull products or like, you know, coconut oil for oil pulling, let me know. I've just been looking around, but oil pulling is really good to just get, you know, the bad breath and everything that has been just sitting on our tongue. But lately, I've just been brushing my teeth, you know, using a tongue scraper and then even mouthwash. Mouthwash just helps that just freshness of—of the breath. Then another thing I've been doing is my skin is so dry. So, winter, I have just been using a very light wash and then sometimes waking up I wipe my face with just like water and you know the Clean Skin Club towels. That has been helping so much. My skin has not been breaking out. My skin hasn't been feeling extra dry where it just feels like, you know, plastic on my skin. So, I just wiped down my face. I have been doing the minimum to my skin. It's been thriving. So, doing less in the—in the morning has just been something that's just key stepped in everything that I do. It's like I do it the night before so I don't have to do a lot in the morning. Then, I wear a moisturizer just like around my mouth, especially the days that it's dry. It's spring, but sometimes, I don't know, some days it's been very cold. So, it's like until it's summer, I'm still doing, you know, like my winter spring routine. I wear a little bit of moisturizer. I love this Belief cream. And then my favorite—favorite and it's free sunscreen. This is a matte base so I'm not looking glowy. I like when sunscreens don't have a lot of oils. I just feel like that's how it should be. But I know a lot of people like having that glow, that sunscreen oil. I don't, even though my skin is dry. So, I put my moisturizer and then sunscreen. Make sure it's two finger lengths. Okay. This is what we need, especially summer coming up. Reapplying, wearing the right amount will help your skin lessen the damage, the wrinkles, the aging. Then I wipe down. Wiping down is basically getting a water wipe. This is actually my favorite. I carry it everywhere. It's this Lumi acidified deodorant wipes for Pits Privates Beyond Cool Cucumber. So in the morning, I get that and I wipe down because I shower at night time. But what I've noticed is as I'm maturing and growing older, I tend to have more night sweats. I just tend to wake up feeling like, yeah, that shower last night, it was great, but I need to do a little bit more this morning. So, I wipe down all my private area, behind my ear, everything that I need to do. And then add deodorant. And this just helps me stay fresh, feel fresh waking up. And I—now I smell good, I feel clean, and I'm ready to go about my day. Obviously, it's for your time and everything, but I think just keeping the morning routine and the hygiene short will help you start your day earlier and you feel better because a lot of things done. It's just almost like—it's like this rhythm that you just keep doing every single day and you know, your body knows exactly what you're going to do.
Next is morning supplements, healthy combo. I did a whole video about this of like, you know, the healthy gut combination that I eat and all of that. So, choose your morning combo, your morning supplements, whatever that helps you, whatever in the morning that you need. Obviously, every body is different. Everyone has a different thing, but make sure you're taking the same thing every single morning. Not—you're not just watching it from any type of video and adding it, but make sure your body actually needs it. So, this is my gut glow combo. It rhymes a little. Coconut col—first thing with an empty stomach because that is a probiotic. Probiotic is really good for us ladies, okay? Keeps everything balanced. The smell, everything. It just should be part of our daily supplements. But one thing is like I don't want to take pills anymore. And I'm like, coconut col is just easy to just take in. Also, it's not in a pill form. It is more than a pill, but I feel like it absorbs in our body better. Next is blueberries. So, blueberries have antioxidants, so it just helps fight all of these things that are in our bodies trying to take us down. And I just get like a handful of blueberries. It's enough for me. I make sure to wash it. The last thing is sea moss. It's just been something I have tried so many different brands. This is the one I use right now. Honestly, I might just go back to the one I used to regularly use, which is, you know, the one from Etsy. I had the one—Recharge by Nature. Every time I go to get that, it's always sold out. So, that's why I have this one. But this is great, too. Has mango pineapple. So, it doesn't taste as bad. It's just the texture. But, this has minerals that we need for our body. I call it the gut glow combo because the way my gut has been feeling so much better. I don't have as much bloating anymore. My skin is looking good. My hair, everything like that. And I feel like staying consistent. Listen, you can take this like a couple times a week. You won't see a difference. Everyone says that. Like I've tried this combination, doesn't help. And I'm like, "But do you take it every day?" And they say no. And I'm like, yeah. Everything like—but this whole morning routine—it has to have some consistency to it because if it doesn't then you won't see results, and I think that's the hardest part about this is like, you know, the mornings you wake up and you're like, "I don't want to do this," like you're able to—you don't feel sick—you have the ability to walk, stand up and do all of this, make time for yourself, but you don't want to. Those are the harder days where you stay consistent and like the consistency breaks, and obviously you're not going to do this every single morning, especially in the beginning, but as long is like you're getting back to it. You got that resilience to bounce back and all of this is ready. It's not like I'm going to look for and everything like that. On the side of the fridge, I put all of it together, the coconut col, the sea moss, the blueberry, and then the last thing I've actually recently added in March was eating dates with peanut butter. The way I used to hate dates when I was younger, I have been doing my research on dates, and me and my sister, we've just been eating it every single morning. Two is enough. Like the doctor even recommended two or three dates is the best way to get your fiber in, especially in the morning. And then what I did is add peanut butter. The way I used to hate dates, but I added peanut butter now. Now it tastes so much different. My family, we struggle with heartburn. And the number one way I can get it is drinking coffee with an empty stomach. So now I make sure to have my electrolyte water before coffee. Okay? And it's just been something that I've been working towards. Sometimes I'm like, "Have I had my water before coffee?" So, I'm not going to make myself coffee before or even like if I try to go to a coffee shop and I forgot my electrolyte, I will buy water there because I'm not going to take a sip of coffee if I haven't had water yet. Coffee is a dehydrator, and starting off your morning dehydrating your body already is—is not a great start. Okay? And I have seen the difference drinking water before coffee instead of drinking coffee with an empty stomach.
Walking has been something that I knew I should have been doing. And I've taken multiple classes of them screaming at us of why walking and moving is so important. Sedentary behavior is a silent killer. Basically, sedentary means you're sitting or standing. Basically, think of freezing. You're sitting down. You're not active. You're not moving. Even if you go to the gym once a day, but you're sitting down, you either have a, you know, 9 to 5 or a class or something where you're sitting where a job you're—you work at a register and you're standing the whole time leaning. So that type of behavior, they're actually saying how it's like a silent killer. It's actually coming up to like right beside cigarette smoking, which is crazy. So even after work, move your body. Okay? But if you have time in the morning, whether it's like your day off or anything, take walks in the morning. And it does not have to be an hour walk. It could be 20 minutes. So what I have been doing is a 20-minute walk. So I've been taking steps—the Health app on our phones. It's free. It's actually built in when you first get your phone. So see how many steps I have today because I took a walk this morning and it was about 20 minutes. And every single day my goal is to reach 5,000. So right now I'm actually at 3,619 steps. I need...
To get to 5,000 because for heart health, it should be, I think, like 6,000 to 9,000. And then if you want to lose weight, it should be 10,000 to 12,000 steps a day.
When I tell you, I know this sounds like a lot, especially thinking of thousands, but it's so easy to get your steps in, especially if you have a certain time. In 1 hour, I bet you could reach 5,000, depending on the speed and like how fast you walk and everything like that.
When you do the things the night before, you're avoiding choice burnout. That means you're not standing at the fridge looking at the fridge saying, "Oh my gosh, what should I have for breakfast? Should I do eggs? No, I don't have time. Should I eat bagels? No, I don't feel like it." But the night before, if you already prepped it, if you already prepped what you're going to eat. I love eating like frozen protein waffles where I could just put it inside the toaster and like eat, and then I know exactly where my turkey bacon is at. I put it in for 10 minutes in the air fryer. Everything is there. So, I know when I open the fridge, it's already there. My friend does overnight oats and has been eating it for the past like 6 months.
First of all, the body transformation, it has made your choice less, okay? You're not standing there being like, I don't know what to do, or even clothes. Have you ever stood like before work or wherever you have to go in the morning, staying like, what should I wear this morning? If you have set the clothes the night before, you don't have to stand like making choices.
Another thing I have switched to is not having these long to-do lists. I used to have a to-do list that was like 10 things where I did it by hour by hour. So I'll be like, 10:00 I have to do this, then 11 this, then if I don't do 11 I'll be mad because it has pushed me. Now I have to do it at two, and then my day and I didn't get to do the whole to-do list. Now I just have three major things. That's all I need. Like if I have these three major things that I said I'm going to do and I do it, I feel successful. And for the rest and in between, I do the best I can to, you know, fill different things. Even if I'm done with my to-do list at like noon, I have time to start other things, to start other tasks. I didn't stress myself out. I did my three things I needed to do. I check the list and I go to bed feeling successful.
The last thing is appearance effort. This might be shallow for some people, but no, I have realized that this is not shallow. This is how you set your intention for the day. This is the tone of the day. If you look good, you tend to do better. If I put some type of effort today, I just wore matching. Let me show you. Today I just wore this matching sweatsuit. It's an effort for me because, you know, every single day is not going to be that, you know, top top tier. But but I did do my hair. Hair. I make sure to fluff it out. I oiled it. I did all of that. I smell good. Wear deodorant. Whenever I'm filming and I'm editing later on and I'm sitting down doing work, I just feel better. I feel like I am more productive. When I went to college is when I realized, oh, everyone makes an effort here. And as soon as I started switching to like making little efforts in the day, I started seeing more opportunities. It just comes with it. We just live in a world where if you look better, you get more opportunities. I'm just going to say it, okay? If you put more effort and you look like, oh, you take care of yourself, a lot more opportunities come to you. If you watch my videos that are like this, I always talk about it. Putting effort in your appearance does increase opportunities. Whether it's for a job, whether it's like meeting new people, whether it's like, you know, trying to find a boo, you do look good. You you feel more confidence. It's a confidence boost. And it also creates that main character energy.
So, like, you know, waking up, putting on my jazz music, getting ready, putting, you know, making sure my hair looks good. I feel good. I'm wearing the clothes that helps me feel more confident. See, I'm taking control of this, okay? Waking up, setting up my morning how I am. And as we're getting older, we're getting the control, okay? We're not 10 where our parents are like, you need to wake up at this time. Like, wake up. This is the clothes you're wearing. I'm laying down this for you. Like, we kind we have to do this on our own now. So, keep your morning simple. You don't, it does not have to be 3 hours. You just have to have these easy micro morning habits of like, you know, adding your own and customizing your own. I wanted to share mine because I feel like it's just been helping me so much. Like I wake up excited for the mornings and that used to never be me. So I think the two main things of like morning routine is who do you want to become and make it easier on yourself. If you just keep that in the front of like all of your morning habits and doing the things that your future self would thank you for, it will just make your morning go so smooth. Not only just your morning, but the rest of your day. Because if you have done that, you took time for yourself to really fill up your cup, take care of yourself.
But thank you so much for watching. I actually had a lot of requests to do the morning version of the nighttime routine that I did. So, I wanted to do this because I feel like my morning routines have just been getting better and better. But let me know your favorite part of your nighttime routine. And also let me know if you're going to add one of these habits and which one. We'll discuss in the comments. But thank you so much for watching and come again. [Music]