Matt Chase

4 tips for a better morning routine

In many families, there’s that person who is up with the dawn — the one who chirps “Good morning!” to everyone else as they groggily filter in.

That would be me. I’m a classic morning person: Someone who wakes up early without much trouble and feels energetic and alert. (“I made some coffee! Anyone want pancakes? Sunrise hike: Who’s with me?”)

This, understandably, annoys my late-sleeping family members.

Whether you’re an early bird like me, a night owl, or somewhere in between, mornings can be tough — especially now that many of us are waking up in darkness or near-darkness, thanks to daylight saving time.

I asked experts how to make the most of your mornings if you’re a grump.

Prep the night before

“A really great morning starts the night before,” said Anna Dearmon Kornick, the author of “Time Management Essentials.”

So get honest about your sleep hygiene, paying special attention to when you fall asleep and wake up. If you’re able, plan to go to bed and get up at roughly the same time every day, give or take 30 minutes. This can benefit your overall health as well as your mood: A consistent sleep schedule can help protect your mental and heart health, and improve cognitive performance.

Kornick tells clients she consults with to go through their morning routines step by step and identify things that can be done ahead of time to decrease stress and decision making. For example, she said, you can put your bag by the door to grab on the way out, program your coffee maker to go off at a certain time and choose your outfit the night before. And check the weather in advance so you won’t be scrambling for gear, she said.

If you have a virtual assistant like Alexa or Siri, ask it to give you morning reminders, Kornick said. I told her about my habit of making a mad race to the train. “Then have Alexa announce that you have to leave for the train in five minutes,” she said.

Adopt a positive mind-set before your feet hit the floor

Deepika Chopra, a clinical psychologist and the author of “The Power of Real Optimism,” describes herself as “deeply not a morning person.” So to put herself in a happier frame of mind before she gets out of bed, she told me, she pictures “one specific sensory moment later in the day, something ordinary and real, like the first sip of tea, the way my kids will run toward me at pickup, the feeling of hot water in the shower at night.”

In neuroscience, she added, this is called prospection, or “the brain’s ability to pre-experience the future,” which can activate the same motivational circuitry involved in goal pursuit. This quick visualization can help you muster feelings of optimism as the day begins, she said.

Move (and get some light)

Just three minutes of movement can lift your mood and may increase levels of dopamine, a hormone involved in alertness and motivation.

So most mornings, Dr. Chopra does something she calls “wake up and dance.” “I roll out of bed and dance in my bedroom — sometimes for a full song, sometimes for a minute,” she said.

If you can’t bring yourself to dance, at the very least, get some daylight. “The first thing you should do is get at least 20 minutes of bright morning light,” said Phyllis Zee, director of the Center for Circadian and Sleep Medicine at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine. Light exposure tells your body that it’s daytime and makes you feel more alert, she said. A morning walk is an easy way to do it, she added.

Try ‘glimpse practices’

Mornings can be hectic, especially for night owls, so Diana Winston, director of U.C.L.A. Mindful, the mindfulness education center at U.C.L.A. Health, recommends carving out a few moments to rest and re-center — which she calls “glimpse practices.” That’s simply taking five seconds to “just be, rather than do,” she explained.

She likes to get a mug of tea and take a moment to notice the sky. And some days, after she takes her child to the bus, she said, she has a mini-moment of rest in the car.

You can also take a few minutes to pause and breathe anywhere, she said: If you take public transportation, you can meditate on a train platform or on the bus.

This morning, for my “glimpse practice,” my cat George and I quietly watched the birds and squirrels at my kitchen window. Then I gently scraped him off my lap, grabbed my bag and headed for the office.

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