The morning is not likely one your most productive times of the day. Every task seems to take much longer than necessary. You keep telling yourself you’ll change and make better use of your time, but so far no changes have happened.

Getting up and going can be one of the hardest parts of adjusting to life at college. Learn what four habits can help you establish a good morning routine below!

Habit #1: Prepare the night before

Having a good morning routine starts the night before. If you’re honest, you probably delay many smaller tasks until the morning that could easily be accomplished the night before. Getting these pesky tasks out of the way, however, would help your morning go so much better.

If you want to have a good morning routine, choose to finish these three tasks the night before:

Choose your clothing

Before you lay your head on your pillow to sleep, go to your drawers or closet and choose your clothing for the next day. Rather than rummaging around in the morning, make the choice to choose every item of clothing (including socks, shoes, and accessories) before going to bed.

This will eliminate unnecessary decision-making and second-guessing during the morning. This will also probably make your college roommate happy that he or she won’t have to listen to you stumble around the room looking for a piece of clothing.

Shower the night before

Unless you have a specific reason for showering in the morning, you may want to try doing this the night before. You can save yourself valuable time and avoid having to take turns in the bathroom.

Additionally, you won’t have to mess around with drying your hair or searching for soap containers by the light of your phone. Getting this important task out of the way may add important time needed to get your morning on track.

Pack your bag

Your mornings are busy enough without having to remember what items you need to pack for the day. Save yourself the hassle and pain of packing your school bag by doing this task the night before. Packing it at night can help you have time to double-check your bag in the morning. 

Habit #2: Refuse to stay up late

You may have good intentions to get to bed at a decent time (aka by midnight), but these good intentions never actually happen. Why? You haven’t taken steps to plan for an earlier bedtime.

If you want to have a good morning routine, help yourself get to bed earlier with these three tips:

Do important and urgent tasks things before socializing

Your dorm room may be the party room on your floor. Your roommate may be loud and inconsiderate. You may struggle to focus on anything academic in your room. Whatever the reason, you struggle getting things done.

You’re not a lost cause. You can make simple changes that help, starting with delaying socializing until later. Say no to the late night runs for fast food. Put your phone on silent and away from view. Sit somewhere where you won’t be distracted. Put on your headphones or put in earplugs and get things done. Then spend time with friends.

Wind down

If you’re not careful, you can be regularly doing things that energize you right before going to bed. Forming this as a regular habit makes getting to bed at a decent time practically impossible.

Think carefully about what tasks energize you. Maybe talking on the phone, messaging, or talking to friends wakes up your brain. Maybe exercising or eating wakes up your brain. Whatever activities energize you, determine to do these activities earlier in the day, not in the hours leading up to bed.

Charge your phone away from your bed

This is an extremely simple choice that takes serious discipline. Texting, watching videos, scrolling through social media, and other phone activities stimulate your brain. They don’t help you get to bed at a decent time however.

A simple way to remove this temptation to be on your phone is to charge your phone in a place that is out of reach from your bed. Get an old school alarm clock and give it a try. You may be surprised how much this simple step helps you get to bed.

Habit #3: Refuse to push snooze

I hate the sound of alarm clocks, but that’s not a bad thing necessarily. The sound of an alarm should cause me to be alert and awake.

If you also hate the sound of an alarm clock, take the tiny step of refusing to push snooze. If you repeatedly push snooze, you’re only going to hear that annoying beep over again and again.

Below are three simple ways you can help yourself get up the first time your alarm rings:

Make it easy for you to wake up

What do you do when your alarm sounds? Do you slap the snooze button and roll over? Do you turn off the alarm and close your eyes? If you do anything similar to these two choices, you’re making it harder for you to wake up.

Immediately after your alarm sounds, make a choice to do something that makes it hard for you to stay in bed. Maybe you sit up. Maybe you throw off your sheets and blankets. Whatever you need to do, do it. Make it easy for you to wake up for real.

Get out of bed after your alarm sounds

An easy way to make waking up easier for you is actually physically removing yourself from bed. Staying under the warmth of your covers or rolling over doesn’t help you wake up. Instead try giving yourself a countdown.

For example, tell yourself you will countdown from ten seconds. By the time you say “zero,” your feet need to touch the floor. This allows you a moment to get alert but also gives you a short deadline.

Stand up and drink a glass of water

Another easy way to make waking up easier for you is to do some physical activity. Depending on how your room is situated, you may not have much personal space to stretch or move around. Use the space you have to help you move around and get going.

You may also want to try drinking some cold water. As simple as drinking a glass of water may sound, the water may help alert you and your senses.

Habit #4: Stick to a morning schedule

Habits take a while to form. After a few days, you can easily take shortcuts and make excuses. Don’t allow yourself to make exceptions. Try using these three steps to help you create and stick to a routine!

Estimate how long it takes you to complete tasks

If you’re not a time-conscious person, you may have no clue how long it takes you to do basic tasks like shower, brush your teeth, etc. Take some time to think through how long your typical morning tasks take you. Write or type these estimates in one place.

Put each task into the order in which you typically complete them. Count up the total amount of time these tasks will take. (This will help you know when you should be waking up each day.)

Make room for some extra time

You likely need to cushion your time estimates. Some days eating a quick breakfast may take you 15 minutes. Other days, this task may take longer. Add in at least 10 minutes of extra time total just in case these tasks requires slightly more time.

Give yourself a deadline to leave your dorm room

Whatever happens in your busy morning, determine what time you must leave by each day. This deadline will give you a specific, tangible, and (hopefully) realistic goal that you can achieve day after day.

A good morning routine can transform your weekly schedule and your semester. Make good use of your morning by establishing a practical routine for your freshman year of college!