I'll be the first to admit that I rolled my eyes at the whole "that girl" morning routine trend for a long time. Waking up at 5am to journal and make a smoothie felt performative and unrealistic. But something shifted when I turned 25 and I just got tired of starting every day feeling behind.
I didn't go from sleeping until noon to waking at 5am overnight. I started by setting my alarm 20 minutes earlier than usual. That's it. In those 20 minutes I just sat with my coffee and didn't touch my phone. No emails, no social media, no news. Just me and coffee and silence. And honestly, those 20 minutes felt like the first time in years that I had time that belonged only to me.
I wake up at 6, which for me is early enough to feel intentional but realistic enough that I actually do it. I make coffee, I journal for 10 minutes — nothing fancy, just stream of consciousness or a few things I'm grateful for. Then I either go for a walk or do 20 minutes of Pilates in my living room. By 7am I've already done something for myself and the rest of the day feels different because of it.
The biggest shift wasn't physical — it was mental. When you start your day doing something intentional instead of reactive, you carry that energy into everything else. I'm less anxious. I'm more patient. I make better decisions because I'm not running on fumes and stress from the moment I open my eyes.
If you're thinking about starting a morning routine, my advice is to make it stupid simple. Don't try to overhaul your entire life in one morning. Just wake up a little earlier and do one thing that's for you. That's enough.
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