How to Make Mornings Work for You
Ever hear the phrase “eat the frog”? I’m paraphrasing what Mark Twain famously said: “If it’s your job to eat a frog, it’s best to eat it first thing in the morning.” The idea is that if you have a task or goal that is somewhat unappealing, you should do it first, not put it off. This miracle morning printable will inspire you to eat your frog every morning!
(Disclosure: As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. This means that if you click a link and make a purchase, I may receive a small commission at no additional cost to you. I only recommend products I use and love or would love to use! For full disclosure details, click here.)
In January, I read Hal Elrod’s book, The Miracle Morning. I haven’t become a 4 a.m. riser, as he claims to be, but I have consistently been getting up earlier and using the format he describes, including the SAVERS routine. SAVERS is an acronym for: Silence, Affirmation (self-talk), Visualization, Exercise, Reading, and Scribing (writing).
The Problem with the SAVERS Routine
I started out going through each of the things on the SAVERS list, but found that I needed to make some adjustments. For instance, if I sat down to do the first three things, I inevitably wanted to skip the exercise and move right on to reading and journaling.
My first attempt at fixing this was to move exercise to the end of my routine, after all the other sit-down things.
The problem is that by the time I get through the first five, the kids are up and wanting stuff like breakfast and rides to school. Obviously, they don’t get that I’m busy…scribing! After a little self-examination, it turns out that I actually LIKE doing the SAVRS routine, just skip the E.
That’s my problem—I’ve been starting with the stuff I enjoy most, which I will make time for at some point in the day, instead of the thing I don’t like, and will not prioritize later in the day.
The Solution: Switching the Order
So, in the spirit of eating my frog, I’m switching up my morning routine, because I really do want to exercise. I just don’t WANT to exercise. You get it, right? It’s one of those high-level values. I want to be healthy, active, able to play with my kids. But there are so many things I’d rather be doing, and sometimes things that just plain have to get done, that exercise ends up being the thing I never get around to.
Switching up my morning routine to exercise first has made all the difference. If that means I don’t get to read or scribe some mornings, that’s okay. I know I will make time for that somehow, because those are things I’m more motivated to do. I will either fit it into my evenings, or I’ll be motivated to get up earlier so that I have time for it in the morning.
If you’ve been trying to implement a SAVERS routine, but struggling with getting through everything, try switching the order. Do the thing you feel is important and valuable, but find it difficult to be internally motivated to do.
Miracle Morning Printable Quotes for Inspiration
If you’ve read The Miracle Morning, and you like the SAVERS routine, I have a printable miracle morning routine you can download with an inspirational quote for each aspect of the acronym, along with his suggested time frames. Elrod’s SAVERS routine stands for Silence, Affirmation, Visualization, Exercise, Reading, and Scribing (Journaling).
The Best Books to Help You Create Your Morning Routine
Modify Your Miracle Morning Routine
While I appreciate the author’s miracle morning, I need to make a few adjustments to make it work for me. If my morning routine had an acronym, it would be ESCRJ: Exercise, Silence, Commitment, Reading, Journaling. I wanted to have my routine printed out on a single page that I can use to help me focus and provide inspiration for my mornings.
If you like my ESCRJ routine, feel free to download and use my modified miracle morning printable for yourself.
You can see that there is no A or V in my acronym. I used the word “commitment” to replace those, because that is the way I prioritize what is important to me. Commitment is a purposeful intent for my actions and a way to think about how I want to feel at the end of the day. Did I show grace to my kids? Patience? Kindness to a stranger? I’m not visualizing in the sense of trying to alter reality to make something happen. It’s a conscious reminder to myself of who I want to be.
Modified SAVERS: Exercise
Making excuses burns zero calories per hour.
Exercise has to happen first thing in my day or it probably won’t happen at all. One way to eliminate resistance to exercise is to create a monthly workout calendar. You can download my free editable monthly calendar to make your own.
One goal to shoot for is to move your body for 30 minutes every day. It seems so easy, but I know in reality it is hard to prioritize this. Exercise is so important for your mental health as well as your physical well-being. If nothing else, do it for the stress relief and mood boost.
If you find yourself getting all the way to dinner time and haven’t made time to exercise, take an after-dinner walk, or find a yoga workout on YouTube.
Read: 7-Minute Morning Stretches
Silence (Prayer/Meditation)
Silence is a decluttering of the soul.
Emily P. Freeman
I usually set a timer on my phone for 5-10 minutes and use this time to pray. Life is just hard, isn’t it? Hardly a day goes by that I don’t see texts, emails, or Facebook posts asking for prayer. I have a little notebook where I write down people who have asked for prayer, and I keep this by my chair. Sometimes I will also use this time to sit in silence and remind myself of something I’m grateful for…gratitude has a way of pushing out the negative thoughts.
Try keeping a gratitude journal, and write down something you’re thankful for each day. If you need some ideas to get started, consider your senses. Pay attention to the beauty that you see. Is there a color, sunset, smile, or picture that captured your attention recently? What about a smell? Do you love the smell of lilacs, fresh baked cookies, clean laundry? Think about sounds that you enjoy. An upbeat song, your husband’s whispered “I love you“, the sound of your kids chatting without fighting. Do you love the feeling of your clean sheets? What about a neck rub? I’m sure you can think of plenty of tastes you love! There are so many ways to be grateful. I don’t want to take a single one for granted.
Commitment
Never give up on a dream just because of the time it will take to accomplish it. The time will pass anyway.
Earl Nightingale
This is a way for me to remind myself of what I’m committed to—here are a few examples I’ve used:
“My commitment is to exercise for at least 10 minutes every day.”
“I am committed to drinking a glass water every morning and before each meal.”
“It is important to me to encourage creativity in my children and in myself—that means limiting screen time.”
“When my kids think of me, I want them to have an impression of kind and gracious words, not nagging or discouraging words.”
For me, this vocalization of my commitment to something (and they change frequently) helps keep those things in the forefront of my mind. Our time is so precious, and unless I am very intentional with it, much of it passes without purpose.
You need to remind yourself of what is important to you, because without being very intentional about this, the deluge of information and entertainment that pummels us almost nonstop will drown out the things you most want to focus on. By taking a brief time each morning to remind myself of what is really important, I keep my focus on the priorities that are most valuable to me.
Reading
Fix your thoughts on what is true, and honorable, and right, and pure, and lovely, and admirable. Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise.
Philippians 4:8
I could read all day. It’s been my favorite pastime since I was four years old. So the reading portion of my morning routine is less about reading a good book, which I will do anyway, and more about reading the best stuff. The things I do in the morning are things that I would otherwise overlook or excuse unless I create habits and systems to make them a priority. My morning reading usually consists of some type of devotional reading. It’s an intentional, focused reading, not just picking up wherever I left off in my book the night before.
Journaling
Journaling is paying attention to the inside for the purpose of living well from the inside out.
Lee Wise
This is the piece that I’m giving the most attention this year. In order for me to have enough time to journal before my kids get up in the morning, I know that I need to get up a half hour earlier than I have been. I hate getting up early in the winter, especially. But I don’t think there’s been a single morning I wished I had stayed in bed longer, and I know there’s been a whole bunch of mornings I’ve regretted not getting up earlier. So my number one focus for the next few months is to make a habit of getting up by 5:30 a.m. so that I have time to write as part of my morning routine.
I’ve journaled as a record of what is going on in my life or documenting my emotions during particular seasons, but that type of journaling ebbs and flows for me. To be honest, I’ve never been all that consistent with it. My intent for the next year or so is to journal using specific prompts as a way of learning more about myself and exploring ideas that I may not otherwise have considered.
Beautiful Journals for Your Morning Routine
This is personal preference, but I absolutely must have a wirebound journal that will lay completely flat. They do take up a little more space, but since I don’t usually carry my journal around with me, the increased bulk is not an issue. Here are a few of my favorites.
There are a number of color and quote options, and they are all so inspiring, I can hardly choose.
This one has the twelve months and 31 days printed across the top of the page so you can circle the date of each entry.
This is a larger spiral notebook, but how can you not love being greeted with the phrase “Be Nice to Yourself” when you sit down to journal?
Get this pretty Miracle Morning printable in my Etsy shop!
For just a couple bucks, you can download this pretty ombre miracle morning printable with the SAVERS categories, suggested time frames, and inspirational quotes to inspire you each and every morning. Get it TODAY in my Etsy shop and start your miracle morning routine tomorrow!
Wake up to more inspiration with this Good Morning Beautiful Life print…
Truth and Results
My slow and painful journey to becoming a little bit more of a morning person is only possible because I truly love the difference in my mental state when I start my day early. For me, that means being up well before my kids, so that I can think, read, or work out. The days that I jump out of bed just in time to get them going, I feel rushed, behind, and generally less positive about the day.
I get that there are seasons when just getting enough sleep to function takes priority over getting up early. That is not the case for me in my season of life. Most often, when I don’t get up early, it is because I made the ill-advised choice to stay up waaaayyy too late the night before. Disciplining myself to go to bed at a reasonable time is where I need to put the most effort in my ongoing quest to be an early riser.
Read: Better Sleep Cheat Sheet
I haven’t experienced the “miraculous” mornings described in the book, but honestly, I read it with a good deal of skepticism to begin with. James Clear, author of Atomic Habits, says that each action we take is casting a vote toward the person we wish to become. So I guess my votes for being a morning person are starting to add up. I’d say reading this book was a vote cast in the right direction too, as it helped me clarify my purposes in developing my morning routine. One of my favorite quotes from Hal in The Miracle Morning is this:
Always remember that who you’re becoming is far more important than what you’re doing, and yet it is what you’re doing that is determining who you’re becoming.
Hal Elrod
Up Next: Love Does
In keeping with the seasonal Valentine’s Day theme, this month I’m reading Love Does by Bob Goff. I’ll post a review of that one soon. If you’re interested in my current “To Read” list, check out my 2020 Reading List.
Need more morning inspiration?
Check out my Morning Motivation post and download a free printable Good Morning motivation page. You’ll find inspirational quotes focused on priorities, habits, and attitude. Put it on your fridge, your bathroom mirror, or tuck it in your gratitude journal to skim every morning!
Join my mailing list to receive updates when new printable resources are added to the library, plus tips and encouragement for your organized homeschool journey.
You May Also Like…
Miracle Morning Inspirational Quotes
Great article, Andrea. I too can identify with many of the points you make.