Mindful Morning Must-Haves

If you’ve been following An Ideal Life for some time, it likely comes as no surprise that I swear by my morning routine—and my mindful morning must-haves! When I stick to my routine, I find my whole day is a little more organized and a whole lot more joyful!

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Alarm

Have you tried a few different alarms to see what works best for you? Maybe you’ve even found that different types of alarms work better than others at different periods in your life? Me too. My two morning must-haves here are my sunrise alarm clock and Apple Watch. Once in a while, I’ll swap in my Echo Show too, for good measure—did you know that Alexa has a Dateline alarm?

Pills & Vitamins

Whether you have prescribed medications, take daily vitamins, or have a combination of these, you probably have to take at least one in the morning. This is especially important for medications like many of those for ADHD, which take some time to kick in. I have a separate cute pill case for morning pills so they’re always at the ready!

Water Bottle or Cup

If you have morning medications, you need something to take them with! Even if you don’t have pills to take, though, having a cup or bottle of water at the ready can be a visual cue to stay hydrated from the very start of your day. I have a small Stanley tumbler that I keep on the nightstand for exactly this purpose!

Light Therapy Lamp

If you deal with Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD) or just don’t get outside very often (chronic illness can absolutely make it difficult!), a light therapy lamp can help give your mental health a little boost. There’s boundless anecdotal evidence and even professionals are in growing agreement that these are worth a try.

Electric Kettle

Coffee, tea, or even cocoa—what can’t a kettle get you? This is arguably the most critical of my own morning must-haves because, between chronic fatigue and ADHD, caffeine is basically medicinal. Add in a favorite mug and some coffee and I’m good to go!

Check out all my coffee & tea essentials!

A Checklist

If you deal with brain fog, neurodivergence, or just a bad memory, a daily checklist can be key. I love to use my Finch app for this but I also keep one of these customizable chore charts for days when I need a more tactile tool.

Brain Dump Trigger List

This is probably the AIL tool I personally use the most! If I don’t have these hints guiding me through my brain dump process, it’s going to be a lot of me staring blankly at the page. I pull this one out one morning a week at the absolute minimum, and it more or less single-handedly keeps my tasks from slipping through the cracks. Download yours in the resource library 🙂

Planners

If you use a daily planner, this is its time to shine! Right now, I’m primarily using my HappyDownloads planner alongside Notion and a few tangential tools. I’ll take a few minutes to jot down my top tasks for the days, my meal plans, any errands I need to run, and my daily time blocks to refer to throughout the day.

Spiritual Tools

Whatever your beliefs, you can sub them in here! For me, this looks like my manifestation journal, a meditation, my daily horoscope, the moon phase, and an oracle or tarot card pull. As I write this, these are my essentials:

• Maniscripting Journal
• QuietComfort headphones
• Meditation – I especially like Dauchsy meditations on YouTube (they also have great bedtime ones!)
• Literary Witches oracle
• Moon app
• Horoscope – The Pattern and Sanctuary apps

Playlist or Podcast

Whether I go for music or spoken content, Spotify might just be number one on my list of morning must-haves. I have a morning playlist for you all with some of my personal favorites, and I highlight recommend Chill & Prosper, The Marie Forleo Podcast, Clutterbug, Morbid, Financial Feminist, and Dateline podcasts.

A Robe

Mornings are just so much more luxurious with a cozy robe! I’ll use a fuzzy, cozy robe for cold mornings and sub in a more lightweight satin-y one when the weather gets warm. I especially love this detail for mornings when I sit outside with my coffee and a good book! Which reminds me…

A Book

As a lifelong voracious reader in a lengthy reading slump, this is sometimes the only reading I do. Pick up a great read from your favorite bookstore and challenge yourself to read a chapter each morning—it might not seem like much, but it will absolutely add up.

Meal Prep

When it’s time to eat breakfast, I find my mornings go a thousand times more smoothly when there’s minimal thinking involved. I love overnight oats for this (you can even purchase special overnight oats containers to make them fancy!). For even less prep, Oats Overnight are a great option. Of course, I also have a few alternate options on hand just in case I get behind on meal prep—think pop-tarts, breakfast biscuits, or even yogurt!

Yoga Mat

If you’re a not a morning run person, may I suggest yoga? I know, I know—for those of us with chronic illness, the last thing we want to hear is someone suggest yoga. But it’s genuinely one of my top morning must-haves when I’m feeling up to it! I love the Down Dog app, in particular.

Pets

If you’re lucky enough to have pets, try adding a step in your morning routine that’s specifically meant for bonding with them! I try to spend a few minutes snuggling with Fitz before I get out of bed each morning and, when I lived with my parents, the family dog loved to join me for “porch time” with my morning coffee. Even their cockatiel and I got into a routine with his morning feeding!

Mindful Morning Routine Guide

If you’re just getting started with your own mindful morning must-haves, consider grabbing a copy of our mindful morning routine guide! This workbook guides you through putting together a morning routine that’s uniquely suited to you, as well as contingencies for the challenges we all know come up some mornings.

What are your morning must-haves? Share your favorite products in the comments!