If you can, and I stress — IF YOU CAN — get up an hour earlier than you usually would.

Hear me out. You need time to yourself, for one. How many of us complained over the years we wished we had more time to just, be?

• Something underrated you may not associate with an early morning routine is stretching. Seriously, make sure you stretch. It will make a huge differences in your walk, how your body feels, how you feel about your body, etc. The days I skipped out on stretching, my body felt like I disrespected it. Especially the following morning. The stiffness is real. Soon, I’ll add push ups and planks…. one day. That’s a different story though.

• Make time to eat breakfast, have coffee or tea. Sit, sip, relax. It’s important. Rushing to a drive thru, or not eating at all (because of rushing) is a terrible habit.

My routine is consist of the above, and what a difference it has made over the last few months. Lately, I’ve been working on a more salient solution:

• Meditation. As far as improving clarity, It’s a very helpful, and it may be the most underrated part about getting up earlier each day. Quieting your mind is a task in itself, I can’t lie about that. Personally I’m finding more consistency within myself by the day, and the stress is lessening. I’m no master at it by any means, but I’ll still encourage you to begin the process of meditating. Why not start something that can benefit you mentally? Despite the media and some individuals using mental health as a buzz word, you’re mental health is important. The amount of processing your brain is doing everyday, it’s imperative you take care of the most important organ in your body, right?

If you’re the type of person that needs to turn on the tv or youtube in the morning, by all means do so. I watch sports highlights while I’m eating my breakfast. It helps. You need familiar routines as well. But guess what? You got up earlier, so you have time to enjoy yourself, before you go do what you don’t enjoy as much. You might even feel less antsy during the workday. I’m not saying you’re going to have a blast at work, but you can’t tell me you don’t feel the difference once you begin making time for you in the morning.

You may already have a routine you live by, but I challenge you to try getting up at least an hour earlier for about a week. A five day trial period. Then tell me how you feel. If you don’t like it, no hard feelings, but to improve our lives we have to start somewhere. Hopefully, the steps laid out above can benefit you.