For years, I was what you’d call a night owl.

Darkness behind the windows would signify my hours of productivity, my hours of inspiration, and my hours of creation. Being a digital artist, staying up late painting characters in Photoshop was just as natural as breathing.

At least it was when I had something else to occupy my day, such as a full-time job or school. But after the job I worked for lost funding, I found myself with only my personal art to occupy my time. And support my livelihood. As a self employed artist, I suddenly had an additional eight hours in the day to work on art, and with that freedom came a bit of confusion.

How do I schedule my time now?

At first it involved trying to frantically finds things to do to build my business, except my days would now commence in the afternoon because I felt free to sleep in. No more waking up to someone else’s early schedule, and the night owl could finally get balanced rest.
But after a few days of this behavior, I quickly realized this wasn’t benefiting by productivity or my business. The switch from being employed to self employed was an adjustment, and I knew managing my time was critical for me to see success in my career. And thus my overall security. This was when I discovered the idea of having a dedicated morning ritual.

At first, it was as simple as writing down the steps for this ritual, and how long each task would take. It also required waking up much earlier than I would in the past, which was obviously challenging in the beginning. But when I thought about my business and how that was my only source of income, this motivation immediately put myself in gear to become more disciplined.

So how can you accomplish your morning ritual? Many things, but here’s what I believe is most critical.

Meditation.

Some may have varying opinions on meditation, but if you’re self employed, I highly recommend adding this to your morning ritual. It’s especially easy to do first thing when waking up, since your mind is already in a sleepier state, or what’s known as the alpha state.
The alpha state is where your mind is the most relaxed and calm, and it’s also where your mind is the most programmable. Meaning, any ideas or questions you have about your life can be asked directly to your subconscious. The point is to get into a state of total relaxation, give your mind time to rest, and possibly receive ideas or solutions for any situation you have occurring.

There’s countless methods for meditation, and those with experience can go into their preferred style. But if you’re a beginner, there’s guided meditations available all over the web, which includes meditation apps for your phone. While I’ve meditated a little in the past, I certainly wasn’t an expert, yet I always knew the value of allowing your mind some rest. I recall childhood visions of my father doing transcendental meditations in our living room, and only as an adult did I finally acknowledge the benefits this brought.

In this current day, anyone can jump into mediation, and there’s even some where it doesn’t require hours of sitting still. To avoid delving too deep into the subject, there methods involving what’s known as brainwave entrainment, which can basically put your brain directly into the alpha state. Definitely worth looking into if you’re not experienced with meditation, but these usually aren’t free options. As stated before, a simple guided meditation from your phone or the web will do just fine, and there’s many you can find for free.

Depending on your experience, you can meditate for about 30 minutes to even a hour, just as long as you find time to relax your mind once for the day. Personally, I have a list of guided brainwave meditations I go through, and these can take up to an hour to listen to. As someone who’s mind is frequently active, that amount of meditation is something I value.

So, after I complete my meditations, I get out of bed, brush my teeth, and wash my face. And then I state a list of positive affirmations I have next to my bathroom mirror. This leads into the next task in my morning ritual:

Affirmations.

Without sounding too existential, I have to vouch for this. Affirmations are a powerful tool, and it literally just involves verbally stating something positive either about yourself or toward a goal you want accomplished. For those self — employed, this is a huge motivator to get yourself inspired, and it’s much preferable to holding every idea in your head with the fruitless hope you’ll get to it.

The affirmation can be something straight to the point, for example: “I am grateful and happy now that I have financial abundance.”
If you own a business, money affirmations are obviously encouraging. The affirmation can also be something to do with yourself personally. For example: “I am confident in myself today.”

There’s thousands of affirmations that be found on the internet if you search, but I strongly recommend writing your own if you can. You can hand write as many as you choose on a piece of paper, and tape it right next to your bathroom mirror. As you read them, look at yourself in the mirror and state them with confidence. This is what I recently started doing, and it’s an amazing booster to my day. Whenever I’m boggled with a challenge, I just get up to read those affirmations again. To remind myself why I started this ambitious journey of running my own business.
Words have power, and hearing those words with your vocals have amplified power. But saying those words directly to yourself in the mirror, all while seeing your facial expressions and emotions during your declaration?Absolutely priceless. Depending on how many affirmations you write, this could take about five to ten minutes. Just trust me when I say, this is completely worth the time.

(As a Bonus: Say these affirmations three times a day (morning, afternoon, and night). This will amplify your affirmations, and your own motivation to work tenfold.)
Lastly, to complete the morning ritual; it’s time to build up your energy. And the best way to do that is exercise.

Exercise.

Some may already do this, but for me, finding time to exercise in the morning was a challenge, considering I had to schedule this before work. Which meant the night owl had to wake up far earlier then preferred. But the beauty of having your own schedule is you can choose what part of the morning you can exercise in.
For best results, the exercise still needs to be in the morning, since this is where you set the tone for your overall day. The reason why this time frame is beneficial is because you’re allowing your body to fully wake itself up. This helps to get your energy pumped up, and thus your productivity will skyrocket while working on important tasks. I recommend exercising for at least thirty to forty minutes a day, which of course will benefit your physical health as well.

The exercise can be whatever you choose, but I alternate between walking outside with a weighted vest or using an indoor cycling bike. Living in Alabama makes it challenging to walk at any time of the day, especially during the summer. Here you need to walk before 9:00 am or else you’ll find yourself with unplanned tan lines due to the outside heat alone. With this current season, I’ve found great use with my exercise bike, and here I can go for about an hour before cooling off with a shower.

Of course, if you have access to a treadmill, that’s an indoor option for walking you can do. Whatever you choose, as long as you dedicate at least half an hour to some exercise every morning, your day will greatly improve.

So there you have it! Here’s my recommended morning ritual:

Meditation (30 minutes — 1 hour)
Affirmations (5–10 minutes)
Exercise (30–40 minutes)

This will require waking up at least two hours before your normal day begins, but at least with the meditation you’re still in bed. Which is why that’s easiest to do first. Personally speaking, as long as these tasks are done in the morning, the rest of the day can become more productive than usual. Any goals you prepared for your work will be easier to tackle, simply because of the mental preparation you gave yourself at the beginning of your day.

I hope this helps with your mornings as much as it’s helped me. Good luck and wake up happy!