Having an extra hour in the morning before your usual routine gives space for practical or relaxing activities that you wouldn't find the time to do otherwise.

Many people use their morning routine to tackle a personal project.

Others focus on organizing and preparing for the rest of the day and others just concentrate on exercising, meditating or doing other types of physical activity.

Whatever you do in the morning is up to you but rule number one is being consistent.

Personally, I like to wake up at the same time every day, even during the weekends.

If I am extra tired on a Saturday, I give myself the pleasure of one more hour in bed, which means getting up at 7 a.m., max.

The good thing about consistency is that it slowly builds up the habit, making your body and mind less and less prone to create resistance to your alarm clock.

Your brain forms connections based on what you do repeatedly in your life.

Repeated mental states, behaviors and responses become traits, which eventually decreases the resistance you feel from your body and your mind when you are trying to incorporate a new habit.

And this is called "neuroplasticity".

As you strengthen your newly found habit of waking up at the same time, the behavior will require less effort and it will be easier to do it on a regular basis.

And speaking about alarm clocks, finding the perfect sound and distance from your bed is key to waking up energized every morning.

I'm really not into classic alarm sounds and rather prefer soothing music that builds up as I ignore the alarm.

I put my phone out of hands reach, on top of a dresser so I have to stand to turn it off.

I'm no longer feeling like going back to bed by that time.

Waking up early becomes more manageable as you enjoy your morning routine.

A well-balanced and relaxed morning routine will give you enough motivation to get up in the morning, while a stressing and chaotic routine will create more resistance.

Creating a morning routine that is both practical, efficient as well as relaxing can have a detrimental impact in your day.

My rule of thumb is to spend half the time of my morning routine in practical morning tasks like having breakfast, showering or doing my hair.

25% doing household chores like cleaning the dishes, watering the plants and making the bed, and the other 25% doing something entertaining, like reading or journaling.

For me, in a two-hour morning routine this would look like one hour dedicated to practical morning tasks, half an hour for cleaning and organizing and another half an hour of reading or watching Netflix.

But I will tell you more about my morning routine in a video going up in a couple of weeks.

Another thing that will make waking up easier because it enhances your morning routine is preparing everything the night before.

Picking an outfit, preparing the cutlery and containers to pack your lunch, or setting the table for breakfast are all activities that create a solid transition between your night-time routine and your routine in the following morning.

The more mechanical these activities and routines are, the better.

A steady workflow of minor tasks can lead up to to less resistance from your brain and strengthens your habit of waking up early.

And for a special boost of motivation, you can also challenge yourself to complete a project or a deadline during your morning routine.

If you ever wanted to start a blog, create a journal, knit a scarf featuring your Hogwarts' house colors or just become a runner, you can use your morning time to do it in incremental bursts of productivity that you can spread out over a longer period of time.

Instead of feeling like you're waking up to go to school or go to work, you change your mindset by stating and acting upon the idea that you're now waking up to take care of your special new hobby.

As a final note, I have to remind you that waking up early is not for everyone.

And if you're a night owl, you definitely shouldn't feel the urge to wake up early because someone tells you to, unless it's school or it's your boss, and in that case there's nothing you can do.

I actually ranted about the I wake-up-at-5 a.m. video trend a lot in one of my videos, so never feel the pressure to be productive at a schedule that your brain is not naturally inclined to use to be productive.

And something that is always part of my morning routine is sitting down with my planner and my laptop, opening Notion and seeing what's going on in my life.

Notion is an awesome tool and I've made three videos about how I use it to organize every single thing in my life and the good thing is that Notion is sponsoring today's video to let you know that it's finally free for students and teachers!

Notion is productivity software that combines all your essential work tools in one place.

It's flexible, allowing you to organize everything in workspaces and move things around seamlessly.

Two weeks ago I showed you how I created an academic planner in Notion, which includes class notes, a calendar, syllabi pages, task lists, project planners and so on.

With this free personal plan for students, you can now have unlimited space to organize everything.

All you have to do is sign up using your school email address or, if you already have Notion, you can change your account e-mail to the e-mail of your school and that's it.

You can also access a bunch of templates designed specifically for students and educators, which will be linked down below.

And if you aren't a student anymore, that's not a problem.

You can enter the promo code "mariana" to get your own free Notion Personal plan by following the instructions in the description box below.

Also, if you're curious about how I've been using Notion, I will link my past three videos as well.

I hope you've enjoyed today's video and I will see you next week.

Bye guys!