Do you need a morning routine in medical school?Â
For the last year and a half in medical school, I’ve found that I can tell when I’ll have a good day versus a bad one. Often I know this by the time I leave my apartment in the morning.
Think about it for a second. The start and end of a difficult day often start the same way. You’re fatigued and not excited about the day ahead. On the other hand, the days that you wished were routine often start with enthusiasm and energy.
To ensure that my days start as well as they end, I purposely structure the start of my day with a morning routine in medical school. Here’s how.
Why Do I Have a Morning Routine in Medical School?
Being busy is unavoidable in medical school and thus it’s important to plan out our days. Similarly, if we want to begin the day off on a positive note then we need to plan how we start it as well.
During my first month in medical school, I kept finding myself with too many days where I felt one of the following:
1. Waking up groggy
2. Quickly getting ready to attend lecture
3. Falling asleep in class
4. Forgetting something because I was in a rush
5. Not being particularly excited about anything that day
I could go on, but I’m sure many of you already know the effect this can have on your day.
It became tiring feeling like this for many days in a row. I decided I needed to start my day more strategically.
What is the Miracle Morning?
Initially, I started with a rough routine which helped somewhat but I wasn’t satisfied with the quality of my day.
Then I came across a book called The Miracle Morning by Hal Elrod.
Hal Elrod was about my age when he was hit by a drunk driver. He struggled to find motivation and energy as he rehabbed from his accident and dealt with financial failures. He became depressed and had no interest in life. Then he finally decided that he needed to create morning that he could look forward to and positively carry him through the day.
Before I read the book, the multiple reviews impressed me. The Miracle Morning had great reviews from readers who used the techniques to transform their morning, day, and life. I knew I had to get my hand on this book to see how it could affect my day!
The Miracle Morning has you take an hour of your morning to incorporate six practices known as Life S.A.V.E.R.S. The six practices are:
1. Silence
2. Affirmations
3. Visualization
4. Exercise
5. Reading
6. Scribing
In the book, each practice is meant to enhance our day. On a typical day, we don’t have time to do any of them, but the Miracle Morning combines them into one hour. Spending just 10 minutes on each of the practices can increase the quality of our day.
What Were The Results of the Miracle Morning?
So now that I had read the reviews and the book, I had to give the Miracle Morning a try. Luckily, because of my first 20-day challenge, I am still walking up at 4:30. Thus I had time to spend an hour on the Miracle Morning. Here’s what I found:
1. Meditation is Awesome!
I’ve never given meditation much attention but decided to give it a try for this experiment. I’m the kind of person whose brain is constantly running with ideas. I thought meditation may improve my focus.
From the first day of spending 10 minutes in silence, I was able to notice how noisy my thoughts were. No wonder I’m always finding myself drowned in my ideas!
Using the techniques in the book I tried my best to let those thoughts pass by. After a few days, I noticed my concentration had improved and my stress levels had come down!
2. My Morale has Skyrocketed!
The six principles have allowed me to begin my day doing things that I enjoy. Instead of going right to my desk to study, I’m spending time doing a little exercise routine, writing for the blog, and reading the next book on my list.
What’s amazing about the Miracle Morning is that it gives me something to be excited about. Let’s be honest, going to that 9AM lecture or beginning our day with 30 pages of syllabus reading doesn’t make anyone jump out of bed. (I’d recommend a hobby if this is you.)
But waking up doing things I enjoy such as writing, reading, exercise, and improving myself are enough reasons to skip the snooze button!
A morning that is associated with energy and enthusiasm is powerful and this energy carries over to the rest of our day!
I have to share a quick story when I started the Miracle Morning. For a week, I had to attend phlebotomy training in the morning from 4-7AM. Keep in mind, I was normally waking up at 4:30, but being somewhere at 4 was a challenge.
One day I had woken up a 2AM and was too afraid to go back to sleep at the risk of missing my alarm. I decided to begin my Miracle Morning and then went to my training.
Normally, I would have expected to have hit a wall somewhere during the day, but it never came! I felt so energized even with the lack of sleep. There were many things for me to look forward to and I was not going to allow the lack of sleep to ruin that!
3. I Finished 2 Books and Finished a Research Paper.
I’ve done the Miracle Morning consistently for a week and the effects are clear in my productivity!
Through the visualization part of the Miracle Morning, I had a much clearer idea of what my day will be like. I’m finding myself become more efficient in organizing my priorities throughout the days. More specifically, I use the mornings to plan exactly what I want to be done for each of my projects.
Using this method I’ve been able to tackle and finish a research paper that I’ve put off for some time. Previously I kept telling myself that I didn’t have enough time in the day to do it and the paper was placed on the back burner. Through the Miracle Morning, I realized that getting the project done was important to me and I needed to stop making excuses.
In addition, having the 10 minutes in the morning to read has increased my interest in the books I’m reading. I’ve found myself wanting to continue the book before bed. By building this excitement, I’ve since managed to finish two books in less than a week. (Currently, I’ve finished 7 books since the start of September!)
What if You’re Not a Morning Person?
After my 4:30 challenge, people would tell me that they just couldn’t wake up earlier since they weren’t a morning person. Although I believe everyone can become a morning person, I think it’s more beneficial to wake up 30 minutes to an hour earlier.
Even if you typically wake up at 8, try 7:30. The benefits of this are that it allows you to focus on yourself before you go to school or begin studying.
Regardless, The Miracle Morning is not only for early risers. Even if you wake up later than me, take the first 0.5-1hr and allocate them to you, not medical school.
Picture your day, get a short 10-minute workout, read something for fun, and/or make a delicious breakfast. Start each and every day by investing in yourself. By doing this you will find that tackling the stresses of medical school will become easier.
Try Out the Miracle Morning for Yourself!
I can’t recommend enough the power of a structured morning in medical school. I thought prior to the book that my mornings were organized well enough, but the book has shown me the true potential of my mornings.
If you want to learn more about the book and what thousands of others are saying, click here!
Even if you don’t use the techniques discussed in the book, I hope that you invest in your own Miracle Morning in medical school. Let me know what you think!
Hope you enjoyed this post about the miracle morning routine in medical school!
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Until next time…
