What if you looked at your evenings as an opportunity to not only wind down your day and find a little time for yourself and do a few simple, I'm talking crazy easy things that will help you wake up feeling refreshed and empowered to attack the day. Nothing that's going to be hard. But I'm going to warn you, when you hear the steps, you might go, Oh, for God's sakes, no. Seriously? I don't need to hear this. This is obvious. I know I my evenings on social media. I know I shouldn't have a glass of wine as much as I do. I know I need to go to bed early. I know I should be reading a book instead of just doomscrolling. I know all this. I don't need to listen to this. Well, I got news for you. You need to hear this. So do I. Because common sense isn't so common. And if it's obvious, it doesn't mean that you're actually doing it. And this is one of those reminders that's really important. And don't worry, this is not an episode all about sleep and sleep hygiene. I'm actually going to tell you the truth about four simple, easy changes that will make a significant difference in your evenings and your mornings.

And these really impact time, and they impact your energy. And this is just so dead simple. And even though I'm not going to address sleep specifically and in a detailed way, I'm going to promise you something. If you follow these four steps, you're not only going to fall asleep faster, but you will get better sleep as a byproduct. And I'm going to tell you why. There's research as to why settling in to a very simple evening routine, even if these four steps just take you 10 minutes, and that's probably all it's going to take you. Research from the American Academy of Sleep Medicine says, if you create even just a 10-minute evening routine, it does help you fall asleep faster and stay asleep. Why? Because having the rhythm of this rock solid evening routine works with your circadian rhythm. It signals to your mind and your body that you're ready to go to sleep. So there is this added benefit. And before I walk you through the four steps, I want you to know how easy this is. It's dead easy. Because by the time you're ready to do these four things, you've already done the hard stuff today.

You've already gone to work, you've already gone to school, you've already done all kinds of things on your to-do list, you've already done so much stuff. And as you move through these four simple things, it's not going to take really any brainpower at all, but it gives you so much time and energy back tomorrow morning. And that's why this is just so cool and why I'm so passionate Question about it. All right, have I made my case? Are you really excited about your evening tonight? I bet you are, because I can tell you're going, All right, Mel, shut up. You've sold me. What are these four things? I'm so glad you asked, because I'm going to tell you what they are after a short word from our sponsors. They allow me I'll bring this to you at zero cost. So take a listen, and I'll be waiting for you after the break, and we're going to jump right in to how you're going to create a rock solid evening routine. Don't go anywhere. Welcome back. It's your friend Mel. I've been waiting for you. Thank you for taking this time for yourself. And you're going to thank me after you listen to this, because I'm going to give you found time back, both in the morning and the evening.

You're going to love this. You and I are talking about the fact that a rock solid evening routine truly is the way to set yourself up for a super successful morning, a better life, and a much more enjoyable and restorative evening. And before I break down the four simple steps based on the research, there is one thing that you have to do before we jump into the four steps. I mean it. This is the foundational piece that most people miss. And once you do it once, you don't have to do it again. And as I explain this foundational piece that everybody misses, you're going to literally go, Well, this is super obvious, Mel. But as I unpack it, you'll be like, Oh, this is not so obvious. And no wonder everybody misses a step. Here is the step that will help you not only have a relaxing, blissful, amazing, productive, restorative evening tonight, but it will also help you make tomorrow morning fabulous. You ready? Foundational step. Pick your bedtime. I'm going to say it again. Pick your bedtime. I know, I know. Sounds stupid. But this really, really works. Because if you were picking your bedtime, which I know you're not, you wouldn't be up at 11:00 at night wishing that you had gone to bed earlier because you would know your bedtime.

So what time do you need to be asleep in order to get eight hours of sleep every night? That's how we're going to work around this question, pick your bedtime. And here's the thing, when I say, Pick your bedtime, you probably went, Oh, my bedtime should be 10. Not so fast. This is actually a very complicated question, and I'm going to explain why. In order to determine what time you need to be asleep, you have to know what time you need to wake up. This is where you are sabotaging yourself. This is where you're shooting yourself in the foot. This is where your days and your evenings go off the rails because you don't even know what time you truly need to wake up and get out of bed in order to set yourself up for success tomorrow morning. And figuring this out changed my life because I was the person that used to think, I can just roll out of bed at 07:00 AM, and I can do my entire morning routine, which involves making my bed, getting the exercise in, getting journaling done, making breakfast, walking the dogs, getting the kids out the door.

Does this sound familiar? Oh, and I can do it all in about 15 minutes. Sounds like a lot of fake math, right? My daughters call it girl math. Christopher, my husband, calls it Mel time. And so here I would be going like, Oh, I can just wake up at seven o'clock and do 150,000 things. And the alarm would go off. And as soon as I woke up and I got up, I was already behind the ball. I don't have time to do any of this. Exercise, out the window. Dogs don't get a walk. I don't have time for journaling. And so I need you to be honest with yourself. What time do you need to wake up for real in order to be able to do all the things that you need to do in the morning to truly start your day off on the right foot? And if you're being honest about what you really need to set yourself up, I bet that the time that you need to wake up is probably half an hour or an hour earlier than you are currently waking up. So for me, waking up at 7:00 AM is what I felt like doing.

It's what I thought I could do, but it's not what I needed to do. And what I've come to realize is that when I really think about what I need to do in the morning for myself to set myself up to have a great day, I need to get up and out of bed between 5:45 and 6:15, if I want to have enough time in the morning to do what I need to do. And if you're not even honest with yourself about what time you need to get up to give yourself the runway that you need of time, then before you've even laid your head on the pillow tonight, you've already just screwed up your morning routine. So when I ask you the question, Pick your bedtime. What I'm actually saying is not, When do you need to fall asleep? I'm saying, When do you need to climb into your bed? And I'm going to keep on breaking the math down. Here's how you're going to do it? You're going to start by picking the time that you need to wake up using real time, not fake time. The time that you need to give yourself the runway.

The time that would really allow you to do everything that you would like to do. And I want you to really just think about that for a second. If you were to just imagine the time that you need to wake up and get out of bed so that you had all the time that you need tomorrow morning to do everything that makes you feel like a million bucks, that makes you feel set up for success and taken care of, what time would that be? Do you have that time in mind? Great. So for me, I have to be out of bed by 6:00 AM. And I know it sounds pretty early, but it is what it is. And then once you have that time, and I'm just going to use 6:00 AM, you got to roll the clock back eight hours. So you get eight hours of sleep. And I realized I'm talking to you like a toddler, but it is what it is, and everybody misses this And that takes me to 10:00 PM. And that's not your bedtime, by the way. 10:00 PM is when you need to be asleep by. So if you need to be asleep by 10:00 PM, now let's get to answering the real question.

When are you actually climbing into bed? I don't know. I can't answer that for you. How long does it take you to fall asleep? Are you the person that can basically send a text at 9:35 PM and you're asleep at 9:37? Or are you the person that needs to get in that bed at 9:00? Because it takes you an hour of reading a book, or laying there, or meditating, or whatever it is that you need to do in order to drift off to sleep. So when I say to you, Pick a bedtime, I'm not talking about when you feel like going to bed. I'm not talking about when you need to fall asleep. I'm talking about when do you need to crawl in between those sheets and start that wind down process. And that is personal to you. My husband, for example, that man, literally, as he is laying his head on the pillow, I think the man is snoring and sawing logs right as his head is hitting the pillow. That's how fast the man falls asleep. For me, it takes somewhere between 5 and 25 minutes to go from climbing into bed and getting all settled in and getting my book out.

There are some nights I'm so tired, I can barely read. I turn off the light, I go to sleep. There are other nights I read a little bit longer. And so what does this mean? This means that in order for me to be out of bed by 6:00 AM and get the sleep that I need and that you need to, it means my bedtime is not 10:00 PM. My bedtime is somewhere between 9:15 and 9:30. And the reason why I'm getting granular, and maybe a little irritating, is because if you don't get this right, if you don't pick the right bedtime for crawling into your sheets, you will never actually be able to build a rock solid evening routine. Because everything that I'm about to explain to you now builds to this That's the point. Falling asleep is critical to you getting great sleep, and understanding what it takes to fall asleep, and then giving yourself that amount of time, and building an evening routine that leads up to that and builds momentum to it, that's essential. There's more research here. This comes from Dr. Rebecca Robbins. She's a scientist at Harvard Medical School and the Division of Sleep Medicine and Cercadian Rhythm Disorders.

Her research shows that by having a consistent bedtime, for me, 9:15, and a consistent wake-up time, for me, 6:00 AM, will help you get better sleep, and it will also help you fall asleep faster. And this is so important from the standpoint of training your brain to help you be a better sleeper. And being a better sleeper helps you have a better morning and a better life. So picking a bedtime when you crawl in between the sheets that truly supports you. Critical, element, foundational to your rock solid evening routine and to setting yourself up for an amazing morning, too. All right. Now that you know when you need to be climbing the sheets and when your body needs to be in that bed, 9:15 for me, that's my target. Now you are ready to talk about the four super easy steps that you will take every single night to make the night amazing and tomorrow morning fabulous. And step one, Clean up the mess so your morning is fresh. What does that mean? Well, let me bring in a visual that's disgusting. Okay? You're ready for step one? Just imagine a toilet bowl. Seriously, you're in the bathroom, you're sitting on the toilet.

As soon as you're done doing your business in the bathroom, what do you do? Well, you stand up, you turn around, you flush the toilet. Of course, you flush the toilet. Why do you flush the toilet? I'll tell you why. Because you don't want to leave that mess in there for someone else or for yourself when you come back in. I mean, that would be disgusting. You clean up the mess so the bowl is fresh. You want to do the same thing every evening. You want to clean up today's mess so tomorrow morning is fresh. And we are literally going to, in step one, flush the day down the toilet so that when you wake up tomorrow morning, you don't have a mess waiting for you to clean up. And so So I'm going to give you a list of the things that you can do so you can wake up fresh. And it doesn't take long. I mean, I'm talking five minutes. And that's what I love about this evening routine. It is so easy. It takes almost no time. What are you going to do to clean up the mess? Simple. Empty the dish, load the dishwasher pressure, take out the trash, clean off the counters.

If you have kids or a roommate or a really sloppy partner where their stuff is all over the place, create those little piles that we create. Put them at the staircase or outside their door so that they can take them up in the morning. Just get them out of your line of sight. Turn off the lights, charge your computer, clean up the things from today, create a fresh start for yourself tomorrow, because you don't want to saddle yourself tomorrow morning with all the crap that you could do tonight. I'm talking five lousy minutes. And you want to know why I love cleaning up the mess at night. Let me tell you why. Because you're freaking tired. So you don't have to be a perfectionist. Good is good enough. Just get it done. And the other reason why I love this is because when you wake up in the morning and you see an empty sink and clear counters and no piles, you know what you're going to Thank you. Thank you. Because I don't have to do it right now. And you know what? If you had a guest staying over at your house tonight, you would do that when they went up to bed.

Why? Because you want them to wake up and see a clean-looking place. So do this for yourself as a way to take care of yourself. That's step one. See how easy this is? Clean up the mess and start tomorrow fresh. You know what I feel like? I feel like we should have a toilet bowl sound flush right here. And given that we just flushed the toilet on the day, I feel like this is a great time I'm going to take a quick break and hear a word from our sponsor. And when we come back, the mess is clear, and it's going to be fresh for you and me to talk about step number two. Don't go anywhere. Welcome back. It's your friend Mel, and you and I are breaking down the four steps on how you create a rock solid evening routine and set yourself up for success. And the reason why this matters is because it will improve your health. It'll make you feel more successful. It'll change how you feel. It'll make you wake up and feel more in control. And it will also I'll help you have an evening where you make the best use of the time while you're tired, and you also find time for yourself.

And I'm going to explain more of that as we keep going. We've already covered this foundational question, have you got to pick a bedtime? And that is when you are crawling into those sheets, okay? We've also covered the first step, which is cleaning up the mess from tonight in order to set yourself up for a fresh start tomorrow morning. Now, let's talk about the second step in this evening routine. Once you've cleaned up the mess, I just want you to take five minutes and make it easier for yourself in the morning. What do I mean by that? I mean, set yourself up. If you're going to exercise in the morning, lay out your exercise clothes. If you're going to walk the dog, leave the leash by the door. If you're going to try to drink more water, fill up the water bottle and put it in front of the coffee maker so it's waiting there for you like a little gift. If you take supplements or vitamins in the morning, set them out in the morning for yourself. Just make it easier. If you're trying to eat healthy, pack your lunch so it's done. Why does this work?

Let me tell you why this works. There's a term that you may have heard called decision fatigue. Decision fatigue is this concept that basically explains that the more decisions that you have to make, the harder it is to make decisions. It's almost like the decision build up this resistance inside of you. And over the course of the day, it becomes worse and worse, and the decisions get harder and harder, and your resistance to them becomes bigger and bigger. One of the reasons why Just taking five minutes at night to make things easier. While you're at half capacity, you're tired. I mean, heck, you can be doing this stuff while you're scrolling on social media. If you do some simple things to make tomorrow easier, it removes a ton of decisions that you have to make in the morning. And what we know, based on habit research, is if you are trying to make a new habit stick, like drinking more water, by filling up the water the night before and putting it in where it's right there in front of your face, it is visual, the more likely you will drink it in the morning.

Why? Because you don't have to remember to do it, and you don't have to make a decision to do it. It's right there for you. You bump right into it. It's like you've set a trap for yourself And you know why else this makes so much sense? Is because you took five minutes last night while you were exhausted to just clean up the mess and to set things out so that you set yourself up for success and made it all easier. Now Now you got all this time because you don't walk into the kitchen and go, Oh, my God, the dishes. Oh, my gosh, the lunches. Where's my backpack? Where's my keys? I don't know what to do. I'm running out of time because what happens when you're running out of time in the morning because you didn't set yourself up last night? What goes out the window? Oh, No time to exercise, no time to walk the dogs, no time to do the gratitude practice. I'm now so stressed out and overwhelmed, I forgot to drink my water. Not anymore. Because while you were exhausted last night, you took five minutes to clean up the mess and start the day fresh.

And then you took five minutes, little steps to make your morning easier. And I love this. And there's so many examples of how you can do this. You can put your keys on the counter so you don't have to spend 10 minutes searching for them. I mean, that used to be me. I used to burn through 15 minutes every morning just searching for my keys. Not anymore. Pack your gym bag. Why? Because it sucks to pack your gym bag at 5:45 in the morning. But if you did it while you were half asleep texting your sister, it's already waiting for you by the door in the morning. You just made it easier, and now you're leveraging research to make that habit of going to the gym stick. And what I also love is that you can use half your brainpower to do something like this. In fact, last night, I'm here in our Boston studios, and I was staying in a hotel, and as I was brushing my teeth, I'm in my pajamas, I was laying out my exercise clothes on the back of the chair. Why? Because it made it easier when I got up at 5:45 AM this morning to get out of bed I just pull them on, and get out the door and go to the gym.

I set myself up. And one of the things that's so cool about this, and this is where I want you to really just consider the argument I'm making, what is your most precious commodity in the morning? I can say this another way. What are you in short supply of in the morning, every morning? Time. You never have enough time in the morning, do you? So by taking just a couple of minutes at night without a lot of brainpower and making the mess go away and setting things out to make things easier for you tomorrow, it's like a double gift. You're not only making it easier, you're making it more likely that you're going to do the things that you want to do, and you also have found time. I think that's so cool. You've taken time away from the evening so you can start fresh tomorrow. And you've taken steps to make it easier. And you've protected your time at the time of day that matters most in the morning, when you never have enough time. So we just gave you time. How cool is that? And so now you're going to have the time to do the things that you What do you want to do.

And that brings me to the third step, which is take five minutes for yourself. Five minutes. When was the last time you took five minutes for yourself? You and I get 1,440 minutes a day. You deserve five minutes at night. Right after you clean up the mess and start tomorrow fresh, and you make a couple of moves to make tomorrow a little easier, set yourself up. Take five minutes for yourself. Before you give it to the television, before you give it to social media, Before you just waste it, I want you to give it to yourself. And it could be doing whatever you want. You could use it to do something. I mean, if you're the person that feels like every evening, this used to be me, I didn't find the time for myself. I have no time for I didn't find the time to work on the thing that I care about. Whether it's a side hustle, or maybe you're trying to make progress on a creative project, or you're working on a creative gift for somebody, or a grant application, or you're filling out student loan forms, you could use that five minutes to make a little progress there.

And by the way, you don't have to do anything. This is just time for yourself. You could just sit and be quiet. Imagine that. You could have a cup of tea. You You could read a book. And if you didn't get to it this morning, you could do your skincare routine. I see a lot of people doing skincare routines. I think I missed the memo on this one. I don't have a big skincare routine, like 57 steps at night. But you know what I do have at night? I love a bath. So oftentimes for me, my take five is to just linger in the bath and do nothing. And you know what? Here's how I make it so easy. As I am brain dead, and I'm cleaning up the mess, and I'm making my mornings easier, I'm packing my bag, I'm laying out my exercise clothes. You know what's happening? The bath is running. I freaking love that. And you know what else I use this time to do? To read or to listen to audiobooks. I want to just underscore this is time for you. And one of the things that I've noticed as I've looked at the data is that so many of you around the world are listening to the Mel Robbins podcast at night.

I think that's cool because you know what that tells me? That tells me that you're taking time at night for yourself, and you're choosing to listen to something that is going to help you improve your life or make you feel better. And that's a perfect example of what I'm talking about. So you could listen to another episode of the Mel Robbins podcast as a way to take five for yourself. And I'm saying this as the third step of a rock solid evening routine, because I don't want you to just give that time away. That's what you've been doing. You have been giving the time away to social media or to the television or to whatever, which is why you can't remember what you do most evenings. I I want you, after you pick your bedtime, which is when you crawl into your sheets and you clean up the mess from tonight so you can start tomorrow fresh, and you take a few steps to make tomorrow morning easier. Just set yourself up. Take five. Take this time to be kind to yourself. And for me, my take five usually hits somewhere between 7:45 and 9:15.

And I'm saying that because what you'll notice is the more that you fall into this four steps, the more it becomes a rhythm. And in the beginning, it's just five minutes, right? But what happens is as you take five for yourself, and you don't just flop on the couch and turn on the TV, you don't just zone out into your cell phone. Every single night that you take five for yourself, you break the habit of doing that. You break the habit of cracking open your laptop and putting it on your lap and checking email or scrolling on the phone as you're wasting the evening in front of the TV, and you stop giving That time, time that could be yours, a way to something that really doesn't matter. And look, I know why you're doing it. Same reason I was doing it, because you're exhausted and you just want to zone out. But here's what I want to challenge you on. Taking this five minutes before you do what you normally do, it's actually extraordinarily restorative. And what I noticed is that it starts with just taking five minutes, but it Basically, it expands because it feels so good.

And next thing you know, it's not five minutes, it's 45 minutes. And you're reading more books, or you've started stretching and doing a hatha yoga practice at night. And you probably find that as time starts to expand, you realize, Oh my gosh, I've just been giving this time away. Not anymore. And that brings me to the fourth step, and the last part of a rock solid evening routine. This is right before you slip into that bed and you get into those silky amazing sheets. And by the way, one of my favorite sponsors of Mel Robbins podcast is Cozy Earth. I want to give them a huge shout out because I love their sheets. But the final thing I want you to do before you tuck yourself in is this. Tuck in your phone. What does that mean? That means I want your phone to have its own little bed. I want you to tuck your phone in somewhere other than your bedside table or in bed with you. And don't even deny, you sleep with your phone. Your phone is right within reach. I know it's Mine used to be, too. It's really, really, really important that you stop doing this.

I am going to do an entire episode on this topic about why the phone, even just near you, is horrible, horrible, horrible, horrible. And there's a bazillion One of the reasons why, and I can tell you one of the main reasons is blue light. The research is so scary. The blue light from your phone suppresses the production of melatonin. In fact, one study related to kids shows that kids exposed to bright light an hour before bed, their melatonin levels were suppressed by 98%. For adults, 50% suppression. And it creates fragmented sleep, which impacts your ability to fall asleep, to stay asleep, to be in deep sleep. I mean, this is a really big thing. And I'm just talking about the light. Don't even get me started about all the notifications, and the bings, and the booms, and the this, and the that. Just stop. My standard rule is this: I don't tuck myself in between those cozy air sheets until I've tucked my phone in the bathroom, because I don't trust myself. I'm addicted to I will reach for it. And if I don't tuck my phone in that bathroom before I crawl into bed, I will be scrolling on Instagram in bed, buying things at 11:00 at night instead of falling asleep by 10:00.

In fact, just the last time, a couple of weeks ago, I didn't do this. I was in bed on my phone. I know I'm not supposed to be, and I was doing it anyway. And I saw these little outdoor lights that looked so incredible. They were like these lantern things. One click, shop. They arrived. They're like four inches tall. They looked nothing like they did online. And it's funny because I'm sitting here teaching you the science and the research. But I cannot be trusted with my phone. And this is a problem. And that's why I've solved it, by not having it near me. I've removed the temptation. And that is why, step number four, you have to tuck your phone in before you tuck yourself in. See how this all works together? And this only works if you are willing to not only be honest with yourself, but also to really take a look and truly know yourself. And this is a critical component, because if you're not honest with yourself, you will be trapped in a cycle that I was trapped in for a very long time, which is you spend all day exhausted, trying to get through your day, wondering why you keep waking up every morning in a mess, and why you can't get out of that trap, and why you're so tired at night, and then why you keep wasting evenings on social media and on TV.

Well, I just gave you the secret, because you weren't getting intentional. Pick your bedtime and be very serious about it, and experiment with it until you settle into this consistent bedtime, where you crawl in between the sheets and give yourself enough of a runway that works most nights for you, and that gives you the eight hours of sleep that you deserve. So let me just run through this again. After you cook dinner, clean up the mess so that you can step into something fresh tomorrow. Remember that toilet bowl? Let's clear that day out so you got a fresh new day, and you wake up with a lot more time because you don't have to be cleaning up the mess. The second step, just take five minutes and set yourself up for success. It's such a nice thing to do. It also helps you have more time in the morning, which I know you need. The third step, take five for yourself. Before you give the time that you have, before you climb into your sheets to your phone or Netflix, take five for you. Do something that makes you feel good, that's restorative. And what you'll find is that five will slowly turn into 15, and then 25, and then 35, and then the next thing you know, You'll find an hour of time that really is time for you, and it becomes a very important part of your life and a way to give back to yourself.

And finally, you're going to tuck your phone in somewhere else before you tuck yourself in. Go ahead and try it. Try these four simple steps for four days this week, and let me know what you think. And please share this episode because these are simple steps based on research that will help you or someone you love make tonight be the most relaxing, happy, blissful, or productive night that you've had in ages, and it will absolutely set you up to wake up tomorrow morning and feel supported, refreshed, and awesome. This is the three, two, one rule, and it taps into all kinds of research about getting a better night's sleep, about stress, about your mind being able to be calmer so you can get a better night's sleep, and about the impact on screens and blue light on your ability to get a good night's sleep. So here it is. Three hours Two hours before bedtime, you're going to stop eating and drinking alcohol. And for me, because I go to bed early, that meant we had to move the dinner time a little bit earlier. Second, two hours before bedtime, stop working. Stop working. One of the One of the reasons why you may have trouble sleeping or relaxing or stopping racing thoughts, or you may be waking up in the middle of the night, is because you're working too close to your bedtime.

So your thoughts are spinning and your stress level is high. So two hours before bed, stop working. And finally, one hour before bed, you got to shut down the screen time. The blue light on your screen, your laptop, your phone, it is interfering with your brain's ability to shut down and sleep. So the three, two, one rule will make a huge difference in your life. Second, this rule I call, how can you make things easier for yourself? Let me unpack this. When I look back on periods of my life where it was a real struggle to stick to habits or to stay calm and confident. It was because I was making my life harder. I was relying on willpower or discipline or remembering to do things. And when it dawned on me, hey, there are simple things that you could do, Mel, that would make your life a hell of a lot easier, especially in the morning. There are decisions that you could make at night. There are simple All the things that you could do in order to take a step, in order to move the ball down the field at night. So when you wake up in the morning, you don't have to do so much thinking.

So let me give you some examples of this. One way that I make my life easier in the morning is every single night, I lay my exercise clothes out on the floor in my bedroom, or heck, even in the hotel. So I've been on a business trip now. This is day 15 of a business trip hitting six different cities. And I move my body every day. And I know if I'm going to get up at 6:00 in the morning in a hotel, I don't want to be fumbling around in the dark, looking for the pair of tights that are actually clean, instead of having to turn the clothes inside out to figure out what I could put on my body. Do not do that in the morning. You're creating too much resistance. It requires too much energy and thinking. Make it easier. The night before, As you're walking around your hotel room, brushing your teeth or you're washing your face, just lay your exercise clothes out on the floor. Make it easier. That way they're there for you in the morning. You don't even have to think about it. Isn't that fantastic? And if you've raised kids, how do you make mornings easier with kids?

You pack their lunches the night before. You assemble their backpacks by the door. You put their hockey sticks or their tennis rackets or their cleats, the things that they need to remember right there. For you and me, here's how you can do that for yourself as an adult. Let's say you have a commitment every single morning as part of your morning routine to journal more or to drink more water. Here's a great idea. Put the water bottle filled up by the coffee pot. Put the journal where you're going to do your journaling exercises. Buy the coffee pot. Why? Well, because you're going to make a cup of coffee tomorrow morning. So have it ready There's a cup of coffee there, so you don't have to make the cup of coffee and then go, Oh, wait a minute. Where did I put that journal? Where's the backpack? No, it's right there. Have your things by the door. Put healthy foods in the front of the fridge. Have a little dish that you always put your car keys in. We talked about this concept of make it easier in the episode that we did all about habits.

That episode was called Five Essential Hacks I'm Using to Make New Habits Stick. You You guys ate that episode up. We will put a link to it in the show notes here. But this make it easier for yourself. Do it the night before. It's all about something called activation energy. When you When you get your exercise clothes out, when you put your water bottle by the coffee maker, when you pack lunches the night before, it takes less energy than having to do it when you're stressed out in the morning. You don't even have to think about it. You've set your sofa success, and that means you're going to be less stressed. And it means the thing that you might blow off if it's hard in the morning, like exercise, you're more likely to get it done. Why? Because you've made it easier for you. You have supported the new you. How cool is this? It's like a little gift that you're giving yourself. The third rule is give yourself a clean slate. I also like to call this flushing the toilet, okay? When you go to bed at night, You flush the toilet when you use it, right?

Why? Because you do not want the mess from last night there to greet you in the morning. So why on earth would you do that in your kitchen? Empty the sink, load the dishwasher, clear off the counters, wipe them down. Why? Well, logic. Tomorrow morning, after you wake up and you go to the bathroom, where's the first place we all go in our apartment or our home? We go to the kitchen. Would you rather see a kitchen that has last night's dishes, pots soaking in the sink, and stuff scattered all over the place from yesterday, all of which is unfinished business from yesterday? Or would you feel more empowered if you walked into the kitchen and the counters were clear and things were organized and there was nothing that you needed to clean up? The answer is obvious. Do not take today's messes into tomorrow. Do not saddle the future you with crap that the you today should be doing tonight. And that's always been a huge thing for me, because if I walk into the kitchen in the morning and I see a ton of dirty dishes or I see stuff all over the island, it That's a trigger.

My day goes downhill because I'm immediately distracted. I'm immediately feeling like everybody's made. I'm immediately feeling like I should have done this last night. I should have put these dishes. Now this pot that has been soaking in the sink with all of the suds in it. The suds are gone and the water is ice cold and disgusting and oily. I don't want to put my hands in that. And half the stuff hasn't soaked off anyway. I didn't make it easier. I actually made it harder and grosser and more disgusting. And now it takes me even more time. So this idea for me of clearing the counters, no dishes in the sink, nothing on the counters. It means I am waking up to a brand new clean slate today, both metaphorically, visually, everything. And so how can you do this? Think about this as part of the non-negotiables when you turn off the lights and lock the front door. Do a quick loop through the in the kitchen and take five lousy minutes to pull it together. Clear off the counters, get everything in the dishwasher, or finish the dishes. Get it done. Because I promise you, psychologically, walking into a physically Clean slate helps you mentally feel like you've been given the gift of one when you wake up in the morning.

Now, the fourth rule. You're going to get intentional about setting your alarm. Here's how you do it. There is no old Mel Robbins going on here. There is no five alarms that you're setting as you coax yourself out of bed. There is no backup plan here. Remember, get intentional. What freaking time do you need to get up? Like, for real. Let's not do the fake math that a lot of us do, where we think that we can brush our teeth, commute to work, pack three lunches, and finish last night's homework in a matter of 10 minutes. You can't do that. Okay? You just can't. So tonight, when you set your alarm, I want you to make a decision about the person you are becoming. I'm going to say that again. Tonight, when you set your alarm, make a decision about the person you are becoming. Tonight, be very intentional about what you truly truly need to start your day feeling supported, confident, at ease? How much time do you need to truly put yourself first, take care of your health, and put a little bit of time into something that matters to you? Now, I want to just pause on this for just a second, okay?

I think this is where most of us I get it wrong. That your alarm has probably been set for the same time for years, and you haven't stopped to truly think about the person that you're becoming. And when you think about the person that you want to become in this next chapter of your life. What does that person's morning routine look like? How much time do you truly want? And look, I get it. You might have to wake up 45 minutes earlier. I get it. You might not be a morning person. And I'm going to prove to you as we get to know each other that you don't have to be. You don't have to be a morning person, and you can still create a rock solid evening routine and a rock solid morning routine. You don't have to be a morning person, and you can learn and support yourself in getting up 30 minutes earlier, because that is how much time you need in order to set your day up for success. See, I think a lot of us really lose the opportunity of a fresh start and a new morning and the structure of that, because we're not intentional and honest with ourselves about what we actually need.

And what I've come to learn, the more intentional that I get with myself, is I need a lot of time in the morning. I need more time than the old Mel Robbins was giving herself. Because I not only need time to roll out of bed and to brush my teeth and to high five the mirror and to move my body and to set my intention and to make some progress and And to do all that before I help Chris or the kids or the dogs or anybody else that works for me or anybody else that follows me or anything else that might be on my phone. That I need, actually, if I'm being honest, I need about 90 minutes. I can get it done in 30, in a pinch. But I need about 90 if I don't want to be rushed, if I don't want to be resentful, if I don't want the things that I really need to do so that I can I can start my day feeling powerful and empowered. That's truly what I need. You may be thinking, Well, that's a luxury. We're not even talking about the morning. I want you to be honest with yourself, and I want you to ask yourself this question, what time do you truly need to wake up?

To make it easier, to support yourself, What would the future you say? And if you can't think of a time, I'll give you one. Set your alarm one hour earlier than you normally do. Because this is more than a wake-up call. This is more than setting an alarm. What I'm asking you to do is I'm asking you to make a promise. Because when you set the alarm clock tonight, what you're really doing is You're making a promise to yourself. You're making a promise that you, when that alarm rings, you're going to wake up, you're going to get up, and you're going to get going. And this is why it's important for you to be intentional, not casual, about setting that alarm, but intentional. Because tonight, when you set that alarm clock, you're making a promise. And when you look at it that way, When that alarm rings tomorrow morning, it's about keeping that promise to yourself. That's what the act of waking up becomes. That the evening you set up the future you, the tomorrow you, the person you're becoming with a clean slate and a promise for how much time it is that you truly need and deserve every morning.

And if you can start to flip how you think about that alarm arm, how you set it and what it signals when it sounds in the morning, that future you is here, a promise is there to be kept, it will shift what you think about the opportunities of the morning and the time that you need to truly honor yourself and put yourself first. Now, before we get to the final rule, which is a beautiful rule that you're going to hate like crazy, but it's the most powerful one of all. I need to take a quick break. We're going to hear a word from our sponsors, and then we'll be right back. So don't go anywhere. Hey, it's your friend Mel, and we are talking today about the singular hack that helped me create a rock solid million dollar morning routine. And that singular hack, as you now know, is you got to have a rock solid evening routine. And so we've covered four of the five things that I do. We've talked about the three, two, one rule. We've talked about this mindset flip of how can I make things easier for myself? We've also talked about the importance of giving yourself a physical clean slate so you can have a mental clean slate.

Finally, we just covered the importance of getting super intentional about setting your alarm and considering it a promise that you are making and keeping with your future self. And finally, number five, before you tuck yourself in, tuck your phone into the bathroom. That's right. No phone in the bedroom. I want it in the bathroom, in the closet, in the kitchen. Once everything else is handled, the only thing that is allowed on that clear counter in the kitchen is your phone plugged in. Because I have one rule that has changed my life, and that rule is something I do every single evening. It is a critical part of my evening routine, and that is there is no phone in the bedroom, period. And starting tonight, I want you to try this. It's a lot harder than it seems. You are about to realize how addicted you are to your phone. You are also going to see firsthand how it interferes with your ability to have a powerful evening routine. You're also going to see firsthand how it is likely interfering with your ability to fall asleep and stay asleep. So before you tuck yourself in, tuck that phone in anywhere but the bedroom.

And here's how this is going to work. So all you're going to do is just Pick a spot that you're going to charge your phone overnight. And for those of you that have kids that need to reach you or a job that needs to reach you, I totally get that. I'm the same. So here's how you deal with that. You turn the Ringer on and you tell everybody in your life, I don't sleep with my phone, but the Ringer is on. If you have an emergency, call me. You will hear the phone ringing in the middle of the night. And what's really interesting, ever since I've done this, and I've now done this for years, is that people don't call you in the middle of the night unless it's truly an emergency. But they will text and Snapchat you all night long, and that'll keep you awake. Don't tell me that it doesn't. And so this way, you know that you can fall asleep and that somebody can reach you, but you're not going to It's not going to be distracted by it because it's not going to be near you. That's number one. If you use your phone as an alarm, excellent.

I do, too. The good news about that is that if your phone is outside of the bedroom and it's also your alarm, when it goes off in the morning, you have no choice but to get out of bed. And so I like that hack, even though in the moment, I hate that hack when I hear the alarm going off. But you could also just buy a cheap alarm clock or use a watch or something else if you're no longer using your phone as an alarm. So why do I feel this way? I feel so strongly about this because you've just spent your entire day letting the whole world have access to you. Because that's what you're doing when you're watching the news or responding to email or sitting on Zoom calls or or you're just scrolling mindlessly through social media. You are allowing the world to steal your attention, to choke your brainpower with things that really don't matter. And honestly, there is nothing on your phone that is going to help you sleep tonight. The stuff that's on your phone is going to get you stressed out. It's going to get you worked up.

It's going to make you stay awake. And that's why you can't have it near you. You can't trust yourself. And so in order to properly wind down and get a great night's sleep, which you need to do, I won't even get into the research about why you need to start becoming a better sleeper, is we have to get the one thing that's been robbing you of your attention and energy all day away from you. Do not let people have access to you once you get into your bedroom. Do not let the thing that you gave your attention to all day long be the thing that is distracting you at night. You deserve a great night's sleep, and you are just not going to get it if that phone is sitting next to you on the bedside table. And don't lie to me. We're friends at this point. The majority of us sleep with our phones. I shouldn't even say us because I do not. But the majority of people, including you, have that phone in your bed. It's right there. You look at it and you want to know something disgusting. A third of people check email in the middle of the night.

What are you doing? Email in the middle of the night? Even Even if you can't sleep, what are you doing? This is sick. And what I will tell you is if that phone is not in that bed with you and it's not on the bedside table and you can't just reach for it because it's a habit for you to reach for it when it buzzes in notifications or because you can't sleep, I'll just look at my phone. What a stupid idea. Because it's not there, you're not going to do it. And so there's a reason why you're having trouble sleeping. There's a reason why you wake up stressed out. There's a reason why you never have time for yourself. It's because you have shot yourself in the foot before you've even closed your eyes by having that phone there. I think you can tell I'm getting a little worked up. I'm getting a little worked up because I didn't have to make my life so hard. I didn't have to stress my kids out every day before they climbed on that bus. I didn't have to start my day by yelling at Chris or screaming at the dogs or getting stuck traffic or starting the day feeling frustrated.

I didn't have to do that. The solution to an empowering morning and to feeling supported starts with how you show up for yourself the night before. It is really that simple. I'm frustrated because I wasted so many years of my life by making things way more difficult than they needed to be. If I had just gotten serious about these five simple things that I do now, I would have felt more in control. I would have been a lot more calm. I would have felt like I was a good mom and a supportive partner. I wouldn't have felt so much frustration. There's just so much available to you if you get serious tonight. I love all of these changes, whether you're going to implement the three, two, one rule. One way that you could do that is to put an alarm on your phone. That counts you down. You could put Post-it notes on the fridge to remind you about this stuff. But I want you to try it. And thinking about taking care of yourself tonight is not going to be the same as trying a new evening routine. And I know this is hard.

And I want to help you Practice a new evening routine. And that's why I want to remind you that I have this free five-day challenge. It all takes place in email. It's called the Wake Up Challenge. And it's a simple five-day free challenge, where I will support you for five days and help you get out of bed and feel in control and feel more empowered. And of course, as you focus on getting out of bed and starting your day off right, I'm going to be reminding you that a great day starts by setting yourself up for a great day the night before. So let me help you figure out what a million dollar morning looks like, okay? Here we go. Simple rules for a simple million dollar morning. Number one, when the alarm rings, get your ass out of bed. Look, it's your friend Mel. I know. There's a million reasons not to get out of bed. But Mel, It's 30 degrees. It's dark. It's raining. It's cold. It's depressing. I got a lot going on. I stayed up late. I'm exhausted. I'm hung over. I'm tired. My stress is through the… None of that matters.

The only The thing that matters is, do you keep the promises that you make to yourself? And I know I'm getting philosophical here. We were just talking about the alarm ringing. You know what the alarm is? That alarm, when it goes off, that is a promise that you made. You set that alarm, didn't you? You set that alarm the night before. And when that alarm goes off, now it's time to keep the promise. And how do you do that? I'll tell you how do you do that. You're going to use my five-second rule. The alarm is going to ring, and you are going to count backwards, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, and then you're just going to roll out of bed. That's it. It's not sexy. It's not fun. I have been getting out of bed this way for 14 years, and I still have to count backwards every single morning, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, because I don't like getting out of bed. I do not have the discipline to get out of bed. If I have the choice any day of the week to lay in a warm, cozy, amazing bed with bamboo silky sheets and my husband sleeping next to me, or roll out of bed into the cold bedroom and start my day, I will choose the warm bed every day of the week.

But that's not the conversation you and I are having, are we? We're not talking about comfort. We're talking about simple discipline. We're talking about the promises that you need to start to make. We're talking about doing things that are hard and uncomfortable. Why? Because you deserve to have the life that you want. Sometimes feeling like a million bucks for the whole day means you got to feel like shit for about five seconds. That's what it's going to take. This is also about keeping promises. If you can't rely on yourself to get up when the alarm rings, how the hell are you going to rely on yourself to do the really hard stuff, to have the hard conversation, to to blow off the party and work on your resume, to get serious about your songwriting career, or the second act that you want to create, or finally meeting somebody who's not got so much childhood trauma that you're their therapist and not your lover. If you can't roll out of bed simply because you said you would, when the going gets really rough, you're going to bail on yourself, which is why getting up when the alarm ring matters.

Now, there's a second reason why. So The first reason is you're building a level of integrity. You're keeping that promise. The second reason why I don't want you to sit there and lay in bed, and I want you to get your ass out of bed when the alarm rings, is because let's just, between Mean friends talk about what we're doing as we're laying there in bed. We're looking at social media. We're indulging our anxiety. We're experiencing trauma triggers. We are writing We're heading the wave of cortisol and stress hormones that are flooding through our brain and body. We're bemoaning the hangover we feel. We're spinning negative thoughts about the day ahead or the stuff we didn't do or all the regrets we have because we can't remember what happened last night. That's what you're doing in bed. Let's be honest with each other. Is that what the new you wants to do? Of course not. That's the other reason why when the alarm rings, rule number one to the million dollar morning, get your ass out of bed. Why? Because you're a winner and you got no time to lay in bed like a loser like Mel Robbins used to be and listen to that bullshit, and feel those awful feelings.

Get your fucking ass out of bed, and get on with your day, and show your body who's boss, and don't indulge that bullshit in your mind, because the longer you listen to it, the louder it's going to get. And look, I get it. Some days it's really hard. I don't give a shit. All that negative stuff is lying to you. Five, four, three, two, Two, one. Shut it down and get your ass up. Because the fact is, if you want a new life, you're going to have to fight for it. If you want a million dollars in the bank and financial freedom, you're going to have to work for it. This stuff isn't easy, but it's simple. But you have to do it. So number one, alarm rings, ass out of bed. And here's the final thing I want to talk about when it comes to this. Why are you doing this? You're doing it for you. You see, I think for years and years and years, you were getting out of bed for other people. Think about it. When you were little, when would you get up? You would get up because mom was yelling at you two, or dad was yelling at you two.

You were getting You're not waking up because you had to get to school or make the bus, or get to work, or you get out of bed because you got to get the kids up, or you got to get your aging parents up. That ends today. Today, when that alarm rings, it is a fucking wake-up call. Ding, ding, ding. Your life is here, and it's time for you to get up for you. So tomorrow morning, we're not waking up for somebody else. We're not laying in bed and listening to that bullshit because you get to make a choice. You can choose to do what you've always done, which means you're going to have what you've always had, or you can make a choice to show up as the new you. You can make a promise that you're going to not only wake up, you're going to get up for yourself, that you, my friend, are to become the driver of your life. And that bullshit story, I'm not a morning person. Fuck morning people. Who cares? This is not about whether or not you feel like it. This is about you building the discipline because you deserve to.

Because that's the person that you are. And let's also tell one more truth. If I needed you, you would get your ass out of bed for me. If somebody that you loved needed you to set They got that alarm an hour earlier because they needed a ride to the airport, or they needed somebody to go to a doctor's appointment, or heck, they just needed you to be there for them, you would do it. And so today, starting today, I want you to do it for yourself. And if you can't do that, then let me tell you the science. You want to know the scientific reason why you should never hit the snooze button? Let me hit you with some neuroscience. Here. Two words: sleep inertia. That's right, sleep inertia. When you hit the snooze button instead of getting your ass out of bed, you mistakenly Create a condition in your brain called sleep inertia. Sleep inertia is a state that your brain gets trapped in for four hours hours after you hit the snooze button. Because here's what happens when you hit the snooze button. When you hit the snooze button, you're awake. And as the alarm turns off, your brain then drifts back into sleep.

And here's the thing that researchers have figured out. When you drift back to sleep after you've woken up, your brain starts a sleep cycle. Sleep cycles take 75 to 90 minutes to complete. So when that alarm goes off again in nine minutes, and you're like, Oh my God. Have you ever noticed you're in deep sleep when you drift back to sleep. That's because you're nine minutes in to a 75 minutes sleep cycle. That groggy, exhausted, heavy, feeling that you have When you hit the snooze button several times and you can't quite get awake and you complain that you didn't get a good night's sleep, that's not a function of how well you slept. That's you and me being an idiot for hitting the snooze button and putting our brain in a state of sleep inertia. Because when you hit the snooze button, your brain is now freaking trapped in a sleep cycle. And it takes your brain, based on research, about four hours to get through that groggy-ass feeling. So the most productive period of the day, which is the first 2 hours after you wake up, it's when your brain has the highest speed of processing, it's when you're the most alert, you just flush I pushed the best 2 hours of brain power down the freaking toilet because you hit the snooze button.

Why am I so passionate about this? Because I wasted years of my life doing this. I was a chronic snooze button alarm hitter. I was I was also a chronic all-nighter puller in college. I was chronically late with deadlines. This was prolific in my life. I would always complain about not getting enough sleep. The truth is, I lived in a state of sleep inertia. So take your power back. Whether you're inspired by the science because it's just stupid to do this to yourself once you realize that this is what happens, or you're inspired by this idea, that wouldn't it be fucking awesome if instead Instead of waking up feeling obligated to the rest of the world, I took my life back and I started waking up for myself. I started seizing the day. I started seeing that alarm as more than alarm, it is a wake up call for the rest of my life. So rule number one for a million dollar morning. 5, 4, 3, 2, 1. Get your ass out of bed because you, my friend, have a lot of cool stuff to do. And that brings me to rule number two. Rule number two of the million dollar morning.

You ready? Because You deserve to feel like a million bucks. You're going to make your bed. That's right. Make your bed. Why, Mel? Why are you making your bed? I'll tell you why. You're making your bed because your morning routine is a series of dominoes that fall. And so by seeing the alarm as a wake-up call to claim the day, to keep the promise, to be the future you, the first domino domino that falls is integrity and discipline. How cool is that? The second domino that falls is making the bed, which is about completing things. See, normally Finally, the old Mel would roll out of bed after hitting the snooze button, and the bed would look like a tsunami hit it. And then for the rest of the day, whenever I walked into the bedroom, you know what I saw? Something that was incomplete. I saw a mess that needed be made, that I had left for myself to clean up. One of the reasons why I love this simple habit as part of your morning routine, always make your bed. And I mean always. If I am traveling for work and I'm staying in a hotel, I make my bed.

Even though you know somebody's going to come through and make it even nicer later. I don't care. Why? Because your morning routine is a way for you to be you no matter where you are. If I'm visiting my parents down in Florida or up in Michigan, I make my bed. Why? Because I'm myself no matter where I am. That's the power of your morning routine. This is about the promises you keep. It's about the rhythm in which you start your day. And this is a habit about completing something. Isn't it awesome to think that you start your day by checking a box? That you make your bed because you know it's a way to finish something. And there are mornings, not very often, but there are mornings where Chris might still be sleeping. Maybe I got up a little earlier and he's sleeping in for whatever reason. I just make my side of the bed. I might even tuck in the sheet around him, tuck him in a little bit as a little act of love. But there's another reason why to do this, and I love this framing of it, too. Because making your bed is a way to give the future you a gift.

Later on, you are going to walk into this bedroom, and you're going to lay down, and you're going to dream. And isn't it awesome to walk back into this bedroom tonight? And there is a A beautiful bed made for you. A beautiful place for you to lay down tonight and dream. A little gift from the morning you to the evening you to say you deserve this. It's also a gift because if you walk back into your bedroom, you've already taken care of it. There's nothing to do. There's no mess that's been left for you to clean up. You have left this gift of getting it complete. And that helps to build consistency. And I also love it because it doesn't matter where you are. You can do it wherever There you are. Just amazing. And that brings me to rule number three. We're going to hit the pause button. We're going to hit a word from our sponsors. I love our sponsors because they help me bring this show to you at zero cost. And then I'm going to come back and we're going to talk about Rule Number Three of your Million Dollar Morning.

Hey, it's Mel, and we're talking about a Million Dollar Morning routine, and you deserve that, my friend. So Rule Number One, alarm rings. It is a wake-up call. Your life is waiting. Get your ass out of bed. You got stuff to do. Rule number two, we're going to make our bed because this is about a series of promises that create a positive domino ripple effect to start your day. And rule number three, high five habit, baby. You got to get in that bathroom after you brush your teeth and high five yourself in the mirror. Now, I did a whole episode about this, but I'm going to explain it for those of you that are brand new. Here's how we're going to do this. Right after you brush your teeth, and we're going to do it after you brush your teeth because this habit should be paired with something that you already do and you don't even think about. That's called habit stacking, and it's going to help you encode this habit, which is a habit of encouragement, a habit of optimism, a habit of momentum and motivation, a habit of self-love, of self-confidence. This is an incredible science-backed one-two punch that all comes down to simply high-fiving your yourself in the mirror.

So you brush your teeth. You better brush your teeth. I don't even have to say that as part of your morning routine because please do not go out into the world with dragonbath or yellow carpet on your teeth. We're not doing that here in the Mel Robin show. All right? I'm assuming that your million dollar morning includes scraping the crap off your teeth. So when you're done flossing, brushing, rinsing, spitting, put the toothbrush down. Take a moment. Look the human being in the eyes. You know who I want you to see? I want you to see the future you. I want you to see the million dollar you. I want you to see all your hopes and dreams in the hands of the person in that mirror. And I'll tell you something, that person deserves your support. That person needs your support. And that person needs you to Keep a simple promise every single day. You're going to start your day and your million dollar morning with a little huddle with yourself. You're going to set an intention with yourself as you stand You're going to stand there after brushing your teeth. This is so grounded in research.

You got to get your mind right. You're going to stand there and decide, who am I going to be today? Is today a day about peace, about freedom? Is it a day about momentum, courage? How am I going to show up today for myself? Who am I going to be? And then when you're ready, just like a winning team does, you are going to raise that hand and you are going to high five the future you in the mirror. You are going to send yourself into the game of life, knowing that no matter what happens today, you're a winner. You can do this. You can still win. You are going to do your best. You are going to try. You're going to shake off the bullshit that comes your way, and you're going to get out there, and you're going to make it a great day. And the thing that I love about this, and again, I have covered the science in this in the episode that we released called The Most Important Habit You Can Have This Year. The first episode we released in January of 2023, it is a game changer. My husband is also on that episode, and it's crazy emotional because he describes what happened to him when he added the high five habit to his million dollar morning routine, the breakthrough that he experienced.

Because you deserve to feel like a million bucks, and you don't feel like a million bucks when you're beating the hell out of yourself, and you don't feel like a million bucks when your dragon shame and regret, and failure with you. And the high five habit is the science-backed, fast-tracked, research-backed way to plow an entirely new neuro pathway and relationship with yourself into your brain, body, mind, and spirit. I'm so passionate about this, but we spent a whole episode on it. So just trust me when I tell you, Million Dollar Morning includes the high five habit. You are going to add a high five in the mirror to your future self and set an intention as part of your morning routine. All righty. Rule number 4: move your body and move your mind. Now, I need to say something because I haven't said it yet. And I forget to say this, Because I just think it's like something you need to do. It's like so obvious. And that is, have you noticed what I haven't done yet? I haven't looked at my phone. And I want to be very clear about this. You are to get your ass out of bed without looking at your phone.

You are to get your ass out of bed before you look at your phone. You are supposed to make your bed without looking at your phone. And you are supposed to walk into the bathroom and wash your face and brush your teeth and do all that stuff, and then do the high five habit and send the future you into the day after this awesome huddle and not look at your phone. And I now want you to move your mind and your body without checking your text and email. Why? Because the second you pick up that phone and you look at a text or an email, you have now put the entire world in front of you. I want you to stop and think about how many people follow you online, even if it's just a couple of hundred people on Facebook. Would you want them to walk into your bedroom every single morning? No, of course not. Would you want them to walk into the bathroom as you're standing there without underpants on, brushing your teeth? No. Then why on Earth are you letting them do that by looking at your phone? Because that's what you're And more importantly, the second that you look at your phone, you are giving your most important resource as part of your Million Dollar Morning, which is your attention, and your intention, and your energy to other people.

We got to fucking conserve that shit for yourself. Like your dreams, your energy, your focus, your intention, your attention. You got to fight to keep that yours. And so So yes, you may listen to something as you move your body, or you may listen to a guided meditation as you move your mind. But do not, under any circumstances, look at your freaking text or your email, or you screw the whole thing up. It goes from the million dollar morning to bankruptcy 101, because you just let everybody bankrupt your attention and bankrupt your energy and stress you the hell out before you gave yourself the time you're not going to find the rest of the day. And this is so important because I know a lot of you are like, But I like to do it at the end of the day. You can't count on that. The only thing that you can count on is that first thing in the morning, if you get up early enough, you can put yourself first. You can move your body and you can have a mindfulness practice before the rest of the world steps in and steals your time and energy.

And so get serious about this. Yes, you can have a longer workout routine at night. Nobody's saying you can't do it twice. I'm just advocating for something based on the research and common sense. And so rule Rule number 4 of the Million Dollar Morning, move your body and move your mind. And I'm talking 10 minutes. There's a brand new study that's been published in the Journal of the American Medical Association that has found that just 10 minutes of power walking every day can add years to your life. And the best part is that walking is fast, it is free, and it is a way for you to achieve better health, a better mood, and even better sleep. Now, What is a power walk? Walk like you're late. That's all you need to do. Based on the research, for 10 lousy minutes. Get outside with your dog, your kids, your spouse, get out on the porch, whatever you can do for 10 lousy Minutes. This is so important, not only because 10 minutes of walking like you're late, just briskly walking. It not only adds years to your life, it improves your mood. Mood impacts focus all day.

And also, if You can get outside first thing in the morning and bang these 10 minutes out by walking your dog, or walking with your kids, or walking around the yard, or whatever it may be. It resets your circadian rhythm when you see bright light or the outside first thing in the morning. Based on research, that's one of the best ways for you to develop healthier sleep habits. So 10 minutes, physical exercise, 10 minutes of a mindset practice, whether you're journaling, meditating, praying, listening to some calming app, writing out prompts related to mindset that you're trying to develop. Just move your mind, move your body, All you got to commit with the mind is literally a minute. That's it. You're done. And bada bing, bada boom. You have put your mind and your body and your spirit first. And don't look at the phone yet. Don't turn on the TV TV yet. Don't check email yet. Because rule number five, and this is what will make you a million dollars. This is what will help you pay off a million dollars in debt. It's called the progress principle. The secret to getting big things done is making little progress every day.

You want to know how I have accomplished everything that I've accomplished? I make little progress on things every Every day. And so before you look at your phone, before you look at email, before you let the rest of the world in, take five minutes and move the ball down the field on something that's important to you. This comes from research out of Harvard Business School. They call it the Progress Principle. It is so simple. People who feel like they've made progress on something that's important to them feel more fulfilled. Period. It's not about getting things done. It's about making progress on Things That Actually Matter. So whether that thing that matters is getting the photo album assembled for Mom and Dad's anniversary, or it's getting the paperwork in for financial aid for the degree that you want to go get, or making progress is clearing out the back bedroom now that your kids have moved on so that you have a place for the future you to really work on that new book you've been writing, or maybe It's progress on something like I've been working on, like launching a podcast, slowly chipping away at learning about it, studying it, moving it down the field 5, 10, 15 minutes a day is all it takes because those little moves add up to major change.

And that, my friend, is the Million Dollar Morning. It's really that simple. It's based in profound research. It checks all the boxes You can add anything you want to it. But what I love about it is no matter where I am, whether I'm home in Southern Vermont, or I'm visiting my parents, or I'm visiting a friend, or I'm sleeping on my daughter's couch in Southerny, or I am staying in a hotel, this simple series of five promises, it makes me feel like me. It makes me know that no matter where I am and what's going on, I know I can rely on me. Because Every single day when that alarm rings, I keep that promise to myself. I wake up, I roll out of bed, I get started, I get my ass out of bed. I do not look at my phone, I do not look at my emails, I do not check my text, I do not look at social media. I wouldn't dare do it because it's not part of my million dollar morning. I then go and make the bed. Why? Because it makes me feel like a million bucks. I'm just that person, you know?

And then I set the intention with the future Mel. That's right, bitch. We're going to go get it today. High five to that. Get out there. Let's go. And that high five, it washes away the worry. It jacks me up. It makes me feel a little bit more like I'm up to something. Let's do this thing at 54. I feel cool. Not going to lie. Got to make time to move my body and my mind. Ten minutes. You got 10 lousy minutes. I still haven't looked at my messages or my emails. Not going to let it bankrupt me. I am on a million-dollar roll, and then I got to move the ball down the field. That's it. That's it. That is it. And I'm serious about this. I want you to try this million-dollar morning, and I want to help you get started. So if you want some help, let me kick your ass. Well, I'll actually just encourage you. Join my free five-day challenge. I created this to help you put this into Practice. I say this all the time. We're not just here for listening. This is a doing podcast. And so we created the no cost, Wake Up Challenge for you.

Go to melrobbins. Com/wakeup. Start tomorrow. Tens of thousands of people have already completed it. And in the challenge, you learn more hacks, tips, science, research, all kinds of things that will not only motivate you, it's going to help you become the future you. That's what this is about. And you know why we're doing this? Simple. Because I love you, and I believe in you, and I believe that you can do this. You can create a morning routine that makes you feel like a million dollars. You can keep a set of simple promises that helps you create the foundation to achieve your goals. And trust me when I tell you, it will be worth it. Hey, it's Mel. Thank you so much for being here. If you enjoyed that video, by God, please subscribe because I don't want you to miss a thing. Thank you so much for being here. We've got so much amazing stuff coming. Thank you so much for sending this stuff to your friends and your family. I love you. We create these videos for you, so make sure you subscribe.